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MINING, ENERGY & UTILITIES
Cyber security recruitment for mining, energy and utilities
This is the sector where security hiring most often goes wrong for a simple reason: the environment cannot be taken offline and the people who run it have been doing so for twenty years. The hire has to earn credibility on the plant floor before any control gets implemented.
What these teams hire
- OT SECURITY ENGINEERS
- Plant-facing engineers working within maintenance windows and safety constraints.
- OT ARCHITECTURE
- IT/OT boundary design, Purdue-aligned reference architecture and multi-site standards.
- OT MONITORING
- Passive asset discovery and detection with Nozomi, Claroty or Dragos, integrated back to a corporate SOC.
- NETWORK & SEGMENTATION
- Segmentation programmes across sites, plants and remote operations.
- IT SECURITY
- Corporate-side engineering, identity and operations for large distributed workforces.
- LEADERSHIP & RISK
- Heads of security and risk specialists who can hold both the corporate and industrial estate.
What is different about hiring here
We look for one of two credible profiles: a controls or automation engineer who has moved into security, or a security engineer with genuine plant delivery experience. Both work. Enterprise IT security with an industrial certification and no site time rarely does, and we will say so rather than present it.
Logistics decide these placements as much as skill. Sites are remote, rosters are rotational, and travel is not optional. We establish the real pattern — residential, fly-in, or multi-site travel — before shortlisting, because it is the single most common reason these offers collapse.
The market, honestly
South Africa has unusually relevant industry: mining, power, water, rail and heavy manufacturing all run large industrial estates, and most of our OT demand comes through Gauteng head offices with operations spread nationally. The candidate pool is small and largely known to each other, so these searches are relational and slower by nature.
In the UK, regulatory pressure on operators of essential services drives steady hiring, and the constraint is the same: few candidates with real site delivery experience, and strong competition from the consultancies who employ most of them.
A multi-site OT security role written as five days in a head office is not a real job. Scope the travel honestly and the search gets materially easier.
Where we recruit
Cape Town and Johannesburg across South Africa, and London and the wider United Kingdom.
Common questions
Do you recruit OT security specialists in South Africa?
Yes, and it is a meaningful part of our work. Demand concentrates in Gauteng head offices and at operational sites across the country.
Can an IT security engineer move into an OT role?
Sometimes, with site exposure and a mentor in place. The obstacle is credibility with control engineers rather than technical knowledge, and we are candid with clients about which profile we are presenting.
Do you cover corporate IT security for these employers as well?
Yes. Most mining and energy groups run a large corporate estate alongside the industrial one, and we recruit across both.
Does IEC 62443 experience matter?
It helps candidates communicate with engineering and assessment stakeholders and is often specified in regulated settings. Documented site delivery matters more.
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Talk to us about your search
A short conversation is usually enough to tell you whether we can help.