Cyber Security Engineer

Contract Duration

Initial term of 12 months, with the possibility of successive 12-month extensions, allowing for a total duration of up to 5 years.

Hybrid Model

Weekly 3 days onsite + 2 days remote (Hybrid)

Client Overview

The Client is an independent statutory body established to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs, with a particular emphasis on children. The CLIENT delivers services through its national network of Special Educational Needs Organisers, who interact with parents, schools, and the HSE to coordinate resources and supports.

• Providing advice and information on special education to parents and schools
• Allocating supports and coordinating local service delivery
• Conducting research into special education
• Advising the Minister for Education on special education policy

Role Overview

CLIENT seeks a qualified Cyber Security Engineer to strengthen cyber resilience, meet EU regulatory obligations, and support secure delivery of ICT services across on-premises and cloud environments. The engagement must align with the NIS2 Directive risk management measures (including incident reporting and supply chain security) applicable to public administration and other regulated sectors.

Mandatory Requirements (Pass / Fail) Experience

Require the equivalent of 7+ years of relevant experience.

Availability

Must be available to start from 01/06/26.

English Language Proficiency (MANDATORY)

• CEFR C2 Proficiency/Mastery (or equivalent)
• If there is no certificate, fluency will be assessed at presentation stage

Key Deliverables

The following non exhaustive list of key deliverables are applicable to this role.

• Design, implement and operate technical and organizational security controls that satisfy ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (Annex A controls), the security of processing requirements in GDPR Article 32, and provide traceable mapping to recognized control catalogues (e.g., NIST SP Rev. 5).
• Develop a Cyber Security Policy for CLIENT.
• Complete a full cyber security evaluation of all CLIENT systems and provide comprehensive recommendations.

Scope of Services Security Engineering & Architecture

• Engineer and maintain controls across IAM, endpoint protection, network segmentation/zero trust, vulnerability & patch management, logging/monitoring, backup/restore, and secure configuration-mapped to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A (93 controls) and NIST SP Rev. 5 families.
• Implement the new ISO 27001:2022 controls where applicable (e.g., threat intelligence, cloud use, ICT continuity readiness, configuration management, data deletion/masking, DLP, monitoring activities, web filtering, secure coding).
• Apply architecture and operational safeguards to meet GDPR Art. 32-encryption/pseudonymisation, CIA + resilience, timely restoration, and periodic effectiveness testing.

Detection, Incident Response & Reporting

• Establish and operate incident response procedures consistent with NIS2 (cooperation with national CSIRTs/competent authorities, statutory reporting of significant incidents) and supported by control families in NIST SP (IR, AU, SI).

Vulnerability & Patch Management

• Run continuous vulnerability identification, risk based prioritization, and remediation across OS, applications, and cloud/infrastructure; integrate with configuration/change management (ISO A.8.9; NIST CM/SI families).

Supply Chain Security

• Conduct cybersecurity due diligence on direct suppliers/MSPs, enforce minimum control baselines in contracts (including incident cooperation and audit rights), and manage supplier risks-reflecting NIS2 emphasis on supply chain security.
• Secure the use of cloud services per ISO 27001:2022 A.5.23 and implement GDPR Art. 32 safeguards for personal data (encryption at rest/in transit, key management, tested backup/restore, resilience).

Documentation & Assurance

• Maintain Statement of Applicability (SoA), risk register, system security plans, runbooks, architectures, test evidence, metrics, and audit trails mapped to ISO 27001:2022 and NIST SP ; support internal/external audits and regulatory reviews.

Deliverables (structured)

1. Security Architecture & Control Catalogue
   Target state designs and control mappings to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A (93) and NIST SP ; data flows, trust boundaries, baselines, and exceptions.
2. Operational Playbooks
   Incident response, vulnerability/patch, change & configuration, access reviews, backup/restore, monitoring & alerting, supplier due diligence, and cloud security playbooks aligned to NIS2 expectations.
3. Compliance Pack
   Updated SoA; evidence for GDPR Art. 32 safeguards; NIS2 readiness overview (risk management measures, incident procedures, supplier controls.
4. Security Metrics & Reports (Monthly/Quarterly)
   KPIs: MTTR, patch SLA conformance, vulnerabilities by severity/age, phishing/testing outcomes, control effectiveness supplier findings, incident metrics.

Role based training

Role based technical training aligned to the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF) and/or NICE (for well defined work roles, tasks, knowledge, skills).

Requirements

The following Experience/Competencies/Skillsets are applicable to this role.

Technical Experience

Tenderers must demonstrate that the named Cloud Developer has:

• NIS2 Directive: implement applicable risk management measures (governance, incident reporting, supply chain security, business continuity) and cooperate with national CSIRTs/competent authorities.
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022: ISMS Clauses 4-10 and Annex A control implementation/evidence.
• GDPR Art. 32: risk appropriate technical and organizational measures for security of processing.
• NIST SP Rev. 5: use as a reference catalogue for control design, mapping, and assurance (where helpful for auditability).
• ECSF: use for role/competency alignment and skills development tracking.

Additional Requirements

• Hands on security engineering/operations in public sector or regulated EU environments, with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 control implementation and GDPR Art. 32 safeguards. 5+ years of experience is desirable here.
• Demonstrable experience producing mappings to NIS2 risk management measures and NIST SP controls.
• Designs, implements, and operates security controls, establishes guardrails and runbooks, and produces compliance evidence. Collaborates with SecOps/Blue Team, Infrastructure, DevOps, Data Protection Officer, and suppliers. (Align to ECSF profiles; NICE roles may be referenced supplementary.)