Cyber Security Administrator (Analysis) at Kenya Airways

Purpose

The Cyber Security Administrator is responsible for safeguarding Kenya Airways’ information systems, digital assets, and supporting infrastructure through offensive security operations primarily conducting penetration testing, red team simulations, adversary emulation, and vulnerability assessments to proactively identify and exploit weaknesses before malicious actors do. The role demands a hands-on, attacker-minded professional who can think creatively, adapt to evolving threat landscapes, and translate complex technical findings into clear, actionable remediation guidance that strengthens the organization’s overall security posture.

Responsibilities

• Identify, assess, and manage cybersecurity risks through offensive testing and defensive analysis. This includes evaluating both internal and external threats and vulnerabilities.
• Develop strategies for risk mitigation and prioritize security investments to protect critical assets.
• Identify and manage cybersecurity risks through penetration testing and adversary emulations to uncover vulnerabilities, validate security controls, and drive remediation across the organization.
• Internally assess, evaluate, and make recommendations to the cybersecurity engineer regarding the adequacy of the security controls for the airline information and technology systems.
• Collaborate with developers, Systems engineers, database engineers, security engineers, project managers, cybersecurity administrators and SOC analysts.
• Plan, scope, and execute penetration tests on internal and external networks, web applications, APIs, mobile applications, cloud environments, and infrastructure.
• Simulate advanced persistent threats (APTs) and real-world attacks.
• Conduct regular vulnerability scans across all KQ systems and infrastructure.
• Analyze and prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk, exploitability, and business impact.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret security-related data from various sources to identify patterns, anomalies, and potential security threats.
• Develop and maintain custom security analytics models and algorithms.
• Produce detailed penetration testing reports with findings, risk ratings, proof-of-concept evidence, and actionable remediation recommendations.
• Present findings to technical teams and senior management clearly and concisely.
• Contribute to SIEM tuning and detection rule development based on offensive findings.
• Support incident response investigations by providing attacker-perspective analysis.
• Work with Internal Audit and External Audit consultants as appropriate on required security assessments and audits.
• Ensure all projects and systems are subjected to security checks to avert possible security threats pre and post go-live.
• Assessing existing security issues within the organization through continuous testing and validation.
• Evaluating the organization’s security needs and establishing offensive best practices and standards accordingly.
• Responding to all system and/or network security breaches.
• Ensuring that the organization’s data and infrastructure are protected by enabling the appropriate security controls.
• Implementing a system of automation within the organization to ensure effective and efficient security protocols.
• Investigating breaches and implementing solid plans of incident response, learning from past shortcomings to create ever more robust security protocols.

Skills

• Excellent communication, interpersonal & problem-solving skills with the ability to work confidently on high-priority problems.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills with an attacker’s mindset.
• Ability to handle pressure and difficult situations with resilience, calmly and effectively.
• Must be a person of unquestionable integrity.
• Self-motivated with a passion for continuous learning in cybersecurity.
• Strong ethical standards and commitment to responsible disclosure practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or another related field.
• 3+ years of advanced IT skills with high level of information security experience and expertise (hands-on testing and offensive security experience).
• Proven experience in penetration testing, ethical hacking, and vulnerability assessments.
• Experience with various security tools to assess the organization’s security posture.
• Familiarity with security auditing processes.
• Well versed with Linux commands, scripting as well as windows security controls adoption.
• Ability to set up systems to identify intrusions, configuring these to suit the needs of the organization.
• Strong knowledge of networking protocols and common attack vectors.
• Experience performing information security audits or risk assessments.
• Industry certifications highly preferred: OSCP, OSWE, CEH, GPEN, GWAPT, CRTP, or equivalent offensive security certifications.
• Knowledge of securing network technologies, applications, and operating systems.
• Experience responding to, analyzing, and communicating information security incidents and performing forensic.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills, including formal report writing experience.
• Understanding of common security standards and regulations relating to a higher education environment (e.g., PCI DSS, NIST, ISO27001, GDPR, IOSA etc.).
• Capable of enforcing security best practices in line with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).