Director - Security Architecture & Solution Engineering - Network & Zero Trust Architecture

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems.

Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines.

Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Domain focus: Network & Zero Trust Architecture; domain authority across a large enterprise estate.

Own the Network and Zero Trust domain as design authority for GSK. Zero Trust is a current Cyber Architecture and Solutions priority being built from the ground up rather than maintained, so this role is designing where GSK has no incumbent framework. A two-person domain: you and one Principal Architectyou and one Senior Principal Architect, with no engineering function of your own — Security Solution Engineering builds to your specifications and a managed service vendor operates the result.

This role will provide you the opportunity to lead key activities to progress your career. These responsibilities include some of the following:

• →Act as design authority for Network and Zero Trust architecture across GSK.

• →Own the Zero Trust policy framework: device trust, identity trust and application access policy.

• →Own network segmentation and microsegmentation standards across the estate.

• →Own SASE and SD-WAN security architecture, secure remote access design and DNS security architecture.

• →Produce architecture specifications that Solution Engineering builds from without reinterpretation.

• →Maintain the Network and Zero Trust reference architecture library.

• →Reject network and Zero Trust tooling that cannot express policy as code, integrate with the existing identity provider, or be operated by the managed service without Cyber Architecture and Solutions present.

• →Assure the handover pack for every Zero Trust enforcement point and segmentation policy change before the vendor takes it, and retain the architecture decision when they propose a workaround in production.

• →Resolve the segmentation boundary with OT Security where Purdue Level 3.5 meets the corporate network, and with Platform Security where NAC posture checks depend on EDR health.

• →Secure Zero Trust design funding in major programme business cases at the point segmentation is still cheap — before application teams have built east-west dependencies that cannot be unpicked.

• →Lead your team in using approved AI tools to improve productivity and ways of working, role-modelling responsible use and follow GSK's Responsible AI, privacy and security requirements.

• →Mentor architects and engineers across the function and contribute to the architecture community of practice, setting the technical standard by example rather than by headcount.

• →This is a specialist-track Director role with one direct report; authority is held through the specification and the design review, not through line management.

• 20+ years in network security architecture, with technical authority held through specification and design review rather than headcount — the domain team is one Principal Architectone Senior Principal Architect.

• Designing Zero Trust from the ground up — device trust, identity trust and application access policy — and sequencing the move from a perimeter-based estate

• Network segmentation and microsegmentation standards, SASE and SD-WAN security architecture, secure remote access and DNS security, with policy-as-code and automated enforcement

• Specifications a separate engineering team builds from without rework, holding technical authority through the specification rather than line management

• Zero Trust architecture for AI workloads and agents — non-human identity, LLM API egress control and segmentation of AI platforms and the data fabric

• Recognised architecture certification such as SABSA or TOGAF

• Zero Trust programme at enterprise scale, including the organisational resistance it attracts

• Regulated industry experience, including GxP environments where a routine network control can affect validated systems

• Technical evaluation of new network and Zero Trust tool proposals against the architecture model (vendor selection sits with Product Management), including automation of policy enforcement and network change

• Experience retiring a legacy remote-access estate — VPN concentrators and jump hosts — onto ZTNA without a change freeze.
• Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Typical tools and technologies: Zero Trust policy architecture across device, identity and application access, microsegmentation platforms such as Illumio, Guardicore and Cisco Secure Workload, SASE and SD-WAN including Zscaler, Netskope and Prisma Access, secure remote access design, DNS security, 802.1X and network access control, cloud network security on Azure and GCP, reference architecture libraries.

#AGTech

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

As an employer committed to Inclusion, we encourage you to reach out if you need any adjustments during the recruitment process.

Please contact our Recruitment Team at IN.recruitment-adjustments@gsk.com to discuss your needs.

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