Principal Security Engineer

About the role

Our client, a leading banking institution operating from Abu Dhabi since 1985, is seeking a Principal Security Engineer to shape and advance its enterprise cybersecurity posture. You will translate security strategy into concrete architecture, standards and controls that protect identities, infrastructure, applications, networks and sensitive financial data across a complex financial environment.

Key responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and engineering roadmap for enterprise‑wide cybersecurity capabilities.
• Architect security controls for banking platforms, cloud services, infrastructure, applications, networks and data environments.
• Evaluate solution designs and embed security requirements throughout the project lifecycle.
• Strengthen identity and access management, privileged access, encryption, key management, endpoint protection and security monitoring.
• Lead technical assessments of vulnerabilities, threats, control weaknesses and recommend remediation options.
• Create repeatable engineering patterns, reference architectures and secure configuration standards.
• Collaborate with architecture, infrastructure, software delivery, operations, risk, audit and compliance stakeholders.
• Review security incidents and emerging threats to drive lasting engineering improvements.

Required profile

• Extensive experience in cybersecurity engineering, security architecture or a closely related field.
• Proven ability to influence technical standards and guide engineering teams in a regulated banking environment.
• Strong understanding of identity and access management, encryption, key management and endpoint protection.
• Experience assessing complex designs, prioritising remediation and aligning security decisions with business objectives.

Required skills

• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Privileged Access Management (PAM)
• Encryption and Key Management
• Endpoint Protection
• Security Monitoring
• Vulnerability and Threat Assessment
• Secure Configuration Standards
• Reference Architecture Design