Senior Platform Operations Engineer

Key Responsibilities

Cybersecurity Go-Live Readiness and Clearance Support

• Maintain and monitor the cybersecurity go-live tracker for new systems, technology refreshes and migrations, including ownership, outstanding evidence, target go-live dates and closure status.
• Perform first-level completeness checks of cybersecurity go-live documentation before submission to the relevant cybersecurity team.
• Review cybersecurity assessment reports and supporting evidence to ensure they are the latest submitted versions and identify unresolved findings, deviations or risk-treatment items requiring further review.
• Coordinate with system representatives, infrastructure teams, application vendors and IT Security Officers to close outstanding go-live prerequisites and maintain records of follow-up actions.
• Track pre-go-live and post-go-live actions, including the removal or downgrade of temporary access, troubleshooting rules and elevated privileges.
• Prepare consolidated readiness status reports and escalate blockers or overdue items that may affect planned go-live dates.

Cloud Access and RBAC Administration

• Process approved cloud access and role-assignment requests in accordance with approved access-control processes and segregation-of-duties requirements.
• Support the assignment, modification and removal of approved Azure role-based access control (RBAC) permissions and relevant cybersecurity administration groups based on authorised service requests or approvals.
• Maintain auditable records of access assignments, changes, removals and supporting approvals.
• Perform periodic checks and follow-up for temporary or elevated cloud access, including removal or downgrade when no longer required.
• Escalate unclear, excessive, conflicting or unsupported access requests to the relevant cybersecurity team before implementation.
• Support user access administration activities where assigned, while observing segregation of duties between request, approval and access administration.

Cloud Security Posture and Compliance Operations

• Monitor and review Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) findings from applicable cloud security platforms, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud and AWS Security Hub.
• Categorise and prioritise findings using approved prioritisation criteria, including severity, Internet exposure and applicable compliance requirements.
• Identify appropriate remediation actions and coordinate with system representatives, application teams and cloud infrastructure teams to implement corrective measures.
• Track responses, remediation progress and outstanding actions in the cloud security findings and compliance register.
• Assess security misconfigurations, compliance deviations and potential vulnerabilities. Validate each finding's applicability and accuracy against the affected resource, configuration and available evidence, including identifying and documenting false positives for cybersecurity review.
• Maintain records of outstanding findings, technical justifications, false-positive assessments, risk treatment, approved deviations, exception expiry dates, remediation status and documented closure evidence.
• Validate remediation evidence before recommending closure for review.
• Escalate overdue, recurring, high-risk or disputed findings to the relevant cybersecurity team for assessment and direction.
• Prepare recurring cloud security posture and compliance updates, highlighting critical findings, overdue remediation, recurring misconfigurations and items requiring management direction.

Cloud Security Technical Support

• Provide technical support on AWS and Azure security configurations, including assessment of configuration issues identified through CSPM findings, compliance reviews and technical support requests.
• Review identity and access management, privileged access, network security, encryption and cloud resource configurations to identify misconfigurations and recommend corrective actions.
• Investigate cloud security configuration issues, assess technical context and dependencies, and recommend corrective actions to the responsible infrastructure or application team.
• Obtain cybersecurity direction where proposed resolutions involve a security exception or risk decision.
• Coordinate with cloud infrastructure teams, service providers and application vendors to resolve security-related configuration issues, clarify remediation requirements and validate supporting evidence.
• Ensure production configuration changes remain subject to approved change-management and authorisation processes.
• Support configuration reviews and technical validation of cloud resources against applicable security requirements, documenting issues, recommended resolutions, responsible teams and outcomes.

Security Compliance and Governance

• Support compliance assessments against applicable cybersecurity policies, security specifications and system security plans.
• Identify non-compliant cloud configurations, document the relevant requirements and recommend corrective measures.
• Assist with the collection and validation of remediation evidence, ensuring it addresses the identified configuration or compliance gap and recording any remaining issues requiring further review.
• Support risk assessments for findings that cannot be immediately remediated by documenting affected resources, technical context, remediation constraints, proposed interim measures and outstanding exposure for review by the relevant cybersecurity team and approving authority.
• Maintain accurate records of owners, due dates, technical justifications, risk-acceptance references, approved exceptions and closure evidence.
• Provide supporting evidence for cybersecurity assessments, internal reviews and audits when requested.
• Maintain and update relevant SOPs, checklists and knowledge-base documentation.
• Identify recurring operational issues suitable for process improvement or automation and submit recommendations to the relevant cybersecurity team.

Cybersecurity Operations Reporting

• Prepare regular cybersecurity posture status reports covering go-live readiness, cloud security findings, compliance deviations, access-administration activities and remediation progress.
• Maintain accurate findings and remediation registers, including affected resources, finding applicability, technical justifications, responsible owners, target dates, remediation status and closure evidence.
• Highlight critical findings, overdue remediation, recurring security configuration issues and unresolved exceptions requiring management attention.
• Provide technical analysis and recommendations to cybersecurity management, distinguishing confirmed issues, findings awaiting validation and items requiring risk assessment or approval.

Stakeholder Coordination and Technical Advisory

• Work closely with system owners, system representatives, application teams, cloud infrastructure teams, service providers and external vendors on assigned cloud security posture and compliance matters.
• Provide technical guidance on vulnerability remediation and AWS/Azure security configuration, clarifying affected resources, corrective actions and evidence required to demonstrate remediation.
• Participate in technical discussions and security review meetings to support the assessment and resolution of findings.
• Escalate significant security risks, unresolved compliance issues and disputed or overdue remediation to the relevant cybersecurity team for assessment and direction.
• Support the implementation of approved cybersecurity initiatives.

Qualifications / Requirements

Mandatory Technical Skills

• Hands-on experience administering or supporting Microsoft Azure environments, including Azure RBAC, Entra ID concepts, Azure Policy, privileged access and secure resource configuration.
• Ability to provide technical support on AWS security configurations.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Defender for Cloud or equivalent cloud security posture management technology.
• Understanding of cloud security findings, secure configuration, identity and privileged access management, network security, encryption, vulnerability remediation, compliance deviations and remediation evidence validation.
• Ability to interpret system architecture diagrams, security assessment reports, hardening evidence and technical remediation responses.
• Good working knowledge of cybersecurity operations processes such as change/service requests, access administration, risk/deviation tracking and evidence management.
• Ability to communicate clearly with technical vendors, infrastructure teams, system representatives and cybersecurity stakeholders, and to maintain disciplined documentation.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience with government cloud environments and cloud security posture management platforms.
• Experience with AWS Security Hub or equivalent AWS cloud security services.
• Experience with Azure Log Analytics Workspace, Azure Workbooks or similar services for configuration validation, evidence collection and posture reporting.
• Experience supporting cybersecurity go-live, security assessment, VAPT, hardening, system security plan or risk-assessment workflows.
• Experience with security automation, scripting or workflow automation for recurring posture assessment, findings validation, reporting and remediation tracking tasks.

Qualifications and Certifications

• Diploma or bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Cloud Engineering or a related discipline, with relevant practical cloud-security experience.
• Azure security or administration certification is strongly preferred, for example Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) or an equivalent current certification.
• Additional AWS security/cloud, CISSP, CCSP, CISM, CRISC or equivalent cybersecurity certifications will be advantageous.

Skills

Security Architecture, Microsoft Azure, Security Assessments, Communication With Suppliers, Deviations, Technical Skills, Cybersecurity Framework Application, Readiness, Identity & Access Management, Security Management Systems, Software Verification Procedures, Active Top Secret Security Clearance, Encryption, RBAC, Post Go-live, Security Monitoring