Cloud Security Engineer (Contract)

Company Overview: Atreides helps organisations turn large, complex, multimodal datasets into detailed geospatial data, that can be used for a wide range of use cases. At present, Atreides focuses on providing high-fidelity data that allows customers to make decisions quickly.

We are a fast-moving, high-performing start-up. We value having a diverse team and believe that inclusion helps us perform better. We trust our people to work independently, as we believe this leads to better results and greater job satisfaction. With a mission-driven mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit, we are building something new and helping to harness data on a massive scale to make the world safer, stronger and more prosperous.

Team Overview: Our mission systems team is made up of security engineers, cloud architects and a variety of other technologists, many of whom have served in the armed forces. Between us, we have experience in defence, operational intelligence, law enforcement, large multinational companies and cyber security operations. We obsess about designing products that will change the way governments, international companies and non-profit organisations protect themselves from external threats and hostile adversaries.

Position Overview: Atreides are seeking a motivated and proactive Cloud Security Engineer to join our dynamic and growing security team. Reporting to the Lead Security Architect, you will build, secure and operate zero-trust cloud environments, with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure and DevSecOps practices. This is a broad, hands-on engineering role suited to a platform security engineer or DevSecOps professional who enjoys working across the stack, from identity, Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD pipelines to detection, response and vulnerability management.

Responsibilities:

• Implement and support security controls across Azure, Microsoft Entra ID and the wider Microsoft stack, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Defender XDR and Azure Policy.

• Apply zero-trust principles and harden infrastructure and applications against recognised standards (e.g. CIS Benchmarks), enforcing them through policy-as-code.

• Secure containerised workloads throughout their lifecycle, from image hardening and runtime configuration to isolation between services.

• Build and run security gates in DevOps pipelines that scan Infrastructure-as-Code (Bicep/Terraform), dependencies, secrets and container images, and produce auditable evidence.

• Develop security automation to improve efficiency, including policy enforcement, remediation and reporting, using scripting (PowerShell, Python) and Infrastructure-as-Code.

• Review designs and code early, challenge weaknesses, advise on fixes and feed security findings into change approval without slowing delivery.

• Triage vulnerability and misconfiguration findings, prioritise them by exposure and support owning teams through patching and remediation.

• Tune Microsoft Sentinel detections, investigate alerts and support incident response, following and improving playbooks and preserving evidence in line with defined procedures.

• Write and maintain security documentation, including control designs, hardening guides, SyOPs and runbooks, and provide evidence to support assurance activities.

Required Expertise:

• Proven experience in dedicated security engineering roles, ideally in cloud-first environments, built on a strong foundation in infrastructure, network, software or DevOps engineering.

• Hands-on experience securing cloud infrastructure and services in Microsoft Azure using native Azure security tooling, with working knowledge of vulnerability management, patching and endpoint protection.

• Experience with identity and access management in Microsoft Entra ID, including designing and managing Conditional Access policies, Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and role-based access control to enforce least privilege and strong authentication.

• Strong understanding of cloud network security, including segmentation, firewalls, WAFs and zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and of infrastructure hardening (e.g. CIS Benchmarks).

• Practical experience embedding security into development lifecycles and CI/CD pipelines, including design and code reviews and automated pipeline security scanning.

• Proficiency in scripting and automation (PowerShell, Python) and Infrastructure-as-Code (Bicep, Terraform).

• Knowledge of securing cloud-native, microservice and containerised systems, including container orchestration platforms.

• Solid understanding of security principles, common attack techniques and frameworks (e.g. OWASP Top 10, MITRE ATT&CK) and the threat landscape.

• Strong delivery focus, able to prioritise effectively and deliver outcomes in a fast-paced environment with shifting demands.

• Clear communicator, able to explain security risk to both technical and non-technical stakeholders and influence engineering teams.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

• Microsoft security certifications, such as SC-500, SC-300 or SC-200.

• Industry-recognised cloud security certifications, such as GIAC GCSA or GPCS, or ISC2 CCSP.

• Hands-on experience deploying and operating zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solutions.

• Experience with SIEM platforms (Microsoft Sentinel preferred), including tuning detections, triaging alerts and responding to threats using established runbooks and procedures.

• Experience producing security documentation and supporting assurance activities in regulated environments.

• Application security experience, including threat modelling and application security testing (SAST/DAST).

Eligibility: You must have the right to work in the United Kingdom. Please note that we do not provide visa sponsorship.

Team Principles: At Atreides, we believe that teams work best when they:

• Remain curious and passionate in all aspects of our work

• Promote clear, direct, and transparent communication

• Embrace the 'measure twice, cut once' philosophy

• Value and encourage diverse ideas and technologies

• Lead with empathy in all interactions 

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive salary 

• Flexible hybrid work environment

While meeting all of these criteria would be ideal, we understand that some candidates may meet most, but not all. If you're passionate, curious and ready to "work smart and get things done," we'd love to hear from you.