1. Role Purpose
Network International is the leading enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa, providing payment technology and services to banks, merchants, fintechs and governments.
This role is Group Information Security's senior specialist individual contributor for information security risk management — the risk craft within the Group's second line of defence. It owns the identification, assessment, quantification, treatment tracking and reporting of information security risk across Network International's key regions, feeding directly into the Group's Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework and risk appetite statement.
2. Key Responsibilities
Operate and continuously mature the information security risk-assessment methodology (likelihood × impact, 5×5 scoring) and the Group's information security risk register, ensuring ratings, ownership and advisory content remain accurate and current across all key regions.
Lead risk assessments for major projects, platforms, technology changes and third-party engagements, identifying and rating information security risk at the point of initiation and tracking material changes through their lifecycle.
Perform risk quantification and aggregation — translating technical findings into business-relevant exposure — for executive reporting to the Group Head, GRC, the Group CISO and senior stakeholders.
Monitor performance against the Board-approved risk appetite statement and escalate breaches or near-breaches through the defined escalation path within agreed service levels.
Design and maintain the information security Key Risk Indicator (KRI) suite and own its reporting into the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) and Enterprise Risk Management Committee (ERMC) cycles.
Own risk treatment and exception management, ensuring every open item carries a named owner, an agreed treatment plan and a target closure date, and that time-bound risk acceptances are properly authorised and tracked to expiry.
Maintain an emerging-risk watch — including AI, agentic systems and supply-chain exposure — working jointly with the AI & Data Security Governance domain to ensure novel risk types are captured, assessed and reported before they mature into incidents.
Support the security policy lifecycle and regulatory compliance activities — control testing, audit evidence and certification support — flexing across the wider risk and compliance agenda as required.
Identify opportunities to streamline and automate risk and compliance processes — automated evidence collection, workflow tooling and control-testing automation — and drive their adoption.
3. Governance & Interfaces
Operates within the second line of defence, providing independent risk challenge to the first line (Cyber Resilience Operations, Security Architecture & Engineering, Technology).
Reports information security risk assessments, KRIs and appetite-monitoring status to the Group's executive risk and technology committees.
Interfaces with the Group Enterprise Risk Management function under the Chief Risk Officer, ensuring information security risk is consistently represented in the Group's risk taxonomy and appetite statement.
Partners with AI & Data Security Governance on emerging AI and agentic risk, ensuring novel risk types are captured and reported through the standard risk channel.
Coordinates with Internal Audit on risk-register evidence and treatment-tracking progress.
4. Qualifications & Experience
Bachelor's degree in information security, risk management, business or a related discipline; a relevant postgraduate qualification is an advantage.
8–12 years of experience in information security or technology risk, with depth specifically in risk management; banking, payments or financial-services (BFSI) experience strongly preferred.
MEA regulatory exposure preferred — CBUAE, SAMA, CBJ, CBN, SARB or equivalent multi-market central bank frameworks.
Demonstrated experience operating a risk-assessment methodology (likelihood × impact, 5×5 scoring) and a risk register at group or enterprise scale, including risk quantification and aggregation for executive audiences.
Proven experience presenting risk-appetite status and KRI reporting to executive and Board-level committees, including regulator and audit engagements.
5. Professional Certifications
Essential
CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control) or CISM (Certified Information Security Manager)
Preferred
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
FAIR (Open FAIR) risk quantification certification
ISO 31000 familiarity
ISO 27005
6. Skills (NI Security Functional Skills Framework)
Proficiency levels shown are calibrated to Job Level P4 in the Information Security functional skills framework.
Skill (NI Security Functional Skills Framework)Expected ProficiencySecurity Risk ManagementAdvancedCyber RiskAdvancedCyber Security PoliciesAdvancedInformation GovernanceAdvancedRisk GovernanceIntermediateThird Party Risk ManagementIntermediateSkills Required
- Bachelor's degree in information security, risk management, business, or a related discipline
- 8-12 years of experience in information security or technology risk, with depth in risk management
- Banking, payments, or financial-services experience
- MEA regulatory exposure, including CBUAE, SAMA, CBJ, CBN, SARB, or equivalent frameworks
- Experience operating an enterprise-scale risk-assessment methodology and risk register
- Experience with risk quantification and aggregation for executive audiences
- Experience presenting risk-appetite status and KRI reporting to executive and Board-level committees
- Experience with regulator and audit engagements
- CRISC or CISM certification
- CISSP certification
- FAIR Open FAIR risk quantification certification
- ISO 31000 familiarity
- ISO 27005 familiarity
- Advanced proficiency in Security Risk Management, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security Policies, and Information Governance
- Intermediate proficiency in Risk Governance and Third Party Risk Management
Network International Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Network International and has not been reviewed or approved by Network International.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Pay is considered decent in some roles and is often paired with bonuses. Phrases like 'salary plus bonuses' indicate variable pay is a meaningful component for certain positions.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical coverage extends to employees, spouses, and up to three children, alongside life insurance. This breadth signals a robust healthcare baseline for the region.
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Retirement Support — Retirement and termination benefits align with UAE/GCC norms, including pension contributions for nationals and end‑of‑service gratuity for expatriates. Such provisions indicate structured, region‑appropriate retirement support.
Network International Insights
What We Do
Over the past 30 years, we have built a business based on long-standing and trusted relationships with many of the leading merchants, financial institutions and payment networks operating in the Middle East and Africa. Such relationships are based on our comprehensive capabilities, scale, local presence in the multiple markets in which we operate, alongside our trusted reputation. This gives us significant scale and leadership in the region, where we operate in more than 50 countries, serve over 130,000 merchants and 250 financial institutions and fintech customers, whilst managing more than 16 million customer credentials. We have a diversified business model and operate across the entire consumer payments value chain. We do this with a growth-focused strategy through two business lines: • That enables our merchant customers to ‘take payments’, by providing them with various payment acceptance methods, both online and offline. • Which supports our financial institution, fintech and other payment issuing institution customers in enabling consumers ‘make payments’, by managing and processing their consumer payment credentials and transactions.
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