Site Lead (Security- new FDI) - #2160014

Engineering Site Lead, Cybersecurity & Identity Platform (Belfast) NEW company to NI

At a Glance

• Newly created leadership role building and scaling a global security technology company's first Belfast engineering site from the ground up
• Hands-on technical leadership across identity, cryptography, cloud security and emerging agentic AI systems
• Hybrid working from a new Belfast city centre office, growing from an initial senior team toward 20 plus
• Rare chance to shape hiring, culture and technical direction from day one
• Competitive salary, disclosed on application

About the Company

Our client is a well established, global provider of digital security and identity technology, serving regulated enterprises across sectors including financial services, government and critical infrastructure. They are investing in a new engineering site in Belfast to build a senior security and platform engineering capability supporting a major new product initiative in AI driven trust and identity. The business combines decades of cryptography and identity expertise with an ambitious agenda to define the next generation of secure, verifiable AI systems.

The Role

This is a rare, ground floor opportunity to lead the build out of a brand new engineering site in Belfast for a global digital security and identity technology company. You will be the senior technical presence on the ground, working closely with global product, architecture and security leadership to establish a credible engineering nucleus, initially around ten people, with a clear path to twenty and beyond. You will combine hands-on technical credibility in security, identity and cloud platform engineering with the people leadership needed to hire, mentor and retain a high calibre team in a competitive market. This role suits someone who has built or scaled an engineering site or function before and wants ownership of both the technical direction and the team culture from day one.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the build out of a new Belfast engineering site, from initial hires through to a scaled team of 20 plus
• Own hands-on technical delivery across identity, cryptography, cloud security and platform engineering workstreams
• Partner with global architecture and product leadership to ensure the Belfast team delivers against a shared technical roadmap
• Hire, mentor and develop senior engineers, establishing Belfast as a credible centre of technical excellence
• Champion adoption of workload identity, delegated authorisation and modern cryptographic infrastructure, including PKI and HSMs, within delivery teams
• Guide the team's approach to emerging agentic AI and AI driven systems, ensuring security and governance are built in from the start
• Represent the Belfast site in global engineering forums, feeding local insight into wider architecture and planning decisions
• Build relationships with the local talent market, universities and technology ecosystem to support ongoing scaling
• Drive engineering practices, quality standards and delivery rigour appropriate to a security critical, regulated product

What You'll Need

Essential:

• 10+ years' engineering experience, including senior technical leadership or engineering management
• Proven experience building, scaling or leading an engineering team or site, ideally in a security, identity or infrastructure domain
• Strong applied knowledge of cryptography, PKI, cloud security and/or identity and access management
• Comfortable operating as a hands-on technical leader as well as a people manager
• Based in or willing to relocate to Belfast, working hybrid

Desirable / Nice to Have:

• Exposure to workload identity standards such as SPIFFE/SPIRE, delegated authorisation (OAuth 2, PBAC/ABAC), or verifiable data structures
• Experience with agentic AI, AI orchestration, or securing AI systems in production
• Experience operating in regulated industries such as financial services, government or critical infrastructure

Why Apply?

• Competitive salary, disclosed on application
• Genuine ground floor opportunity to shape a new engineering site from scratch
• Hybrid working from a new Belfast office
• Backing of a well resourced, global technology business with decades of domain expertise
• Direct exposure to cutting edge work in AI trust, identity and security
• Strong autonomy over hiring, team structure and technical direction
• Generous annual leave and pension
• A genuine long-term career platform as the site scales