IT Operations and Security Lead

About the Role

Skyro is seeking an IT Operations and Security Lead to manage all IT operations and information security for its market office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time position requires deep practical expertise in both IT operations and information security. Candidates must have an existing right to work in Saudi Arabia, as visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and operate the full information security control baseline for the market, including vulnerability management, endpoint hardening, EDR/XDR, identity security, email and phishing defence, and security awareness.
• Serve as the first responder for security incidents, handling detection, triage, containment, evidence preservation, escalation, and post-incident review.
• Manage the office network end-to-end, covering routing and switching, VLAN segmentation, NGFW, IDS/IPS, VPN, Wi-Fi, and ISP relationships.
• Administer Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and MDM, including identity lifecycle, conditional access, MFA, device compliance, and onboarding/offboarding processes.
• Act as the primary IT support contact for the GCC market, responsible for ticket resolution, endpoint provisioning, and service quality.
• Manage local vendors, procurement, and the IT asset register across the full lifecycle.
• Operate IT and security controls required by the market's financial regulator and data protection law, maintaining audit-ready evidence.
• Lead a small local IT team and/or managed-service partners, driving local IT projects and office expansions.
• Report security posture, risks, and remediation progress to the Head of Cloud & Operations / CCO and the global Security function.

Qualifications and Experience

• 6–8+ years of progressive IT operations experience, with 2–3 years as the primary IT decision-maker for a site or market.
• Hands-on information security experience, weighted equally with operations, including EDR, vulnerability and patch management, hardening baselines, email and phishing defence, and security log and alert triage.
• Incident response experience as a responder, covering detection, triage, containment, evidence preservation, escalation, and post-incident review.
• Hands-on network engineering and security expertise: routing and switching, VLAN design, NGFW administration (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, or equivalent), IDS/IPS, site-to-site and remote-access VPN, and Wi-Fi controller deployments.
• Strong Microsoft 365 and Entra ID administration skills, including identity lifecycle, conditional access, MFA, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and Intune/MDM.
• Endpoint management and hardening across Windows and macOS, covering imaging, patch cadence, disk encryption, EDR agents, and configuration baselines.
• Practical experience with a recognised security control framework (ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls) and producing control evidence for audit.
• Experience in a regulated environment such as financial services, fintech, banking, or insurance, with direct exposure to audit and compliance.
• People leadership experience, managing direct reports, contractors, or managed-service teams.
• Professional working proficiency in English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Security certifications such as CompTIA Security+, CySA+, GCIH, ISO 27001 Lead Implementer, CISSP, or CISM.
• Networking certifications including CCNA/CCNP, CompTIA Network+, or Fortinet NSE.
• Microsoft certifications: SC-200, SC-300, MD-102, MS-102, or AZ-104.
• SIEM/SOAR experience with platforms like Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, or Elastic.
• Familiarity with local financial regulatory frameworks (BNM RMiT, MAS TRM, HKMA TM-G-1, or equivalent) and applicable data protection law.
• Cloud administration and security at an operations level, specifically with AWS or GCP.
• Scripting for automation using PowerShell, Bash, or Python.
• Experience establishing an office and its security baseline from scratch as the first IT hire in a market.