Senior Programme Manager - SOC Build (Greenfield Government SOC Programme)

Contract: 2+ Years Location: UK Hybrid / Remote Clearance: SC (or willing to obtain) Sector: Central Government / Cyber Security Programme Value: Multi-year, multi-million-pound SOC transformation programme

Role Summary

The Senior Programme Manager will lead the end-to-end delivery of a new greenfield Security Operations Centre (SOC) for a major central government organisation. This includes replacing legacy security services, modernising fragmented tooling, and delivering an integrated, end-to-end cyber capability across cloud-based digital platforms.

This role is suited to a senior delivery leader with deep experience building SOC capabilities from scratch within government or similarly regulated environments, and who can manage a complex supplier ecosystem, specialist SMEs, and multi-year SOW-based contracts.

Key Responsibilities

Programme Leadership & Delivery

Lead strategic planning, mobilisation, and delivery of the multi-year SOC build across several Statements of Work. Establish programme governance and provide confidence to senior stakeholders across technology, security, operations, and digital service delivery. Drive a transformation approach focused on a complete overhaul, not iterative improvement.

Greenfield SOC Build

Oversee the creation of a full SOC capability including monitoring, incident response, digital forensics, analytics, and automation. Lead the consolidation and modernisation of a complex, fragmented tool and technology landscape. Ensure minimal disruption to operational delivery Security, Risk & Compliance

Ensure the SOC architecture meets government-grade requirements around cyber risk, personal data protection, service continuity, and regulatory compliance. Work with SMEs and technical architects to support safe integration of AI-related tooling and align to emerging regulatory expectations.

Stakeholder Engagement

Communicate progress, risks, and decisions across senior leadership groups. Ensure the programme aligns with cross-government security principles and reuse-first technology strategies.

Essential Experience

Extensive experience building SOC capabilities from scratch within UK Government or highly regulated environments. Proven leadership of large, multi-year transformation programmes (Multi-millions £). Strong understanding of SOC operations, technology stacks, cloud security, and monitoring platforms. Experience coordinating multi-supplier ecosystems, including SME specialists. Expertise across multi-cloud environments, CI/CD tooling, modern development pipelines, and security engineering best practices. Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills Desirable

Experience working in a central government digital or technology context. Understanding of identity services, user verification, or sensitive personal data environments. Familiarity with AI governance and security implications.If interested, please apply and I will be in touch to set up a confidential conversation later today.

GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy