Which cybersecurity expert does your project need?

Define what needs to move forward

Complete this sentence: “After this assignment, our team needs to be able to…”. The answer helps distinguish a decision to prepare from a solution to implement.

“Decide which risks to address first”, “obtain approval for access rights” and “check application controls before release” create different starting points. Add the systems involved, sponsor and deadline behind the search.

Gather existing audit reports, diagrams, policies, analysed incidents and actions in progress. State their dates, scope and what has changed since. An older document may explain the background without describing the current position.

Example: several audits produce overlapping recommendations. If leadership needs a proposal for priorities and owners, start by looking for governance and risk experience. Configuration work can then be assigned to the relevant technical specialists.

For a risk assessment, ANSSI’s EBIOS Risk Manager offers a method for assessing and treating digital risk. Ask how the professional would adapt it to your objective and which business contacts they would involve.

Distinguish five areas of expertise

The needs below provide a starting point for selection. A consultant may cover several areas; their experience should make clear which work they can perform directly.

For identity and privileged access, establish whether the work concerns access rules, implementation in a tool or reviews with business owners. The same IAM title may cover these three activities.

For application security and DevSecOps, specify the stage in the product lifecycle: writing requirements, integrating controls or checking fixes with developers. DevSecOps integrates security into development and operational practices.

The same IAM title may cover three different activities.

In a SOC, or security operations centre, distinguish alert analysis, detection engineering and response preparation. Familiarity with a SIEM, a security information and event management system, does not establish which of these functions the professional will perform.

• Governance, risk and compliance (GRC): prioritise issues and prepare decisions. Look for experience in risk assessment, coordinating owners and developing action plans.
• Identity and access management (IAM), privileged access management (PAM): organise permissions and accounts. Specify user groups, applications, directories and approval routes.
• Cloud security: assess or improve architecture and configuration. Name the services in use and the expected work with the platform team.
• Application security (AppSec): define and verify product controls. Describe the application, its release process and the team’s capacity to make fixes.
• Detection and response readiness: work with events, assess alerts or improve procedures. State the function you need to strengthen and the setup already in place.

Ask for outputs the team can use

A deliverable should help its recipient act: make a risk decision, approve permissions, fix a gap or investigate an alert.

For an architecture review, ask for the components examined, assumptions and proposed decisions. For an access matrix, plan business-owner review and implementation arrangements. For a detection rule, specify the events needed, test conditions and alert assessment instructions.

The OWASP ASVS standard defines security requirements for web applications and services. For AppSec work, ask which requirements and version will be used, then how fixes will be checked.

CNIL’s security guide addresses limiting permissions to the data users need. For a partner portal, this may mean defining permitted actions for each user group and the checks required. Product, security and business owners need to agree those rules before implementation.

Plan what remains after the assignment: documented configurations, decisions, instructions and open items. Ask the receiving team to review them. Their questions help establish whether the handover is sufficient.

Check the assignment and how the expert will work with you

The consultant needs to know what they may assess, change and submit for approval. Your team needs to know which decisions remain its responsibility.

For cloud services, CNIL recommends documenting provider and customer responsibilities. Add the internal roles: system owner, change authority, platform team and recipient of deliverables.

In interviews, use a real situation: a fix conflicts with a product deadline, or an access review involves several subsidiaries. Ask how the candidate would move the work forward, whom they would involve and which disagreement they would escalate for a decision. This reveals both reasoning and working style.

Before starting, confirm shareable documents, authorised access, test environments and available contacts. If the scope remains uncertain, begin with a scoping phase that has a clear decision as its objective.

If the scope is uncertain, start with a scoping phase aimed at a clear decision.

Our Talent Agents help define the search and introduce you to cybersecurity professionals. Agree delivery and operational responsibilities with the consultant within your project. For work involving data or artificial intelligence, use the data and AI brief guide to complete your preparation.

Does the project combine security, data and automation? Our guide to tech trends and skills helps separate these contributions before you look for specialists.