Lead - ICG – IIS Application Vulnerability Assessment

Northern Trust is seeking a dynamic and experienced candidate to lead the Application Vulnerability Assessment function within the Infrastructure Control Governance (ICG) team. This role is critical to ensure the security, availability, and regulatory compliance of our Important Internal Services (IIS) applications. The ideal candidate will bring audit expertise, strong leadership capabilities, and a strategic mindset to identify and mitigate Single Points of Failure (SPOF) across our Mission Critical Assets (MCA). 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES 

Team Leadership & Oversight  

• Supervise day-to-day operations of the IIS Application Vulnerability Assessment team. 

• Assign tasks, monitor performance, and ensure timely execution of activities. 

• Provide coaching, mentoring, and training to staff to ensure consistent quality and compliance. 

Application Vulnerability & SPOF Assessment 

• Oversee vulnerability assessments and architectural reviews of IIS-MCA applications to identify SPOFs and systemic risks. 

• Ensure assessments are aligned with business-criticality, regulatory requirements. 

• Drive the development and adoption of standardized assessment methodologies and tooling. 

Stakeholder Engagement 

• Collaborate with product owners, practice leads, infrastructure, and compliance stakeholders to understand application dependencies and risk exposure. 

• Communicate technical findings in business terms to senior leadership, regulators, and audit teams. 

• Represent the function in governance forums, risk committees, and strategic planning sessions. 

Compliance & Regulatory Alignment 

• Ensure all assessment and remediation activities align with relevant financial regulations and compliance frameworks such as: 

• ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, GDPR, etc. 

• Support internal and external audits with documentation, evidence, and remediation tracking. 

• Maintain audit readiness and ensure timely closure of compliance gaps. 

Risk Management & Remediation Oversight 

• Prioritize vulnerabilities and SPOFs based on business impact, regulatory exposure, and operational risk. 

• Facilitate and support the cross-functional identification of application vulnerabilities to ensure compliance with service level agreements and established timelines. 

• Establish robust governance mechanisms for the validation, tracking, reporting, and escalation of daily team activities. 

Innovation & Continuous Improvement 

• Stay current with emerging threats, FinTech trends, and evolving regulatory landscapes. 

• Identify opportunities for automation, process optimization, and proactive risk detection. 

Responsibilities and Ethical Conduct 

As a partner at Northern Trust, you must actively manage and mitigate risk and act with integrity. In accordance with our core values of service, integrity, and expertise, you are expected to:  

• Adhere to all applicable risk management programs, policies, and procedures. 

• Complete all mandatory training by the deadline.  

• Understand how your behavior could expose Northern Trust, its clients, and financial markets to different types of risk.  

• Ensure that Northern Trust or its clients are not exposed to inappropriate or excessive risk.  

• Escalate any risk concerns, including those resulting from mistakes / errors to a manager or business unit risk officer. 

• Exercise diligence regarding cyber-security  

• Cooperate with internal control functions (including first-line Control, Risk, Compliance, Audit, self-assigned, etc.) and applicable regulatory bodies.  

• Avoid conflicts of interest or behaviors that might produce unfair outcomes for Northern Trust or its clients or damage the integrity of financial markets 

Must Haves: 

• Risk Assessment & IT Audit Expertise  

Proven experience in scheduling and performing risk assessments or IT audits across critical ITIL® and resiliency domains, including: 

• Incident and Problem Management 

• Change Management 

• Disaster Recovery & Resiliency 

• Availability and Capacity Management 

• Infrastructure Security 

• Leading team 

• Proven experience in leading technical teams and managing cross-functional stakeholders and senior management. 

• Communication & Collaboration 

• Excellent written and verbal communication for cross‑functional stakeholder engagement. 

• Technical Proficiency 

• Experience with regulatory compliance and audit processes in financial environments. 

• Hands on Experience on ITIL tool such as Service Now. 

• Hands on Experience on MS Office tools. 

Good to Have: 

• Certifications 

• CISSP, CISM, CRISC, OSCP, or equivalent. 

• ITIL, PMP, or Agile certifications. 

• ISO/IEC 20000-1, 27001 and 22301 LI/LA certified. 

• Framework Knowledge  

• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks and FinTech compliance standards. 

Qualification: 

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field. 

• 8+ years of experience in application security, IT risk management, or resilience engineering, preferably in FinTech or financial services.