Associate Director ICT Security

Associate Director ICT Security (Assistant National Director Level)

PFH Technology are seeking an Associate Director ICT Security to work with our client.

Location: Dublin / Hybrid (National Remit)
Contract: 2–3 Year Fixed-Term

Role Overview

This senior appointment is central to the strategic advancement of the clients cybersecurity posture.

As a principal advisor to the CISO, you will lead, manage, and inspire a team, enabling them to achieve both strategic and functional cybersecurity objectives. Your leadership will directly impact patient trust, digital transformation, and the operational resilience of Ireland’s healthcare infrastructure.

In this role you will be required continuously collaborate with leaders and practitioners in security, privacy, engineering, and other roles across the organisation and its vendors to implement the cybersecurity strategy and enterprise cloud security strategy to ensure seamless delivery of comprehensive security services. You will lead and inspire the engineering teams, ensuring flawless execution across technical security operations with a focus on Microsoft security stack.

 

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Lead the cloud security strategy, ensuring robust configuration, monitoring, and protection of HSE’s cloud infrastructure ensuring alignment with national digital health, cybersecurity policies and the overall cybersecurity strategy
• Act as primary contact for senior executives on cyber security matters, delivering clarity, confidence, and actionable insights. Represent the CISO’s office in senior governance forums, technical steering groups, and inter-agency security initiatives
• Demonstrated success in leading teams, managing projects, and influencing stakeholders at all levels, including board and executive committees.
• Influence cross-functional and cross-business units to accomplish strategic goals and are able to think rigorously and make hard decisions and trade-offs
• Provides complementary expertise, support, monitoring, and challenge related to security initiatives and risk appetite.

Technical Excellence

• Oversee the design of secure systems and review application and infrastructure security architectures, ensuring scalability and adherence to security by design principles.
• Oversee the team responsible for day-to-day security operations, including attack surface monitoring and management.
• Work closely with the Engineering team and other technical departments to ensure security is integrated into all development and operational processes.
•  Continuously evolve security architecture covering network monitoring, identity management, intrusion detection, and data protection.
•  Strengthen the company’s cyber resilience posture through continuous improvement, innovation, and overseeing threat-led testing.

 

Governance & Compliance

• Ensure all Microsoft cloud solutions comply with relevant global and other EU standards and regulations (e.g. GDPR, NIS2 , EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, etc).
• Review and lead the development of governance frameworks, policies, and risk management procedures for cloud security and resilience.
• Maintain strong oversight of third-party partners and vendors to guarantee quality, resilience, and compliance.

 

Working Arrangements

• Hybrid model with regular presence in Dublin office.
• National travel (1–2 days/month).
• Availability for critical security incidents as required.
• Garda vetting (security clearance) required.
• 3-month notice period.

 

 Candidate Profile

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 8–10+ years of experience in cyber security with advanced knowledge of security architecture and practical experience with Microsoft Technology solutions like Microsoft 365 Security, Azure AD/Entra ID, Azure Defender, Sentinel, Purview, and Intune.
• Solid understanding and practical experience of technical infrastructure, networks, databases, cloud environments and systems in relation to information security.
• Holds at least one of the following certifications CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, CCSP, CCSK or equivalent.
• Ability to demonstrate initiative, operate autonomously, and assume complete responsibility for tasks
• In-depth knowledge of cybersecurity principles, industry standards, frameworks, and best practices

 

Preferred Qualifications, Capabilities, And Skills

• Experience in large-scale public sector or healthcare organisations.
• Proven experience leading enterprise cloud security transformation for organisations with 5,000+ users, ideally in regulated or healthcare settings.
• Certifications across the Microsoft Cloud Platform, including certifications such as AZ-500, SC-100, AZ-305, SC-300 and SC-200 would be desirable.
• Knowledge of hybrid cloud security integrating on-premises and legacy systems.

 

PFH Technology, owned by Ricoh – a Japanese based global ICT company, is a premier provider of end-to-end ICT solutions and a managed services portfolio scaling from SMEs to large Enterprise organisations. We have unrivalled vendor relationships. We can procure, design, deploy and support all your ICT needs. Our ISO certified Custodian™ Cloud Services and Custodian™ Managed Services provide the technology and expertise to mitigate risk and reduce your costs immediately. We have a nationwide network of over 750 dedicated professionals, ready to meet your ICT needs, with offices in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at PFH. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, civil or family status, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other legally protected status.

We are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities or access needs are provided with reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process, to perform essential job functions, and to access the full benefits of employment. Please contact us if you require accommodation at any stage

 

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