Senior Programme Manager - SOC Build (Greenfield Government SOC Programme)
Contract: 2+ Years
Location: UK Hybrid / Remote
Clearance: SC (or willing to obtain)
Sector: Central Government / Cyber Security
Programme Value: Multi-year, multi-million-pound SOC transformation programme
Role Summary
The Senior Programme Manager will lead the end-to-end delivery of a new greenfield Security Operations Centre (SOC) for a major central government organisation. This includes replacing legacy security services, modernising fragmented tooling, and delivering an integrated, end-to-end cyber capability across cloud-based digital platforms.
This role is suited to a senior delivery leader with deep experience building SOC capabilities from scratch within government or similarly regulated environments, and who can manage a complex supplier ecosystem, specialist SMEs, and multi-year SOW-based contracts.
Key Responsibilities
Programme Leadership & Delivery
Lead strategic planning, mobilisation, and delivery of the multi-year SOC build across several Statements of Work.
Establish programme governance and provide confidence to senior stakeholders across technology, security, operations, and digital service delivery.
Drive a transformation approach focused on a complete overhaul, not iterative improvement.
Greenfield SOC Build
Oversee the creation of a full SOC capability including monitoring, incident response, digital forensics, analytics, and automation.
Lead the consolidation and modernisation of a complex, fragmented tool and technology landscape.
Ensure minimal disruption to operational delivery Security, Risk & Compliance
Ensure the SOC architecture meets government-grade requirements around cyber risk, personal data protection, service continuity, and regulatory compliance.
Work with SMEs and technical architects to support safe integration of AI-related tooling and align to emerging regulatory expectations.
Stakeholder Engagement
Communicate progress, risks, and decisions across senior leadership groups.
Ensure the programme aligns with cross-government security principles and reuse-first technology strategies.
Essential Experience
Extensive experience building SOC capabilities from scratch within UK Government or highly regulated environments.
Proven leadership of large, multi-year transformation programmes (Multi-millions £).
Strong understanding of SOC operations, technology stacks, cloud security, and monitoring platforms.
Experience coordinating multi-supplier ecosystems, including SME specialists.
Expertise across multi-cloud environments, CI/CD tooling, modern development pipelines, and security engineering best practices.
Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills Desirable
Experience working in a central government digital or technology context.
Understanding of identity services, user verification, or sensitive personal data environments.
Familiarity with AI governance and security implications.If interested, please apply and I will be in touch to set up a confidential conversation later today.
GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy