Cybersecurity Operations Lead

Cybersecurity Operations Lead - 12 Months Contract - Abu Dhabi

📍 Abu Dhabi | Full-time | On-site

We’re working with a high-impact organisation in Abu Dhabi looking to bring in a Cybersecurity Operations Lead to take ownership of their day-to-day security operations and elevate their overall security posture.

This is a hands-on leadership role—ideal for someone who can lead from the front, drive operational excellence, and build a proactive, high-performing security function.

The Role

You’ll take the lead across security operations, incident response, and threat management, ensuring the organisation can effectively detect, respond to, and recover from cyber threats.

You’ll oversee the SOC, optimise tooling and processes, and work closely with internal teams and stakeholders to keep systems secure, resilient, and compliant.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Leading day-to-day security operations, monitoring, and incident response
• Owning and evolving the incident response framework and playbooks
• Driving threat detection, threat hunting, and proactive defence initiatives
• Managing vulnerability and patching programmes with clear remediation tracking
• Overseeing and optimising key tools (SIEM, EDR, IDS/IPS, DLP, WAF, cloud security)
• Producing clear reporting, dashboards, and insights for leadership
• Building and mentoring a high-performing SOC and security team
• Partnering with internal stakeholders to ensure alignment with compliance and governance standards

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years in cybersecurity operations, with leadership experience
• Strong background in SOC environments, incident response, and threat detection
• Hands-on experience with SIEM, EDR, and vulnerability management tools
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-pressure environments
• Strong stakeholder communication—able to translate technical into business impact
• Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CEH, or Security+
• Exposure to cloud security (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Familiarity with frameworks like NIST, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, MITRE ATT&CK

Why This Role?

• High-visibility role with real ownership and impact
• Opportunity to shape and mature a security operations function
• Work closely with senior leadership on critical security initiatives
• Be part of a forward-thinking, security-first organisation