Cyber Security Student Placement (Newcastle, GB)

Salary: £24,900 with progression to £26,338 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 11 June 2025

The Role

Over the last 3 years, we have reimagined the way we deliver our University IT Services, building a world-class IT department responsive to the needs of our global community. We’re growing significantly and we’ve created new opportunities and made changes to how we work. Our people have been at the centre of this change, with a particular focus on development and opportunities to learn new skills.

We are investing significantly in an expanded team of cyber security professionals. We are now looking for an enthusiastic, self-motivated undergraduate student for a 12 month placement before their final year of study, based in the Cyber Security Team, commencing no later than 15th September 2025.

This student placement role will assist in protecting the University from cyber security threats to minimise or eliminate the impact of such threats on the University’s activities.

Please note that successful applicants must be working towards an under-graduate degree in Computing Science or related discipline, looking for a pre-final year work placement.

You will work closely with cyber security professionals and other IT Service colleagues in providing a pro-active cyber security function to the University. The work is varied and will offer you a broad range of experience and training, with the opportunity to develop valuable technical and interpersonal skills.

The University is an exciting and dynamic place to work, dedicated to world-leading education and research. Benefits include excellent pension; flexible working options; 30 days holiday, eight bank holidays plus an additional four discretionary closure days over the Christmas and New Year; discounted travel for the Metro and local bus services; and discounts for national retailers. You can find out more on our benefits web page.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended working.

Any job offer will be subject to the successful completion of HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard pre-employment security screening.

Informal enquiries can be made to:

Jonathan Carey, Senior Cyber Security Officer, Jonathan.Carey@newcastle.ac.uk or Jason Bain, Chief Information Security Officer, Jason.Bain@newcastle.ac.uk

To apply please upload a copy of your CV and cover letter evidencing how you meet the criteria as outlined in person specification of the job description.

Key Accountabilities

Security Response and Investigation

Assist with managing University cyber security incidents from incident inception to resolution or mitigation, ensuring the impact to the University’s activities is as far as possible minimised or eliminated Assist with monitoring and respond to cyber security threats and alerting generated by cyber security and related tooling

Security Policy, Compliance and Risk Management

Provide advice and recommendations on the technical aspects of cyber security compliance and supplier due diligence

Secure Computing

Assist in performing regular vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to assist in threat detection and threat management

Security Consulting and Education

Provide advice on achieving and maintaining compliance against externally mandated cyber security requirements

Data Reporting and Analytics

Assist in the compilation of cyber security metrics for reporting within NUIT; across the University; and where necessary external to the University

Miscellaneous

Any other reasonable duties that fall within the scope of the post, as allocated by the line manager

The Person

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Current foundation knowledge of cyber security and related processes, systems and procedures gained through academic or personal studies

Solve problems based upon experience, and the ability to seek out new information

Can communicate effectively with colleagues and students

Attributes and Behaviour

Delivering Services

Takes responsibility for achieving own targets

Has a positive attitude for doing things better

Looks for ways to make immediate improvements (quick wins)

Communicating

Disseminate key organisational messages internally and ensures understanding

Chooses communications tools appropriately e.g., selective use of email and other channels of communication

Clear and concise; gets the message across to others

Team Working

Shares relevant and useful information with others

Keeps other team members up to date with progress

Gets involved with team tasks

Willing to help others and share workloads

Operates with a number of different teams across the institution

Finding Solutions

Uses initiative to sort things out, is enterprising in effective use of material, financial and human resources

Looks at ways of overcoming obstacles rather than coming to a standstill

Keeps an open mind to alternative ways of doing things

Qualifications

Post holder must be working towards an under-graduate degree in Computing Science or related discipline, looking for a pre-final year work placement.

Other

Any job offer will be subject to the successful completion of HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard pre-employment security screening

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.

Requisition ID: 28218