Join to apply for the Principal Cyber Security Engineer role at UK Home Office
Salary: £76,117 plus skills allowance up to £19,483 pending assessment
Location: Manchester (hybrid with 60% office attendance)
Advert Close: 11:55pm Tuesday 13th January 2026
This role requires Security Check (SC) clearance, 5 years UK residency, and NPPV3 clearance.
About the role
The Principal Engineer will lead the design, delivery, and optimisation of enterprise-wide security technologies that safeguard critical systems and data.
Beyond technical leadership, the role has a strong external focus; providing insight to project and programme management to inform resourcing decisions and supporting assurance teams and processes to ensure engineering outputs meet required standards.
Main responsibilities
* Lead and oversee the engineering, deployment, and lifecycle management of security tools and platforms across cloud, network, and endpoint environments.
* Support implementation in line with strategy, leading multiple engineering teams to ensure alignment with architecture principles and professional standards.
* Plan workforce needs and recruiting civil servants, building a strong technical talent pool; provide coaching and mentoring as required.
* Enable technical decision-making, contributing to roadmaps and overall strategy for the Engineering function in your area; present decisions clearly at all organisational levels.
* Coordinate with other engineering leads to build a cohesive community, acting as the central point of contact in your area and driving collaborative efforts.
Essential skills
* Deep expertise in security architecture, engineering, and modern security technologies.
* Strong leadership and team development capability across technical engineering disciplines.
* Ability to design and implement scalable, secure-by-design solutions for complex environments.
* Proficiency in automation, orchestration, and engineering best practices (IaC, CI/CD, DevSecOps).
* Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication, and influencing skills at senior levels.
* Capability to advise on future technology changes and innovations.
* Commitment to key engineering principles and standards, with the ability to inspire others.
Benefits
* A civil service pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
* In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
* The ability to potentially adopt flexible working options that suit your work/life balance, plus the opportunity in future to take a career break.
* 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
* Eight days public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
* 26 weeks maternity, adoption or shared parental leave at full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, after qualifying service.
* Maternity and adoption support leave (also known as paternity leave) of two weeks full pay, after qualifying service.
* Paid leave for fostering approval processes, support when a child is substantively placed with you plus a foster to adopt policy.
* Support for guardians and kinship carers.
* Corporate membership of ‘Employers for Carers’ providing additional information and advice for carers, plus a ‘Carer’s Passport’ to discuss workplace needs and underpin supportive conversations.
* Time off to deal with emergencies and certain other unplanned special circumstances.
Apply now
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