Chief Information Security Officer (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds & London)

Company Description

Genomics England partners with the NHS to provide whole genome sequencing diagnostics. We also equip researchers to find the causes of disease and develop new treatments – with patients and participants at the heart of it all.

Our mission is to continue refining, scaling, and evolving our ability to enable others to deliver genomic healthcare and conduct genomic research.

We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.

Job Purpose

We are seeking an experienced Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead the development and delivery of our Information Security strategy. This pivotal role reports to our CEO, involves working closely with internal and external partners to understand and manage cyber and information security risks, while fostering a culture of security by design across the organisation. As a key member of the CTPO leadership team, the CISO will guide a dedicated cyber security team, build strong relationships across the health and government sectors, and contribute to shaping a secure, inclusive genomics ecosystem internally and externally.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and implementation of Genomics England’s information security strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and risk appetite.
• Oversee security policy and governance frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards (e.g. ISO 27001, NCSC CAF, Data Protection Act) and managing deviations effectively.
• Direct security operations, including oversight of enterprise security monitoring tools, the Security Operations Centre, and day-to-day threat detection and response.
• Manage and lead cyber incident response, ensuring clear runbooks, rapid reaction to threats, and coordination during material security events.
• Champion a ‘security-first’ and ‘secure-by-design’ culture, partnering closely with product, architecture and engineering teams to embed security early in the development lifecycle.
• Guide threat intelligence efforts, enabling proactive defence by analysing emerging risks and adapting protections accordingly.
• Lead and develop the Security team, building a strong service and engagement model to support secure delivery across the organisation.
• Collaborate across business functions, supply chain partners, and the Executive Leadership Team to provide security governance, risk reporting, and strategic assurance.

Qualifications

Professional certification in CISSP, CISM or equivalent is considered an advantage. Experience in highly regulated industry such as Healthcare or Financial industry is preferred. 

In addition, we are specifically looking for experience of working in organisations that design and build digital systems and software.

Additional Information

Salary from: £127,000

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including: 

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace 

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. 

Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.  

Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour is contrary to our virtues, undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties.  Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. 

We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us. 

Blended working model

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. 

Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.

Onboarding background checks

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.  We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.