Ciara Mitchell

Head of Cyber for ScotlandIS and Cluster Manager for Scotlands Cyber Cluster.

I am the Head of ScotlandIS Cyber. My role as cluster manager for Scotland's Cyber cluster is to promote innovation and support the growth of the cyber security sector in Scotland in line with the Scottish government's cyber security strategy. The aim is to ensure that Scotland and Scottish companies can benefit from the economic opportunity that the cyber security industry brings. My role involves working with the cyber security community in Scotland and the wider UK innovation community.

I previously led a team of product managers within BT's cyber security division in BT Security covering a Cloud SIEM SaaS, vulnerability scanning, log management and threat intelligence products.

I have worked in both the retail payments and financial services area in product management roles. While working as a product manager I have undertaken and delivered large transformation projects including a PCI DSS compliance project. I worked on a digital transformation project of a legacy product to an AWS based cloud SaaS offering so have experience of cloud and migrating to the cloud.

After leaving BT I freelanced part time while completing my MBA. My main involvement was with Zortrex, a cyber security start-up focussed on secure transport of data via tokenisation.

I completed a MBA with Heriot Watt Edinburgh Business School, graduating with distinction in Dec 2019. During my MBA study I have deepened my knowledge in project management, finance, accounting, marketing, strategy planning, risk management as well as other business subject areas.

I sit  on the Skills Development Scotland Cyber skills advisory group as well as the UK5G Security sub working group. I am open to non-executive director roles.