CSIRO seeks security chief

Australia’s peak science and technology research body is looking for a chief to lead its new cyber security team, who can protect its precious IP while at the same time maintaining a culture of data sharing and openness.

The CSIRO is hunting for a chief information security officer to head a fourth, security-focussed arm of its information management team.

It is appealing to candidates with at least five years senior IT experience and a top secret security clearance.

“This is a position of trust requiring an individual with strong stakeholder management skills and exceptional levels of integrity,” says a job ad.

The successful candidate will offer “pragmatic thought leadership regarding cyber security and the assurance of CSIRO’s significant science data assets and platforms”.

They will need to work in a unique environment geared towards “an open and collaborative science and engineering culture” while still implementing controls up to the job of defending some of Australia’s most valuable industrial IP.

The new hire will answer to CIO Brendan Dalton.

The research agency has come out of a difficult few years from a staffing perspective, after having its funding slashed and then partially restored by the federal government.

Hundreds of jobs have gone at the organisation since 2014, leading to reported staff disillusionment and industrial action.