OT / ICS Security Engineer, Manufacturing and Utilities Recruiters

Titles we fill

• OT / ICS Security Engineer, Manufacturing and Utilities

This role focuses on protecting industrial control systems within manufacturing and utility environments where plant uptime is the absolute priority. Your hire will bridge the divide between traditional information technology and sensitive operational technology networks. Success requires deep familiarity with IEC 62443 standards and NERC CIP compliance frameworks to secure critical infrastructure assets against evolving sophisticated cyber physical threats.

Your daily work involves conducting comprehensive vulnerability assessments on PLC and SCADA devices while minimizing disruption to production cycles. Your hire will design reliable network segmentation strategies that prevent lateral movement within factory floors. Engineering reliable incident response plans for localized environments ensures that automated manufacturing processes remain operational even during active security events or localized system compromises.

What we screen for

• Protocol Vulnerability Assessment

  Candidates must demonstrate hands-on experience identifying security gaps in industrial protocols like Modbus or DNP3. We require detailed examples of how you analyzed traffic for anomalies without causing hardware latency. Experience with specialized deep packet inspection tools is essential for verifying network integrity in sensitive environments where standard IT scanning tools might accidentally trigger a production line shutdown or controller reset.

• IEC 62443 Implementation

  We evaluate your practical application of IEC 62443 standards regarding zone and conduit definitions within complex industrial architectures. You must explain how you successfully established security levels for different manufacturing cells. We look for evidence of designing systems that meet specific security requirements through physical and logical separation techniques, ensuring that all plant components maintain necessary baseline protection levels.

• NERC CIP Compliance

  Understanding North American regulatory standards is vital for utility focused projects. We check the candidate's ability to map technical controls to specific NERC CIP reliability standards. You should articulate how you manage asset inventory and electronic security perimeters in remote substations. Proof of successful participation in regulatory audits provides strong evidence of your capability to handle rigorous documentation and compliance.

• Network Segmentation Skills

  Designing effective air gaps or firewalled DMZs between OT and IT environments is a core task. Your hire will describe how you prevented cross contamination while maintaining necessary data flow for monitoring systems. We assess the candidate's ability to configure industrial grade firewalls and manage access control lists that protect sensitive programmable logic controllers from unauthorized external or internal network traffic.

• Incident Response Design

  The focus here is on creating recovery strategies specific to operational technology constraints. You must show how you design manual override procedures or safe state transitions during security incidents. We look for technical maturity in balancing rapid restoration goals with the need to preserve forensic data in volatile industrial environments where rebooting controllers is often not an option.

• PLC Security Knowledge

  Security starts at the device level. We investigate your experience in hardening PLC and RTU hardware against unauthorized firmware updates or logic modifications. You need to demonstrate knowledge of certificate management or cryptographic verification processes for embedded industrial devices. Candidates who show an understanding of the challenges regarding legacy equipment are prioritized for their practical approach to risk.

Related skills and ecosystems we cover

• AWS
• Azure
• GCP
• Kubernetes
• Terraform
• Linux
• VMware
• Cisco
• Juniper / Arista
• Palo Alto Networks
• Fortinet
• Splunk
• CrowdStrike
• Microsoft Sentinel
• Okta
• CyberArk
• SailPoint
• Wiz

Where we find them

We identify talent by scouting engineers working within large scale industrial automation consultancies and systems integrators. These professionals often possess the necessary technical scars from managing legacy plant migrations or deploying modern IIoT sensors in ruggedized environments. We also track researchers focusing on the specific interplay between proprietary industrial hardware and modern networked communication protocols for securing critical infrastructure.

Active candidates often emerge from power grid operators or high volume chemical manufacturing facilities where internal security teams manage complex compliance requirements. We value those who contribute to open standards development or attend technical workshops centered on industrial threat intelligence. These individuals demonstrate the required dedication to maintaining safety in environments where security failures carry high costs.

The role and the hiring environment

• Cybersecurity
• OT / ICS Security Engineer
• Manufacturing, Industrial and IoT

How a OT / ICS Security Engineer, Manufacturing and Utilities search runs

Our process begins with a technical review of your design approach to industrial network segmentation and protocol security. Your hire will participate in a scenario based discussion that tests the candidate's ability to prioritize security controls against production availability requirements. We ensure that your technical reasoning aligns with the strict safety and performance needs inherent in large scale manufacturing operations.

Final stages involve a deep dive into your experience with regulatory compliance and incident recovery planning. We examine how you communicate security risks to plant managers and non technical leadership teams. Successful candidates must prove they can translate complex cyber security requirements into actionable, safe, and reliable technical engineering tasks that protect critical physical industrial infrastructure assets.

What happens next

Questions about this search

Related roles and stacks

• Cybersecurity
• CISO
• Security Engineer
• Cloud Security Engineer
• Application Security Engineer
• Security Architect
• IAM Engineer
• AWS
• Azure

Hiring guidance

Plan this hire

• Positions we recruit
• Team hiring guide
• Security Engineering Manager
• Moving from an MSP to in-house IT
• When a platform certification matters
• A technology job description that attracts the right people
• Credential checks