Role Profile

As a Cyber Security Consultant at Actica, you will have the opportunity to provide support to a wide range of high-profile UK public sector and defence organisations. Your help will enable them to protect their ICT investments, and in doing so play a key role in nationally critical projects which make a real difference to people’s everyday lives.

You will be given the opportunity to undertake a variety of roles throughout the project lifecycle, working across a wide-ranging set of clients and cutting-edge technologies. This could include providing projects with advice and guidance on Information Assurance topics; contributing to the development of IA strategies, policies, guidance and awareness; planning and managing the delivery of a security work programme; defining security requirements; designing and implementing security architectures; or overseeing the secure development and accreditation of information systems.

Your level of experience will determine the amount or responsibility given to you, as a result you may also have the opportunity to lead assignments and be responsible for supervising direct reports whilst ensuring the overall success of the engagement. Our position as a client-side advisor means that your role will involve significant stakeholder engagement, dealing directly with the client, including in resolving day-day issues involved in assignment delivery and developing follow-on opportunities, so excellent interpersonal and influencing skills are essential.

Career Development

You will have the opportunity to build a career in consulting, specialising in the application of information assurance and cyber security expertise to a wide range of business problems.

A career mentor will be on hand to provide support and guidance throughout your journey with Actica. You will also work with a performance and development manager who will conduct six monthly reviews to set career objectives and identify training courses which are both relevant to your current project work, and aligned with your planned career progression.

We provide substantial training, including online, classroom and in-house courses, leading to nationally recognised certifications, such as CCP, PCiIAA, CISMP, CISSP, CREST, ISO27001, SABSA, and TOGAF.

Responsibilities:

Working either individually or as part of a larger Actica team, you will undertake a number of varying consultancy assignments. Due to the potential variety in assignments your responsibilities may well depend on your own breadth of experience and could range from developing security architectures, to providing guidance on GRC activities. Other responsibilities could include:

• Providing security expertise for major system procurements and Agile programmes to ensure secure solution delivery;
• Identifying, analysing and evaluating information risks across a range of programmes, projects and systems;
• Explaining to risk owners and other stakeholders the causes, likelihood and potential business impacts of information risks throughout the information system lifecycle;
• Authoring and/or supporting the development of security assurance documentation;
• Developing or reviewing new security architectures that mitigate the risks posed by new technologies and business practices.

Qualifications and Experience:

We work predominantly within the UK Defence and Public Sectors, because of this experience within those sectors is desirable, preferably within the ICT context on enterprise solutions. The fast-moving nature of the ICT environment, together with the need to resource multiple, ad-hoc assignments, also requires our consultants to be quick thinkers, proactive and self-motivated - with the ability to apply a structured approach to often unfamiliar subject matter.

The following attributes and areas of experience will make you particularly suited to this role with Actica:

• Experience of complex ICT systems in a technical delivery or consulting capacity;
• A good understanding of enterprise information and communications technology;
• The ability to present and justify conclusions to project teams and business stakeholders;
• Proven abilities in delivering to client expectations and requirements; and
• Strong verbal and written communications skills.

Knowledge of the following would be beneficial:

• Structured security frameworks, such as HMG SPF and ISO27001;
• Security, technical and enterprise architecture methods such as TOGAF and SABSA;
• Technical risk assessments;
• Software development and delivery;
• ICT service delivery, including ITIL;
• Enterprise security packages, security enforcing software and devices, such as identity management and federation, cryptography, public key infrastructure, firewalls, SIEM, vulnerability scanning, etc.

The nature of Actica’s business means that a wide and varied background is preferable and the capability to adapt quickly to change is always required.

You may not feel that your skills precisely match the requirements of this job specification; however, we encourage you to apply if this is a role that appeals to you. We require individuals with a broad skillset, so there may be other aspects of your experience which are equally important to us, but that are perhaps not listed in the role specification above.

Actica aims to nurture a diverse workforce through inclusive working practices, promoting equality in our recruitment activities, and by employing candidates on the basis of merit. Discrimination against individuals on the grounds of protected characteristics is not permitted and we take steps to ensure that our staff are made aware of their legal responsibilities when making hiring decisions.

We are keen to improve diversity within our organisation and the industries in which we work, and hope to employ individuals who share that view.


While Guildford is our home base, consultants typically spend their time working remotely. For most clients, consultants spend 2-3 days working remotely and 2-3 days co-located with colleagues at a client’s site or our office in Guildford. For some projects, there will a requirement to work up to 5 days a week co-located with colleagues. All work is team based, with a high level of engagement with other Actica and client team members. Consultants are encouraged to get involved in internal activities and to attend company team events whenever possible.

Candidates must be eligible and willing to gain UK Security Clearance to apply for this position.