Mission

The Respond Lead for Strategy, Architecture and Innovation is responsible for providing leadership and oversight of Respond cyber security technology adoption, reference architectures and driving evaluation of new technology.

The goal of the role is to enable Santander to become a best in class and globally admired in cyber security to help protect the Group´s 200,000 staff, 120,000,000 clients and around a million systems, devices and appliances globally.

Functions

Key responsibilities include:

Proof of Concept Pipeline

Ensure that Global Respond has technical infrastructure, environments and support for testing new cyber security technologies, prototypes and experiments using production data and traffic. Work closely with the Cyber Security Research team to build testing conditions and pipeline.

Respond Technology Engineering & Adoption

• Implement structured processes for adoption of new cyber security technologies in Respond, to ensure efficient innovation lifecycle from ideation and research to production engineering.
• Act as interface with talent management to identify training and recruitment requirements to support new technology adoption.
• Oversee the cycle of technological innovation in Respond, in partnership with the Global Cyber Security Architecture team.

Respond Strategy for Innovation and Architecture

Enable Respond strategy, including representing Respond in the global cyber strategy process and ensuring alignment with the Global CISO cyber security strategy.

Roadmap for Respond Security Architecture

• Provide leadership and coordination for all aspects of Respond security architecture.
• Drive Respond security requirements in global security architecture forums, including ensuring that key lessons learned regarding technology (e.g. from purple team and post-incident debriefs) are fed into the Global cyber security strategy and considered as part of problem management.
• Develop and enable the Respond technology roadmap for security controls, in partnership with head of security architecture and cyber security research for the group.

Respond Security Architecture Standards

• Define and oversee technical architecture standards and security blueprints for Respond.
• Overall team size and budget to be set to fulfill the area’s goals and strategy. Direct head count to be confirmed.

Requirements

Desirable qualifications include:

• Technical Degree in computer science, engineering or similar.

Competencies 

• Ability to work under-pressure.
• Ability to inspire engagement in people through leading by example and cultivating a culture of transparency and staff influence.
• Capable of producing high quality output with a strong focus on attention to detail.
• Ability to understand the business context and technology, manage uncertainty and apply strong communication skills, both written and verbal, to communicate effectively across a wide range of stakeholders.
• Negotiating, conflict resolution, influencing and stakeholder management skills to ensure effective change management.
• Leadership skills to develop and lead a high performing team of experts.
• Strong problem solving and innovative mind-set to ensure a clear focus on the forward agenda.

Languages 

English Medium (Minimum)

English Advanced (Desirable)

Experience

Successful candidate will be a recognized strategy leader with a track record in setting up and leading best in class cyber security architecture disciplines across a diverse technology stack.

Required experience and expertise include:

• Track record of cyber security architecture and strategy work, preferably in banking, across a diverse set of technology paradigms.
• Experienced in developing and managing high performing teams through growing people, nurturing trust in the group and establishing a shared sense of purpose.
• Extensive expertise in decision making bodies and design authorities in a multinational context.
• Expertise in cyber security and IT architecture and strong understanding of the cyber threat landscape.
• In depth knowledge of information technology and security solutions and frameworks.