IT security coordinator

Responsible for:
IT security coordinators (also called information security analysts) plan and carry out security measures to protect clients' information and data from unauthorised access, deliberate attack, theft and corruption.

At a senior level, you would also be responsible for supervising and training staff, and working with operations managers to develop the company's overall security strategy.

Average salary:
Rates of pay are often negotiable dependant on experience and length of contract. Salaries can fall anywhere between £25,000 and £60,000+ a year.

Typical working hours:
You would normally work 35 to 40 hours a week, although you may be on a call-out rota to deal with problems outside of office hours.

Qualifications:
You can get into IT security by taking college qualifications at degree level or higher, or by gaining skills on the job. If you take the college route, you would need to complete a degree or postgraduate award in subjects such as network security, computer science (with security options) or forensic computing. These would allow you to start on a company's graduate training scheme.

Alternatively, you could use your work experience in related IT jobs to move into this kind of work, for example as a systems analyst, database administrator or network engineer.

General requirements:

• Excellent knowledge of IT security systems
• Tools and procedures
• Ability to interpret and evaluate data accurately
• Commitment to keep up to date with emerging security threats
• Technologies and trends
• Able to work under pressure and to deadlines
• Strong problem solving skills
• Knowledge of information security standards and legislation

Career prospects:
You could find work for a range of different companies within the finance industry and recent surveys of the IT industry suggest that information security is a high priority companies. With the expansion of wireless networks (WiFi) and mobile technologies this has led to a corresponding rise in the nature of security threats, which has led to companies investing to stronger protection of client data and information.

Your promotion options include moves into network management, IT project management and security consultancy.