Senior Information Security Officer

As a Senior Information Security Officer, you will lead both technical and strategic security initiatives, ensuring that the Organisation's systems, cloud services, and data remain secure. Your responsibilities will span across incident response, cloud security, governance, and risk management, balancing hands-on technical execution with governance activities and organisational security strategy.

Strategic and Leadership Duties

• Develop and execute an enterprise-wide security strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Act as a trusted security advisor to leadership.
• Mentor technical teams and stakeholders on cybersecurity best practices and emerging threats.
• Define security governance policies in accordance with organisational frameworks.

Technical Security Duties

On-Premise Infrastructure Security

• Secure on-premise networks, firewalls, and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS).
• In collaboration with the infrastructure team, harden and monitor Windows and Linux servers, Active Directory, and enterprise databases.
• Oversee patch management and vulnerability assessments for on-premise infrastructure.
• Ensure secure configuration of VPNs, network segmentation, and perimeter defences.
• Control encryption protocols, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), and secure authentication mechanisms.
• Implement Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) logging and monitoring strategies for on-premise security visibility.

Microsoft Azure Cloud Infrastructure Security

• Implement and maintain cloud security in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 with Zero Trust principles.
• Create and maintain Azure Policies.
• Oversee Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP) using Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
• Develop privileged access management (PAM) strategies within Microsoft Entra ID.
• Integrate third-party services, including Identity and Access Management (IAM) and digital signatures.

Incident Response and Threat Management

• Lead security incident response, including forensic analysis, threat hunting, and mitigation.
• Manage SIEM, XDR/EDR, intrusion detection, and data loss prevention (DLP) solutions.
• Conduct penetration testing coordination and oversee remediation efforts.

Identity Management Security

• Oversee Identity Management security in Microsoft Entra ID and Auth0, implementing Zero Trust security principles.
• Develop and manage authentication governance policies to ensure compliance and mitigate risks.

 Security Tooling and Automation

• Configure and maintain SIEM, ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), and security logging frameworks.
• Automate security operations using PowerShell, Bash, Ansible, and security orchestration.

 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

• Optimise the existing backup strategy including Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for cloud and on-premise backups.
• In cooperation with the infrastructure team, continue to enhance the Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy in Azure.

 Continuous Improvement

• Continually review and implement security best practices (security by design and Zero Trust) and recommend opportunities related to the latest advances in technology.
• Execute regular scheduled testing, auditing and improvement of procedures and processes (e.g. Disaster Recovery Plan, patch management strategy, crisis simulation exercises).
• Participate in the procurement process including the development of technical specifications.

Governance, Compliance & Risk Management Duties

• Develop and maintain security policies, procedures, and regulatory documentation. 

Information Security policies, procedures and strategy

• Develop and maintain the Court’s regulatory documentation (aligned to ISO/IEC 27000).
• Liaise with Security Officers from other Council of Europe entities to define common policies and share knowledge. 

Audits

Risk Management

Communication

Reporting

You must:

• have completed a full course of general secondary education and hold appropriate professional qualifications in information security, computer science or a related field;
• have at least one of the following certifications: 

• CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
• CISM (Certified Information Security Manager)
• CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker)
• CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) or equivalent

• have at least ten years' professional experience in information security with a least 5 years in a direct Information Security Officer role;
• have very good knowledge of one of the two official languages of the Council of Europe (English or French) and knowledge of the other;
• be a citizen of one of the member States of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
• be under the age of 65 years.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework.

• Managerial - Decision making
• Operational - Analysis and problem solving
• Operational - Results orientation
• Operational - Concern for quality
• Interpersonal - Teamwork and co-operation

Professional and technical expertise:

• proven experience in leading security programs at an enterprise level;
• cloud security expertise with hands-on experience in Azure, AWS or GCP;
• strong proficiency in SIEM, endpoint protection (EDR/XDR) and security automation;
• experience in drafting and implementing security policies (ISO 27001, NIST, GDPR).

• Operational - Planning and work organisation
• Operational - Learning and development
• Interpersonal - Communication

Professional and technical expertise:

• experience in hybrid multi-cloud environments (Azure, AWS, and GCP);
• experience implementing & testing Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plans (BCP/DRP);
• expertise in DevSecOps, CI/CD security, or Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) security;
• experience in penetration testing coordination & remediation planning;
• knowledge of advanced threat intelligence platforms & cyber threat hunting methodologies.

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer.

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Article 490 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 (CET/CEST). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointment, preference between suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected], we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will be updated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at [email protected]