Cyber Security Specialist
Croda is a FTSE100 organisation where we truly believe our people are our difference and this, along with our values of Innovative, Responsible and Together, create ‘our Purpose, Smart science to improve lives™’. With over 5,000 employees globally, we specialise in the research and development of innovative ingredients for the Life Science and Consumer Care markets.
We are focused on developing our inclusive culture through accountability, collaboration and innovation. By joining Croda, you will be part of a team who are using smart science to create a more sustainable future.
As we deliver our ambitious 2030 Growth Strategy, we’re looking for a Cyber Security Specialist to report into the Chief Resilience and Security Officer.
The role
This is the operational heart of cyber security at Croda. You will take security policy off the page and turn it into controls that actually work - in offices, in the cloud, and on manufacturing plant floors around the world. When something goes wrong, you will be at the centre of the response, coordinating people calmly and driving incidents to resolution. Day to day, you will run the operational rhythm of security: triaging alerts, prioritising vulnerabilities, advising projects, and making security feel like an enabler rather than a blocker.
You will report directly to our Chief Resilience and Security Officer, with genuine visibility of how security decisions are made at the top of a global business - rare exposure at this stage of a career.
What you will do
- Make security real - turn Croda’s security policies and standards into practical, proportionate controls that teams actually adopt
- Respond when it matters - act as a core member of our incident response capability, coordinating or leading response across detection, triage, containment, eradication and recovery, then driving lessons learned
- Run daily operations - investigate alerts, guide vulnerability remediation, keep on top of threat intelligence, and make sure real risks get acted on
- Advise, not police - be the pragmatic, trusted security voice for IT, engineering and business teams - on projects, in change management, and in day-to-day decisions
- Work smarter with AI - use AI as a genuine force multiplier - accelerating investigation, analysis, documentation and response so one person can achieve what used to take a team
AI fluency is part of this job
We are serious about this one. Modern security operations are being transformed by AI, and we want someone who is already fluent in prompt engineering and context engineering - who knows how to brief an AI model with the right context, structure a prompt to get reliable output, and judge when to trust the result and when not to. You might use these skills to accelerate log analysis, draft incident communications, summarise threat intelligence, or build repeatable AI-assisted workflows for the team.
You will be asked to demonstrate this live as part of the interview process - we will give you a realistic security scenario and ask you to show us how you would work through it with AI at your side. No trick questions; we just want to see how you think and how you work.
What you will bring
You do not need to tick every box. If you meet most of these and this role excites you, we would genuinely like to hear from you.
- Experience working in cyber security, with a strong grasp of core security principles and how to apply them in the real world
- Experience supporting or participating in incident response
- Demonstrable fluency in AI prompt and context engineering, applied to practical work
- The ability to give clear, practical security guidance to technical and non-technical people alike
- Familiarity with common security technologies - monitoring platforms, endpoint security, cloud controls, vulnerability tooling
- Working knowledge of frameworks such as NIST CSF or ISO 27001
Even better if you have
- Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM or GCIH - though experience counts just as much
- Experience in regulated, enterprise-scale or manufacturing environments
- Exposure to cloud platforms or security operations tooling at scale
Who you are
Pragmatic and risk-aware. Comfortable being a generalist across a broad range of technologies rather than a deep specialist in one. A clear communicator who can influence without authority, stay calm under pressure, and juggle competing priorities without dropping the ones that matter.
What we offer
- Hybrid and flexible working - we care about what you deliver, not where you sit
- Real investment in your development, including certifications, training and mentoring
- A role with unusual breadth and board-level visibility for its grade
- The chance to protect science that genuinely improves lives
Our commitment to you
Croda is building a security team that reflects the world we serve. We actively welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities and life experiences, and we know that diverse teams make better security decisions.
Research shows that some candidates only apply when they meet every single requirement. Please do not rule yourself out. If this role speaks to you, apply.
The process
One application, two conversations: a first interview focused on your experience and how you think, and a second including a short practical exercise where you will demonstrate your AI-assisted approach to a security scenario. We will tell you where you stand at every stage.
Additional Information
This is a hybrid role.
If you require any reasonable adjustments during the hiring process or experience any issues with our online application process, please email [email protected].
Why Croda?
At Croda, we believe our people are our difference. We are people-led, driven by the desire to do good and deliver value, a unifying principle shaped by all the great people that have travelled through Croda since our beginning in 1925. We pride ourselves on bringing together diverse teams and talents from across the globe and, guided by our values of Responsible, Innovative, and Together, we are passionate about building an inclusive, collaborative, and diverse organisation with innovation and customer focus underpinning all that we do.
Croda is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.
