Principal Security Engineer

General Description

Join a leading banking organization in the UAE supporting large-scale cybersecurity, digital transformation, and enterprise technology initiatives across critical banking platforms and systems.

We are looking for an experienced Principal Security Engineer to provide technical leadership across cybersecurity engineering and security architecture, supporting the design, implementation, and enhancement of advanced security solutions within a highly regulated banking environment.

This opportunity is ideal for senior cybersecurity professionals with strong experience across Security Architecture, Cybersecurity Engineering, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Encryption and Data Protection, Threat Detection, Vulnerability Management, and Security Risk Mitigation.

The selected consultant will work closely with security architects, engineering teams, infrastructure and application teams, technology stakeholders, and risk and compliance functions to ensure banking platforms and technology initiatives are designed and implemented in accordance with enterprise security standards and cybersecurity best practices.

This is a contract / freelance engagement for approximately 6 months, with an immediate hiring timeline.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across cybersecurity engineering, security architecture, and enterprise security initiatives
• Design and review advanced security architectures for critical banking platforms, applications, infrastructure, and enterprise systems
• Lead the design and implementation of security solutions covering Identity & Access Management (IAM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), encryption, key management, data protection, threat detection, and security monitoring
• Define security requirements and controls for new and existing technology platforms
• Conduct security architecture reviews, threat modelling, technical risk assessments, and security design assessments
• Identify security vulnerabilities, architectural risks, and control gaps and recommend appropriate remediation strategies
• Guide security engineering and technology teams on cybersecurity best practices, secure design principles, and remediation approaches
• Support vulnerability management initiatives and coordinate remediation of identified security weaknesses
• Contribute to the implementation and enhancement of threat detection, SIEM, security monitoring, and incident detection capabilities
• Work closely with application, infrastructure, cloud, network, architecture, and security teams to embed security throughout technology delivery
• Ensure technology initiatives comply with internal security policies, regulatory requirements, risk management standards, and cybersecurity frameworks
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to security engineers and other technology teams
• Contribute to security architecture documentation, technical standards, security patterns, and engineering guidelines.

Required Experience

• 10+ years of experience within Cybersecurity, Information Security, Security Engineering, or Security Architecture
• Strong hands-on experience in Security Architecture and Cybersecurity Engineering
• Proven experience designing security architectures for complex enterprise platforms, applications, infrastructure, or cloud environments
• Strong experience with Identity & Access Management (IAM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), authentication, authorization, and access security controls
• Strong understanding of encryption, cryptography, key management, data protection, and secure communication technologies
• Experience across threat detection, security monitoring, SIEM, threat modelling, vulnerability management, and remediation
• Strong knowledge of network, application, infrastructure, and cloud security principles
• Experience conducting security architecture reviews, technical risk assessments, and security control assessments
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity frameworks and standards such as NIST, ISO 27001, CIS Controls, Zero Trust, or equivalent security frameworks
• Proven ability to provide technical leadership and guide engineering and security teams
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, documentation, and technical decision-making skills
• Experience within banking, financial services, or other highly regulated enterprise environments is highly preferred
• Immediate or short-notice availability is highly preferred.

Preferred Experience

• CISSP certification
• OSCP certification or equivalent offensive security knowledge is preferred
• Additional certifications such as CISM, CCSP, SABSA, TOGAF, CEH, GIAC, or cloud security certifications
• Experience designing security solutions for large-scale banking or financial services platforms
• Experience with Zero Trust architecture, cloud security, DevSecOps, API security, application security, and security automation
• Experience operating within regulated environments with strong security governance, compliance, and risk-management requirements.

Work Setup

• UAE-based engagement

• Contract / Freelance Engagement

• Approximately 6-month contract

• Immediate Hiring Timeline