Head of Security Operations

This global leadership role in cyber security is to manage the Security Operations (Sec Ops) team responsible for design, implementation and evolution of Canonical security practices, techniques, tools, systems and policies. The team is the primary owner of strategy and practices that determine how Canonical secures its data, internal infrastructure and build processes. They are responsible for assuring the security and integrity of our own infrastructure and product deployments.

They design and implement technical security controls that ensure security threats are automatically identified, contained and remediated. The team will also contribute ideas and requirements for Canonical product security, improving the resilience and robustness of all Ubuntu customers and users subject to cyber attack.

As a leader on cyber security in the company, the Sec Ops team manager will collaborate with our Organisational Learning and Development team to develop playbooks and facilitate Sec Ops training across Canonical. They will operate in a wider security organisation, run a high performing security team and improve Canonical's security posture. They will lead initiatives to integrate the team's insights into Canonical's broader software development process.

While this is a management position, we expect managers to be expert practitioners, able to lead by example, contribute at the highest level, and assess work based on their own professional experience and skill. Candidates should have deep, hands‑on expertise with a range of open source and proprietary security tooling and practices, which they can integrate into a holistic next generation security solution across the breadth of Canonical's interests.

The Sec Ops team's mission is not only to secure Canonical, but also to contribute to the security of the wider open source ecosystem. They might share knowledge through public presentations and industry events, and share threat intelligence with the wider community or represent Canonical in sector‑specific governance bodies.

This role reports to the CISO.

What you will do in this role:

Hire and mentor a team of outstanding technical security professionals

Define Canonical's Sec Ops security standards and playbooks

Own and drive the architecture and design of the SOC

Analyse and improve Canonical's security architecture

Evaluate, select and implement new security tools and practices

Identify, contain and guide the remediation of security threats and cyber attacks

Grow the presence and thought leadership of Canonical Sec Ops practice

Contribute to open source threat intelligence initiatives

Drive threat modelling, table top exercises and other Sec Ops practices across Engineering, IS and Canonical

Develop Canonical Sec Ops learning and development materials

Publish blog posts, whitepapers and conference presentations

Identify, implement and track Sec Ops KPIs

Plan and deliver Sec Ops work in the framework of Canonical's agile engineering practice

Work with Security leadership to present information and influence change

What we are looking for

Proven track record of mitigating with advanced threat actors and nation state threats

Expert technical understanding of SOCs from the ground up

In depth knowledge of SOC architecture and design including strategies for logging, firewalls, network segmentation, honeypots etc

Someone who understands how the SOC works not just how to use it

Expert in Linux security

Ability to define, implement, automate and measure effective incident response playbooks

Knowledge of security architecture and market‑leading security tools

Experience contributing to, and consuming, threat intelligence feeds

Experience in security risk management frameworks such as NIST CSF

An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path

Drive and a track record of going above‑and‑beyond expectations

Deep personal motivation to be at the forefront of technology security

Leadership and management ability

Excellent business English writing and presentation skills

Confidence to report security performance metrics with accountability for accuracy and completeness

Optional things we value

Experience in offensive or defensive security teams with hands‑on ability

Experience with open source security tools

Experience with security standards such as ISO 27001

Experience with security posture management of corporate endpoints

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