Cybersecurity Engineer

Cybersecurity Engineer (Dutch required) Who are we? VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) is an entrepreneurial non-profit research institute, with a clear focus on ground-breaking strategic basic research in life sciences and operates in close partnership with the five universities in Flanders.

The ICT department at VIB ensures that technology, information, and data are managed securely and efficiently.

Our focus includes:

Supporting and continuously improving VIB's ICT infrastructure and digital workplace.

Protecting our organisation against cybersecurity threats.

Enabling digital transformation through secure and modern ICT services.

Helping researchers and support services work efficiently through reliable, resilient, and secure technology.

To further strengthen our cybersecurity capabilities, VIB in Ghent is looking for a Cybersecurity Engineer who enjoys combining hands‑on security operations with continuous improvement.

What's the role about? As a Cybersecurity Engineer, you play an important role in protecting VIB's digital environment so that more than 2.000 researchers and support staff can work securely and with confidence.

You work closely with our Senior Security Engineer and the wider ICT team to strengthen VIB's cybersecurity posture across Microsoft 365, Azure, endpoints, servers, networks and identity services. Together, you help detect threats, improve security controls, automate operational activities and continuously increase the maturity of our security environment.

You combine operational security work with engineering and continuous improvement. Whether you are investigating security alerts, improving monitoring, implementing new security capabilities or automating repetitive tasks, you enjoy making our ICT environment safer every day.

You collaborate closely with colleagues across ICT – including Support and Operation Engineers, System Engineers, Project Managers and external partners – to ensure security is embedded throughout our services and projects. This role offers an excellent opportunity to further develop your expertise while working alongside an experienced Senior Security Engineer in a modern Microsoft-based security environment.

You will report to the Senior Security Engineer.

What are your responsibilities? As a Cybersecurity Engineer you will:

Security operations

Monitor, investigate and respond to security alerts and incidents using Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender.

Perform proactive threat hunting and contribute to incident response activities.

Support vulnerability management by identifying, assessing and following up on remediation activities.

Help improve detection capabilities through tuning, automation and continuous optimisation.

Infrastructure security

Help maintain secure configurations across Microsoft 365, Azure, endpoints, servers and network infrastructure.

Support identity and access management initiatives.

Assist in maintaining secure firewall configurations and network security controls.

Help ensure backup and recovery solutions remain secure, reliable and properly monitored.

Contribute to patch and security update processes across VIB's infrastructure.

Security engineering and automation

Improve security monitoring and operational processes through automation and scripting.

Help implement new security technologies and security improvements.

Develop and maintain operational scripts using PowerShell and Microsoft Graph where appropriate.

Continuously look for opportunities to simplify and improve security operations.

Collaboration and continuous improvement

Support colleagues with complex security-related technical issues.

Contribute technical documentation and operational procedures.

Participate in ICT projects to ensure security is considered from the beginning.

Share knowledge with colleagues and help improve the overall maturity of the ICT team.

Stay informed about emerging threats, new technologies and security best practices.

How can you add value to our team? Your profile

You have a bachelor's or master's degree in ICT, cybersecurity or a related field, or equivalent through experience.

You have approximately 3 years of experience in a system engineering, infrastructure engineering or security engineering role.

You have a solid understanding of modern Microsoft technologies and cybersecurity principles.

You enjoy analysing technical problems and finding practical, sustainable solutions.

You are eager to continuously learn and develop your cybersecurity expertise.

You take ownership of your work while collaborating effectively with colleagues.

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