Ahlsell AB

CSO/CISO

Ahlsell is the Nordic region's leading distributor of installation products, tools and supplies. The Group has a turnover of approximately SEK 33 billion and around 5,700 employees in six countries. To ensure a successful and sustainable organization, we place great focus on our employees to make them grow, feel proud and committed and to ensure that Ahlsell attracts new competent employees. The Ahlsell spirit is based on our strong business acumen and can be described with our values; accountability, openness and simplicity. These values permeate all parts of our business when we strive to be at the forefront when it comes to sustainability, profitability growth, inclusion, diversity and openness to innovation - both privately and at work.

Chief Security Officer/ Chief Information Security Officer

We are looking for our next CSO/CISO. You will set the technical direction of Ahlsell’s information security program and help build a secure company. You have strong security architecture knowledge and the ability to drive change and to build a culture of security.

The scope of this position spans the organization’s security solutions including software applications, infrastructure (on-prem, managed, cloud, and central warehouses) external vendor solutions and in-house developed software and solution. And as CSO/CISO you will be responsible for building our infosec engineering.

You will be designing and implementing a secure architecture and reference architectures; from business requirements gathering to technology rollout oversight, including capacity management, definition of scoring methodologies for technology selection, integration of multiple tools and reporting functionalities and technical documentation. This will be done by an approach towards security architecture collaboratively and from the perspective of risk management to avoid purely academic thinking about security.

You will report directly to the Chief Digital Officer and falls within Ahlsell’s Digitalization group.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

  • Develop Ahlsell’s infosec and security strategy.
  • Regularly report to the Chief Digital Officer on information security risks, incidents, and compliance with relevant regulations.
  • • Oversee the installation, configuration, and monitoring of new information security and security technologies
  • Collaborate with IT, DevOps, Software Engineering and Architects to develop and drive a technical security roadmap which addresses key security priorities.
  • Be part of technical architecture discussions within infrastructure and application level security programs across Ahlsell.
  • Hold a central role in actively promoting a culture of information security and security throughout Ahlsell.
  • Be responsible for information operations including monitoring, investigations and incident response.
  • Assist in the development and knowledge transfer to software engineering and IT team members, as well as other teams at Ahlsell

Education/Experience

  • MSc in Information Security, Computer Science, or equivalent degree or experience (such as published research or open source leadership)
  • 8+ years of directly applicable work experience in information security; additional experience in software engineering and devops/SRE preferred
  • Strong management and leadership skills
  • Experience with cloud and edge/IOT infrastructure
  • Familiarity and experience in modern programming languages
  • Experience with cyber security frameworks and regulatory requirements, such as NIST, PCI, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA compliance
  • Demonstrated ability to influence decision makers at all levels of a large organization
  • Ability to build and leverage close and collaborative working relationships with peers

Specific Skills/Abilities

The person we are looking for is strongly goal oriented, curious and eager to learn. You will get the chance to have a real impact on our success story and see the results of your work. Our organization requires and values great self-discipline and a natural talent to make things happen.

  • Excellent verbal/written communication, collaboration, analytical and presentation
  • Highly organized and result-driven
  • Proactive and goes beyond expectations
  • Good negotiation and problem-solving skills
  • Have plenty of a can-do attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit
  • Ability to work well with others in a team environment, as well as independently
  • Ability to work in a high profile and often high-pressured international environment

Qualities that we cherish are flexibility, sense of quality, friendliness, motivation to take on new challenges, and a sense of humor