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The world of risk is changing. Today’s business environment is different. More complex. More connected. More volatile. While this environment makes it much harder to predict where new risks will come from, we believe that it represents an opportunity for businesses to transform and innovate. We work with our clients to protect and strengthen every aspect of their business; from people to performance, systems to strategy and business plans to business resilience. Through our invaluable insights and independent assurance we can help our clients to discover and unlock real value.
Our capabilities, scale and ability to bring together leading-edge specialists to tackle the toughest risk situations helps us create a sustainable competitive advantage. But it’s our people, their curiosity and the inclusive, collaborative culture that sets us apart. Difference makes a difference and individuality is celebrated and embraced. We’re investing in growth and innovation. Our people are supported by the right tools and technology to strengthen our business and stay at the cutting-edge of new techniques. We nurture bold and dynamic behaviours to push the boundaries and be truly distinctive in the market.
A career within Cybersecurity and Privacy services, will provide you with the opportunity to help our clients implement an effective cybersecurity programme that protects against threats, propels transformation, and drives growth. As companies pivot toward a digital business model, exponentially more data is generated and shared among organisations, partners and customers. We play an integral role in helping our clients ensure they are protected by developing transformation strategies focused on security, efficiently integrate and manage new or existing technology systems to deliver continuous operational improvements and increase their cybersecurity investment, and detect, respond, and remediate threats.
Technology
We use technical and business knowledge to solve our clients’ problems. And because we offer so many different technology services we need people with different experiences to help us deliver them effectively. Digital is the new normal, transforming how we work and live.
At PwC, as we focus on future innovations, we’re investing in the best and most diverse workforce of today and tomorrow. We’re pushing forward with the use of technology within our own business – enabling our people to work more efficiently and collaborate more easily. All this is part of our commitment to put technology at the centre of our strategy as we continue to help our clients navigate the future digital landscape.
Cyber Security is part of our Risk business. The world of risk is changing. Today's business environment is different. More complex. More connected. More volatile. While this environment makes it much harder to predict where new risks will come from, we believe that it represents an opportunity for businesses to transform and innovate. We work with our clients to protect and strengthen every aspect of their business; from people to performance, systems to strategy and business plans to business resilience. Through our invaluable insights and independent assurance we can help our clients to discover and unlock real value. We’re investing in growth and innovation. Our people are supported by the right tools and technology to strengthen our business and stay at the cutting-edge of new techniques. We nurture bold and dynamic behaviours to push the boundaries and be truly distinctive in the market.
Programme
Our graduate training programme is underpinned by a development framework that broadens and deepens your knowledge. You'll learn from hands-on coaching and an outstanding variety of work, picking up business, personal and technical skills you can use across the network, and throughout your career.
Cyber Security – Ethical Hacking Technical Specialist
In Cyber Security we deal with some of the most urgent issues facing businesses and governments today. We help organisations from all sectors operate securely in the digital world.
Cyber security is a vast and complex field that involves everything from cyber security strategy and technical design, implementing effective security solutions and processes, to responding to cyber incidents and breaches. We help our clients to implement a culture and environment where people understand how to behave securely and do the right thing.
PwC’s UK based ethical hacking team is the global Centre of Excellence for Ethical Hacking at PwC. Our vision is to become the premier global Ethical Hacking team – the first point of call for FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients looking for a true partner.
No technology based solution can completely prevent human error – we work closely with our clients to become their trusted advisors offering far more than commodity penetration testing. The team is made up of specialists from many backgrounds – from red teaming, software development, computer networking, systems administration, hardware testing, reverse engineering, as well as those that have spent their entire careers working in the cyber security industry. Our strength lies in our continuing expansion of our capabilities, our flexibility, our curiosity and our investment in training and research to ensure we develop our people to become world class experts in their chosen specialisms.
What you'll do
This is a three-year programme and in your first year you will complete a technical masters at Cardiff University which will prepare you for a broad range of technical Cyber Security. Alongside your Masters you will be paid to work part-time at PwC, progressing to full time in year two.
From day one at PwC you’ll be dedicating yourself to the Ethical Hacking specialism. This will allow you to build up the required technical knowledge and experience to be an effective cyber security expert.
The Ethical Hacking team is focused on supporting highly technical specialisms which help our clients to detect and respond to vulnerabilities. You will help our clients by ethically hacking their environments to expose vulnerabilities in their IT, OT and IoT systems. In this role you will develop key skills in a variety of disciplines including:
- Computer Networking
- Operating Systems
- Web application hacking
- Reverse engineering
- Secure coding
- Red teaming
- Hardware Hacking.
After learning initial skills and shadowing colleagues to develop confidence in these areas you will work as an ethical hacker in our Offensive Security team. You will spend your time legally breaking into computer networks, websites, mobile applications, OT and IoT environments. You will provide specific recommendations to our leading clients (mostly top 500 organisations in the public and private sectors) to help them keep hackers out.
The programme may also include some exposure to the work of other cyber security teams particularly including Cyber Threat Operations to ensure staff can be effective at providing support in the event of a major incident.
What you'll gain
From day one at PwC you’ll be dedicating yourself to the highly technical, hands on Ethical Hacking specialism. By completing the full time, fully funded, technical masters at Cardiff University you will build up the required knowledge and experience to be an effective cyber security expert and secure a level 7 qualification from a Russell Group University.
You will be joining a world class team of qualified ethical hackers. Participate in a formal training programme and gain academic and industry leading practitioner qualifications to really boost your Cyber career.
Throughout your training, in addition to your MSc in technical cyber, you will work towards your CREST CPSA certification. Additional internal and external training will be provided alongside the MSc and also in year two and three as you work towards gaining the CREST CRT qualification and are able to join the government CHECK scheme. There will be an option to attempt the advanced level CREST CCT Infrastructure or Application exams for those who have reached the appropriate levels of competency.
What you'll need
You'll need to have or be on course for a 2.1. degree or above in any subject, however a STEM degree is preferable. We determine whether you're on course for a 2.1. based on the grades you achieved in your last completed year of academic study.
It is highly desirable that applicants will have completed an introductory programming module as part of their degree course that provides some knowledge of simple code development in a high level language such as Python, C, C++, C#, Matlab, Bash or Powershell.
A curious mind and a genuine passion for cyber security is expected – the pace of change in this industry sector is so high that candidates will need to invest additional personal time to stay up to date. Those without directly relevant degrees will likely need to invest the most personal time to keep up with the training program.
Successful candidates will be required to undertake a UK Government SC level clearance as part of this role.
When to apply
Although there is no application deadline, each year we have only a small number of roles available. We therefore advise applying early, but please be prepared for a short wait in processing your application at each stage of our process while we consider your application alongside others.
Do you need a work permit?
Please take some time to confirm your eligibility for the role. We welcome applications from all candidates but there are restrictions to some areas of our business and some points you should note on our website.
Please note that PwC is unable to sponsor any candidates for some roles as the Home Office’s eligibility criteria will not be satisfied. For a list of these roles, please review the ‘Important information’ section of the work permit page on our website.
Diversity
Valuing Difference. Driving Inclusion
We work in a changing world which offers great opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We seek to attract and employ the best people from the widest talent pool because creating value through diversity is what makes us strong as a business, enabling us to solve important problems and deliver value to our clients. We encourage an inclusive culture where people can be themselves, are valued for their strengths and are empowered to be the best they can be. As an organisation with an increasingly agile workforce, we also support different ways of working offering flexible working arrangements.
