Group Head, Cyber Resilience Operations at Network

About The Role

Job Purpose

Network International is leading regional FinTech organization with cyber resilience recognized as a relative strength, and the Board and Technology Advisory Committee have made resilience — not compliance alone — the top priority for the security function. This role exists to lead the first-line-of-defense “operate” pillar across all NI markets: the day-to-day protection, detection, response and offensive-testing capability that keeps a systemically important payments processor running.

As Deputy Group CISO, the role provides continuity of leadership and decision-making authority in the Group CISO’s absence, ensuring the function’s 24/7 resilience commitments to regulators, card schemes and merchant clients are never dependent on a single point of failure.

The role brings together Protect, Detect & Respond, Identify (Red Team and vulnerability management), Identity & Access operations, and Secure Transaction Processing under a single accountable leader, orchestrating a mix of permanent staff, Centre-of-Excellence resources in Jordan and Egypt, and managed security service partners rather than owning every function directly.

Success is measured by the organization’s ability to detect and respond to threats at the pace a regulated, multi-market payments business demands, while maintaining the segregation of duties that gives the Board and regulators confidence in the control environment.

Job Responsibilities

Lead the Cyber Resilience Operations pillar end to end: Protect (endpoint, email, DLP/Netskope, network security, cloud security posture management, secure configuration and hardening, Secure Transaction Processing), Identify (vulnerability identification and continuous threat exposure management), Detect & Respond (security monitoring, threat hunting, threat intelligence, incident response) and Identify/Red Team (penetration testing, red teaming, offensive security).

Provide first-line accountability for identity and access operations and the operational implementation of zero-trust security principles, overseeing the transition of IDAM operational execution to the Centre of Excellence in Jordan while maintaining service continuity for joiner-mover-leaver processing and access provisioning.

Govern the managed security service relationships that deliver detection, response and offensive-testing capability at scale, including SLA performance, service review cadence and escalation authority.

Own 24/7 security operations resilience across NI’s market footprint, ensuring monitoring, detection and incident-response coverage do not degrade outside business hours or during regional public holidays.

Act as Major-Incident Commander for the most severe security events, directing containment, eradication and recovery activity and coordinating with the Group Incident Response Lead, regional incident managers and executive stakeholders through to resolution.

Deputize for the Group CISO on operational, governance and stakeholder matter in their absence, maintaining continuity of leadership for the Technology Advisory Committee, Change Advisory Board and Technology Risk Working Group; risk-acceptance sign-off authority passes to the Group Head, GRC during any period of deputizing, preserving segregation of duties.

Direct the internal Red Team and vulnerability management function, including oversight of outsourced continuous threat exposure management and penetration-testing providers, ensuring PCI DSS testing, threat-led penetration testing, cyber resilience exercises and applicable regulatory resilience-testing requirements are delivered with organizational independence from the teams that build and operate the tested systems.

Set and monitor the operational KRIs and KPIs for the pillar — detection and response times, vulnerability remediation service levels, red-team and purple-team exercise cadence — and report performance transparently to the Group CISO and governance committees.

Own the Cyber Resilience Operations budget and associated commercial governance, including business-case development, investment prioritization, contract oversight, licence optimization and value realization from managed security service providers and strategic security platforms.

Ensure security monitoring, threat detection and control effectiveness extend to emerging technologies, including AI-enabled systems and services adopted by the Group.

Coordinate recovery testing and the Recover interface with Business Continuity Management and IT Disaster Recovery, ensuring cyber-incident recovery scenarios are embedded in the organization’s wider resilience testing programme.

Lead, coach and develop the leadership team reporting into the pillar — Head of SOC, Group Incident Response Lead, Protect Lead, Red Team Lead and IDAM Governance Lead — building bench strength and succession depth.

Represent Cyber Resilience Operations in engagements with regulators, card schemes, external auditors and key merchants or bank clients where operational resilience assurance is required and contributes to the ongoing right-shaping of the pillar.

Experience / Skills Required

Education & Certifications

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information security, engineering or a related discipline; a relevant master’s degree is an advantage.

Essential certifications: CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CISM (Certified Information Security Manager).

Preferred certifications: GIAC GCIH or equivalent incident-response certification, CCISO, CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional, ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Auditor or Lead Implementer, and a relevant offensive-security certification (e.g. OSCP, CRTO) for credibility in directing Red Team operations.

Experience

15+ years of progressive experience in cyber security operations, with at least 8 years in a senior leadership role directing security operations, incident response or offensive security functions.

Demonstrated experience operating within banking, fintech or other systemically important critical infrastructure environments.

Direct experience leading or governing outsourced/managed security service providers (MSSPs) at scale, including SLA management and 24/7 service governance.

Exposure to MEA regulatory environments is desired — including CBUAE, SAMA and equivalent central bank cyber-security frameworks — and their incident-notification and resilience-testing requirements.

Experience leading major-incident command for high-severity cyber events, including coordination with executive leadership, legal, communications and regulators.

Track record of building and leading multi-site, multi-cultural security teams across Centres of Excellence and managed-service delivery models.

Competencies — Functional Skills (Cyber Security, calibrated to Job Level M5)

Cyber Defense — Mastery

Cyber Incident Response — Mastery

Cyber Resilience — Advanced

Cyber Risk — Mastery

Threat Detection — Mastery

Vulnerability Management — Mastery

Identity and Access Management — Advanced

AI Governance and Security — Mastery

Competencies — Leadership & Behavioural (NI Org Skills Framework)

Collaborate to Win — Advanced

Set High Ambitions and Build Clear Plans — Advanced

Lead with Clarity & Context — Advanced

Adapt & Accelerate — Advanced

Empower & Grow Talent — Advanced

Skills and Competencies

Strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Excellent leadership and people management skills.
Strong project management and organizational skills.
Proficiency in _____________________________ software and technology platforms.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to manage change and drive continuous improvement.
Analytical and data-driven decision-making capabilities.

Working Conditions

Primarily office-based with occasional travel required for meetings, conferences, and training sessions.
Fast-paced and dynamic work environment.

Qualifications

Education: _____________________________.
Experience: Minimum of _____________________________ years of experience in _____________________________, with at least _____________________________ years in a _____________________________ role focused on _____________________________ or _____________________________.
Proven track record of _____________________________.
Strong understanding of _____________________________.
Experience with _____________________________.