OT Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (COE) Lead

Job Description Summary

The OT Cybersecurity COE Lead is a senior technical leadership role within the Grid Automation (GA) Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (COE) and the broader GA OT Cybersecurity Product Line. This role is responsible for leading the execution of complex cybersecurity scope, advancing standard work, and driving technical excellence across Grid Automation projects globally.

The Lead Cybersecurity Engineer serves as a recognized subject matter expert and technical authority for assigned cybersecurity solution domains and is accountable for translating strategy, standards, and regulatory requirements into repeatable execution practices. This includes leading the design, implementation, validation, and commissioning of cybersecurity solutions for complex customer projects, while continuously improving the COE toolkit, governance model, and regional capability.

In addition to direct project support, this role has a strong enterprise impact through the development of standard architectures, templates, automation, training content, and technical review processes that enable consistent, scalable, and high-quality cybersecurity execution across all regions.

The successful candidate combines deep hands-on OT cybersecurity expertise with strong engineering judgment, a standardization mindset, and the ability to lead through influence across a global matrixed organization.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

Technical leadership for complex project execution

• Lead the cybersecurity execution strategy and technical delivery for Tier 1 and other high-complexity projects from design through FAT, SAT, commissioning, and final handover

• Act as the senior technical lead for cybersecurity architecture, design reviews, integration decisions, hardening activities, and issue resolution

• Ensure cybersecurity scope is executed in line with contractual requirements, approved design intent, internal standards, and customer expectations

• Partner with regional project, engineering, and service teams to resolve complex technical issues and manage delivery risk

• Provide expert support during customer discussions, technical clarifications, site execution, and project recovery scenarios where cybersecurity expertise is required

• Support estimating, scope definition, and technical risk evaluation for proposals and early-stage project planning

Ownership of standards, methods, and COE toolkit maturity

• Own and continuously improve the standard work for assigned cybersecurity competencies within the COE

• Develop and maintain reference designs, approved configuration baselines, implementation procedures, verification methods, templates, and reusable engineering assets

• Drive standardization across projects by converting execution experience into practical updates to the COE toolkit

• Lead structured cybersecurity milestone reviews and provide clear technical feedback to improve quality early in the project lifecycle

• Identify recurring execution gaps, product integration issues, or process breakdowns and translate them into sustainable corrective actions

• Promote disciplined engineering practices that improve repeatability, quality, productivity, and margin protection

Automation and digital engineering enablement

• Lead the development and deployment of automation assets for repeatable cybersecurity tasks, especially in Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, logging, certificate services, account management, hardening, and backup configuration

• Define automated validation and evidence-generation approaches that improve the efficiency and quality of FAT, SAT, commissioning, and milestone reviews

• Drive the use of scripting, configuration-as-code, and structured engineering methods to reduce manual effort and improve consistency

• Support the responsible use of approved AI tools to accelerate documentation, analysis, script development, configuration review, and other engineering workflows where appropriate

• Ensure all automation and AI-assisted methods are used within approved GE Vernova controls for validation, cybersecurity, and data handling

• Incorporate proven digital methods into the standard COE toolkit for reuse across regions and project tiers

Capability building and technical mentorship

• Build capability within the COE and regional teams by providing technical coaching, mentoring, and hands-on guidance

• Develop and deliver training content aligned to solution competencies, execution methods, and cybersecurity fundamentals

• Support cross-skilling and succession planning to improve organizational resilience across critical technical domains

• Guide engineers in the consistent application of standards, tools, and approved implementation methods

• Help regional teams increase delivery autonomy over time while maintaining execution quality and governance discipline

Specialist support, compliance alignment, and cross-functional collaboration

• Provide advanced technical support for cybersecurity escalations across ongoing projects, installed base activities, and regional delivery teams

• Translate regulatory and standards requirements into practical project actions, checklists, and implementation guidance

• Support cybersecurity-related interactions with customers, auditors, assessors, and internal stakeholders as needed

• Collaborate with Product Security, Product Management, R&D, Services, and regional engineering teams to address recurring field issues, close gaps, and support secure product deployment

• Contribute to vulnerability management, patch strategy discussions, and design-for-security improvements where delivery experience informs broader business action

• Support first-of-a-kind deployments and introduction of new cybersecurity offerings through close coordination with product and engineering teams

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline

• Minimum 10 years of experience in industrial automation, energy, or critical infrastructure environments, including substantial hands-on OT cybersecurity engineering experience

• Demonstrated success leading cybersecurity execution for complex industrial or utility projects across the full project lifecycle

• Strong working knowledge of industrial control system and substation environments, including protection and control systems, RTUs, gateways, SCADA, and related architectures

• Deep applied understanding of cybersecurity implementation in OT environments, including network security, access control, hardening, monitoring, logging, recovery, and secure remote access

• Strong knowledge of relevant standards and regulatory frameworks, especially IEC 62443, with familiarity across NERC CIP, NIS2, CRA, IEC 62351, and applicable NIST guidance

• Expert-level capability in multiple cybersecurity technologies and working knowledge across a broad set of the following domains: Next-generation firewalls, OT network monitoring and intrusion detection, Secure remote access, Active Directory, Group Policy, RADIUS, LDAP , PKI and certificate management, SIEM and syslog platforms, Centralized security administration, Application control and host protection, Backup and disaster recovery, Windows and Linux administration, hardening, and virtualization, Hardening of IEDs, RTUs, gateways, and other field devices, Familiarity with utility and industrial communications protocols such as IEC 61850, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104, and Modbus,

• Practical scripting and automation experience, particularly in PowerShell, with additional experience in tools such as Ansible, Git, Pester, Bash, or Python considered valuable,

• Strong technical writing and documentation skills

• Demonstrated ability to mentor others and influence technical direction across teams

• This role requires around 25% travelling for project execution, customer engagement, and team collaboration internationally

Desired Characteristics

• Advanced degree in a relevant technical discipline

• Recognized industry certifications such as GICSP, GRID, ISA/IEC 62443, CISSP, or relevant vendor certifications

• Experience in a global engineering organization with matrixed teams and distributed execution models

• Experience defining technical standards, governance processes, or reusable engineering methods across multiple projects or regions

• Familiarity with approved AI-enabled engineering workflows and the application of digital tools to improve engineering productivity and quality

• Experience supporting audits, regulatory assessments, or customer cybersecurity reviews

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to explain technical risks and decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Additional Information

Relocation Assistance Provided: No

Candidates should be aware that this role involves a client's critical infrastructure; shortlisted candidates would therefore be subject to heightened security checks as directed by our clients. All personal data will be handled with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with our data protection policies, solely for recruitment and security purposes.