Enterprise Security Risk Analyst

Pay up to £64,946, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.

The Enterprise Security Risk Analyst is a senior analytical and leadership role within DWP’s Enterprise Security Risk Management (ESRM) function. The postholder leads one of the department’s four security risk domains — Cyber & Information Security, Personnel Security, Physical Security, or Supply Chain Security — and is responsible for producing high‑quality enterprise‑level security risk assessments that inform decision-making at the highest levels including Director General Finance, the Executive Team, and Departmental Audit & Risk Assurance Committee (DARAC).

This role has evolved in recent years from traditional, system‑based assessments to true enterprise security risk analysis — understanding the big picture, synthesising information, and articulating how security risks could impact the department’s ability to operate, deliver services, maintain resilience, and protect staff, data, and assets.

The postholder leads a small team, orchestrating complex analytical work across multi-layered risk scenarios, and works extensively with senior stakeholders across Digital, Estates, People Safety, Commercial, Risk & Resilience, wider security stakeholders. Their work directly shapes DWP’s security posture, prioritisation, and investment decisions.

Key Responsibilities

Lead an Enterprise Security Risk Domain

• Hold responsibility for one of four domains (Cyber, Physical, Personnel, Supply Chain).
• Develop, maintain and lead the production of quarterly Enterprise Security Risk Products for senior leaders.
• Oversee multi‑layered risk analysis covering threat scenarios, impacts, controls, and residual risk.

Deliver Complex Security Risk Analysis

• Break down large, ambiguous or abstract security problems into structured analytical components.
• Gather, evaluate and synthesise information from diverse sources, including digital risk data, system-level risk assessments, threat intelligence, estate vulnerabilities, resilience data and people safety insights.
• Apply structured analytical methods to generate robust findings, uncertainty judgements, and evidence‑based conclusions.

Influence Decision Makers

• Produce clear, actionable insights to inform DG-level decision‑making, risk appetite setting, and departmental prioritisation.
• Articulate business impacts: how risks could affect operations, resilience, service delivery, customer experience, staff safety or data protection.
• Support senior leaders (e.g., Director General for Finance) by outlining options, consequences and recommended mitigations.

Stakeholder Leadership and Engagement

• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across Digital, Estates, People Safety, Risk & Resilience, Commercial and wider security teams.
• Coordinate and convene stakeholders to gather evidence, test assumptions and validate analysis.
• Ensure alignment across functions and build consensus around risk understanding, mitigations and priorities.

Team Leadership and Delivery Management

• Lead, mentor and quality‑assure the work of a small team of colleagues.
• Task and oversee scenario‑level analysis (e.g., physical estate failure scenarios, cyber resilience scenarios).
• Shape team capability, drive continuous improvement and support professionalisation of ESRM’s analytical approach.

Strategic and Tactical Risk Support

• Lead thematic/strategic risk assessments for priority business areas (e.g., arm’s length bodies).
• Deliver tactical assessments when the business requests security input on emerging issues (e.g., reviewing mail‑screening contracts, new operating models, or outreach activities).
• Provide options and recommendations while enabling the business to understand and own its risk decisions.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Experience providing analysis, risk assessment, or decision support within complex, multi‑team environments — ideally in large organisations with distributed accountabilities — alongside a strong understanding of security or risk principles. Transferable experience (such as threat analysis, operational risk, resilience, or intelligence) is equally valuable. No mandatory qualifications required.
• Exceptional analytical skills — able to break down complex or ambiguous security or operational problems into structured components, make evidence‑based judgements, and articulate uncertainty clearly.
• Leadership experience — Experienced in driving change and enhancing the professionalism of a team or function, while also providing guidance and quality assurance to colleagues
• Ability to understand and communicate business impact — translating security, technical or operational issues into clear consequences for service delivery, resilience, staff safety or organisational performance.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing capability — able to identify the right stakeholders, gather insight, test assumptions and build shared understanding, including with senior leaders.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Alongside your salary of £64,946 Department for Work and Pensions contributes £16,786 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 26 days on entry, increasing up to 31 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Process:

We know your time is valuable, so our application and selection process is just two stages:

• Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There’ll be full instructions when you click through.
• Interview: a single stage face – to – face interview.

CLICK APPLY for more information and to start your application.