Head of Secure Connectivity (all humans)

Make a difference in the financial life of millions of people: At Erste Digital you are co-creating the digital future, in which better financial health is possible. #believeinyourself

We are part of Erste Group – the largest banking group in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 2,500 branches and over 45,000 employees. Our more than 2,000 IT experts and enthusiasts are the bank's Digital Muscle.

Help shape the next generation of Cyber & Information Security at Erste Digital

We are evolving our security organization around clear missions, accountable services and stronger collaboration across domains. As Head of Department, you will shape the capability together with your teams and peers rather than inherit a fixed organizational blueprint. You will be accountable for outcomes, people leadership, service maturity and cross-Group value.

Your Mission

Shape and be accountable for the operation and evolution of the critical connectivity and protection capabilities that keep Erste Digital securely connected every day - from VPN, firewall, intrusion prevention, WAF and DDoS protection to Zero Trust access and privileged access. The role combines strategic evolution with substantial operational responsibility: ensuring these services are resilient, well operated and continuously improved while reducing implicit trust and unnecessary exposure.

What you will shape and be accountable for

• Own the operational performance and evolution of critical connectivity and protection services, including VPN, firewall, intrusion prevention, WAF, DDoS protection, Zero Trust access and privileged access.

• Establish operational excellence across availability, resilience, lifecycle management, change quality, capacity, recovery readiness and clear service ownership.

• Drive the transition from broad network access toward identity-, device- and context-aware access while maintaining stable service for existing consumers.

• Ensure incidents, control failures and service degradations are handled decisively, with clear escalation, learning and preventive improvement.

• Create strong interfaces with identity, architecture, detection, incident response, exposure management and technology operations so dependencies work under both normal and crisis conditions.

Group first - Built to scale beyond one entity

• Think Group First: design every capability so it can be consumed across the Group where feasible, or at minimum produce reusable blueprints, patterns, standards and lessons that create value beyond Erste Digital.

• Seek alignment with Group Security and relevant entities before creating local-only solutions where a shared approach is realistic.

• Balance local delivery responsibility with the ambition to simplify, standardize and scale security capabilities across the Group.

What success looks like

• High availability and resilient operation of critical connectivity and protection services, with clear ownership and recovery readiness.

• Predictable change and lifecycle management, fewer avoidable disruptions and faster restoration when incidents occur.

• Reusable access, connectivity and privileged-access patterns that can be consumed across products, platforms and Group entities.

• Measurable reduction of broad network trust, standing privilege and unmanaged access paths while maintaining a good user experience.

Who benefits from your work

Employees, administrators, application and platform teams, infrastructure operations, Group entities and customers benefit from connectivity and protection services that are available when needed, resilient under stress, secure by design and straightforward to consume.

What you bring

• Leadership experience in operational security, network or infrastructure platforms, or another environment responsible for business-critical technology services.

• A track record of improving operational reliability, resilience, change quality, incident handling and lifecycle management in services with high availability expectations.

• Sound understanding of modern network security, Zero Trust concepts, privileged access and enterprise connectivity; deep expertise in every individual technology is not required.

• Ability to balance security, usability, resilience, operational feasibility and delivery speed without losing accountability for service quality.

• Confidence in stakeholder management across operations, technology, security and management levels, including during high-pressure situations.

Leadership approach we value

We are looking for leaders who combine high standards with trust, candour and genuine interest in helping others succeed.

• Servant leader: create clarity, remove obstacles and give people the space and trust to do their best work.

• High standards, genuine support: set clear expectations, follow through on commitments and help people reach them.

• Honest and elevating: give direct, respectful feedback, make achievements visible and create opportunities for others to grow and be recognized.

• Expert without micromanaging: bring enough subject-matter depth to ask the right questions, coach and exercise sound judgement, while trusting specialists to own the technical detail.

• Delivery oriented and willing to address difficult topics: turn concepts into measurable outcomes, exercise sound judgement when needed, address difficult topics early and question established approaches when they no longer serve the mission.

Click here to learn more about our Leadership Dimensions.

Why this role

• This is one of the most operationally critical leadership roles in the CISO organization: the capabilities in your scope sit directly in the path between people, systems, applications and the outside world.

• You will strengthen how essential security services are operated today while shaping their evolution toward Zero Trust and more Group-consumable protection capabilities - with visible impact on resilience, security and user experience.

• Employee benefits – Benefit from special conditions for financial services and insurances, supermarkets, clothing stores and many more.

• Employee Referral Program – Become a talent scout for career opportunities in IT. We are rewarding every successful referral for Erste Digital

• A competitive and performance-related salary dependent on your professional and personal qualifications is granted - the minimum wage for this position in accordance with the respective collective agreement is EUR 85.000,-- gross per year. But this is just a formality, we are more than happy to discuss your actual expectations.
  

In your motivational letter, please include the following two perspectives:
Briefly describe one concrete example of how you would make a local security capability valuable for the wider Group - as a shared service, blueprint, pattern or standard.
Reflect on one aspect of this role description you would deliberately challenge or refine, including why.

We look forward to receiving your application by 16. October. First-round interviews are planned for early November.

You do not need to match every point perfectly to be a strong candidate. If the mission resonates with you and you believe you can grow into parts of the scope, we encourage you to apply.

The way we are

Erste Group considers the diversity of its employees as key to innovation and success. As employer we are proud to offer everyone equal chances, irrespective of age, skin colour, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation or origin.