Principal Consultant

Senior Assistant Vice President: We are seeking an accomplished leader to drive cybersecurity governance, risk management, and business continuity across the South Africa geography. The role requires driving cyber and resilience charter at site level, own the maturity roadmap, and serve as the senior point of escalation for client assurance, regulatory obligations, and crisis response.

Serve as the Cyber Security focal point for geography, providing direction, governance, and oversight for regional security requirements and ensuring alignment with enterprise security strategy, regulatory obligations, and business priorities.

• Own and oversee client-facing Cyber engagements, including RFP/RFI responses, MSA and contract security reviews, risk assessments, due diligence, and complex client-specific security requirements, ensuring timely resolution of risks and alignment with organizational risk appetite
• Provide leadership and oversight for internal audits, ISO assessments, and regulatory reviews, coordinating stakeholders, driving remediation of identified gaps, and ensuring sustained compliance with applicable security standards and controls
• Act as a liaison between Business Units and Cyber Security, Risk, Compliance, and Business Continuity teams, influencing stakeholders and driving alignment on security, resilience, and risk-management priorities.
• Establish oversight on cyber risk and performance metrics, monitoring and reporting KRIs/KPIs to senior leadership, identifying emerging risks and trends, and driving accountable owners toward timely mitigation and continuous improvement
• Partner with business leadership to strengthen resilience, overseeing the development of Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), guiding Business Impact Assessments (BIAs), and ensuring critical business processes have appropriate continuity and recovery strategies
• Lead the planning and execution of Cyber Security and Business Continuity exercises and simulations, ensuring realistic scenario design, effective stakeholder participation, documented outcomes, and timely closure of remediation and improvement actions
• Act as a key member to Crisis Management Teams, providing timely risk-based guidance during business-disrupting events, coordinating cross-functional response efforts, and supporting effective decision-making to minimize operational, financial, regulatory, and reputational impact.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information/Cyber Security, or related field.
• Overall experience 12+ years with 5+ years in a senior Cyber Security or Resilience leadership role.
• ISO 27001 Lead Implementer / Auditor; ISO 22301 preferred; CISSP or CISM strongly desirable; POPIA / GDPR regulatory exposure required.

*In alignment with the Employment Equity Act, preference will be given to applicants from historically underrepresented groups and in line with EXL’s EE targets*