Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) - Local Authority - London - 4 Months

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) - London Council - Shared Services Environment - 4 Months 1 £750pd

A leading London council is seeking an experienced Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to provide strategic leadership, assurance, and direction across all aspects of cyber security and information governance. This is a senior, high-impact role operating within a politically sensitive, multi-organisation environment, where services, systems, and partners span a broad and complex landscape. You will play a critical part in enhancing organisational resilience, ensuring compliance, and enabling safe, effective digital transformation. This role is to replace an exiting member of the organisation so will be for 4-months initially.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Assurance

• Develop and own the council's cyber security and information governance strategy, roadmaps, and multi-year improvement plans.
• Provide clear executive assurance on cyber posture, risk, compliance, and IG health.
• Lead the continual improvement of resilience across a diverse public sector ecosystem.

Stakeholder & Political Engagement

• Work confidently with a wide range of stakeholders including operational teams, senior officers, directors, C-suite leaders, and elected members.
• Communicate complex cyber and technical risks in clear, non-technical language.
• Offer evidence-based advice in politically sensitive settings, supporting informed decision-making.

Governance, Reporting & Committees

• Produce high-quality board, committee, and councillor-facing reporting.
• Present formal papers, options appraisals, and recommendations to senior governance forums.
• Ensure sound and transparent risk-management practices.

External Collaboration & Incident Response

• Engage with national bodies such as the NCSC, SOC/IOC partners, and other public sector organisations.
• Build strong relationships with peer authorities, shared service partners, and key suppliers.
• Lead coordinated responses to major cyber incidents, including multi-party scenarios.

Technical Credibility & Delivery

Although this isn't a hands-on engineering role, we're looking for a CISO with the technical depth and credibility to influence major programmes and drive meaningful uplift to the council's cyber-security posture.

You'll bring experience in leading delivery of:

• Identity & Access Management (IAM) - including MFA, PAM, and identity governance.
• Network security and segmentation across hybrid or multi-site environments.
• Endpoint, cloud, and zero-trust architectures, improving protection and reducing attack surface.
• Security monitoring and incident response, including maturing SOC capability.

Your role will be to:

• Provide confident challenge to architects, engineers, and suppliers.
• Ensure secure-by-design is Embedded into all major transformation programmes.
• Guide technical decision-making and provide senior assurance on architecture, risk, and delivery quality.
• Shape technology roadmaps that materially improve organisational cyber resilience.

This role suits someone who is not hands-on day-to-day, but has the authority, experience, and insight to lead complex technical change from the top.

Essential Background

Candidates must demonstrate:

• Proven experience within the public sector (local government, shared services, NHS, central government, or similar). Local govt preferred.
• Strong understanding of statutory obligations, public accountability, and information governance frameworks.
• Experience operating across multi-organisation or shared service environments with varied cyber maturity.

Personal Attributes

The ideal candidate will be:

• A credible, calm, authoritative leader with excellent communication skills.
• Pragmatic and risk-based, aligned to public sector values and service enablement.
• Comfortable operating independently while maintaining strong executive relationships

TL;DR

Start: ASAP
Location: London (hybrid working)
Duration: 4 months
Daily Rate: £750
IR35 Status: Inside IR35