Cyber Security Engineer

At 1st Central, everything starts with our people. As one of the UK’s leading motor and home insurers, we use smart technology, data and great service to make insurance fast, fair and simple for over 1.4 million customers. We're proud to create an environment where people feel supported, trusted and able to grow - whether that's developing new skills, taking on fresh challenges or making a real impact every day.

If you're looking for a role where you can make a difference, we'd love to hear from you.

We're looking for a Cyber Security Engineer to join our Cyber and Information Security team, this technically focused role is responsible for implementing, maintaining and improving specialist cyber security controls, tooling, telemetry and automation across the organisation. Working closely with teams across Technology & Data you'll ensure that security controls are designed in line with best practice and are effective, scalable and aligned to business and regulatory requirements.

We're big on flexible hybrid working. This role is predominantly home-based, with just one day a week in the office in either Salford Quays (Manchester), Haywards Heath (West Sussex) or Guernsey. Of course, if you'd like to spend more time working alongside the team, you're always welcome to come into the office more frequently.

• Cyber Security Engineering:
  Practical experience in cyber security engineering, security platform engineering, or a closely related technical security role.
• Microsoft Security Technologies:
  Hands-on experience with Microsoft security technologies, including Defender XDR, Purview, Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, and Entra security capabilities.
• Technical Security Expertise: A relevant technical security qualification or equivalent practical experience, such as AZ-500, SC-200, SC-300, SC-100, CISSP, or similar.
• Troubleshooting & Analysis:
  Strong technical troubleshooting and analytical skills, with the ability to investigate and resolve security-related issues.
• Communication & Stakeholder Management:
  Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain technical security matters clearly to different audiences.
• Organisation & Prioritisation:
  Good organisational skills, with the ability to manage and prioritise engineering activity across multiple stakeholders.

• Engineer, configure and maintain cyber security controls across the Microsoft security estate, including Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Entra, Microsoft Purview and associated integrations.
• Develop and maintain security telemetry, data connectors, alerting integrations, workbooks and technical monitoring coverage across cloud, identity, endpoint, email, applications and agentic services.
• Build, test and maintain security automation, orchestration and response workflows, including SOAR playbooks and approved automated containment actions.
• Implement and maintain technical security policies, baselines and guardrails defined by Information Security, Cyber and Architecture.
• Work with Cyber and the SOC to translate threat intelligence, incident learning and detection requirements into effective technical controls and monitoring capabilities.
• Support the engineering and continuous improvement of security controls for end users, Azure workloads, cloud services, identities, workloads and non-human or agent identities.
• Integrate security controls into Dev Ops and value-stream delivery practices, including relevant security tooling, telemetry and automated control checks.
• Contribute to the implementation of runtime controls, monitoring, containment and security guardrails for AI agents, autonomous workflows and…