COOP Trainee - Cybersecurity

Role objective

Build practical security thinking by learning how risks, identities, systems, data, vulnerabilities, logs, controls, monitoring, governance and incident response fit together, while operating strictly within authorised scope.

What you will work on

• Support documentation of assets, security controls, configurations, risks, findings and remediation actions.
• Assist with supervised vulnerability review, hardening checks, log analysis, security monitoring, IAM reviews and evidence collection where appropriate.
• Research vulnerabilities, attack techniques, defensive controls, standards and vendor guidance, and summarise findings clearly.
• Support security awareness, policies, procedures, checklists, risk registers and audit-readiness activities.
• Participate in supervised incident-analysis exercises and learn evidence-preserving investigation habits.
• Never perform scanning, testing, exploitation, access attempts or data handling outside explicitly authorised scope.

What you should learn

• How confidentiality, integrity, availability, identity, least privilege, defence in depth and logging apply in real environments.
• How security decisions balance business risk, usability, cost, operations and compliance.
• How to prioritise vulnerabilities and findings based on context rather than severity labels alone.
• How professional cybersecurity depends on authorisation, evidence, documentation and disciplined escalation.

Who should apply

• Student in cybersecurity, computer science, information technology, information systems, network engineering or a related discipline.
• Basic understanding of networking, operating systems, security fundamentals and common attack and defence concepts.
• Comfortable researching technical subjects and documenting what was observed versus what was assumed.
• Integrity, caution, curiosity and respect for authorised scope are mandatory.

What strong performance looks like

• Never crosses an authorisation boundary.
• Separates evidence from assumptions.
• Learns technical concepts quickly and documents them clearly.
• Prioritises risk thoughtfully instead of chasing impressive-looking tools.

Common eligibility

• Current university or college student eligible for a formal cooperative training (COOP) placement.
• Able to provide the university COOP letter and complete the required training period.
• Available to work from Jeddah according to the programme schedule and AY work requirements.
• Comfortable receiving direct feedback, revising work, and learning unfamiliar tools or subjects.
• Professional Arabic and/or English communication appropriate to the selected role.
• Previous professional experience is not required. Evidence of initiative, projects, coursework, self-learning, clubs, competitions, volunteering or personal work is valuable.

How we select

We do not reject a trainee simply for lacking a specific commercial tool. We separate quickly teachable tool knowledge from harder-to-teach traits such as reasoning, integrity, learning velocity, ownership, curiosity, discipline and communication. AY does not expect a trainee to arrive as an expert; it does expect visible improvement, preparation and responsiveness to feedback.

Assessment

Every applicant completes the AY COOP Common Potential Assessment (15 questions, 50% of the score) and then the role module for the position applied to (8 questions, 50%). The assessment evaluates potential rather than years of experience: reasoning, learning agility, ownership, ethics, communication and data sense, plus role fundamentals and applied judgment.

About the programme

COOP at AY is designed to identify and accelerate high-potential people, not simply to provide observation hours. Trainees learn by solving real problems, working within clear standards, receiving frequent feedback, and producing useful outcomes under supervision. Our principles: Bayan (clarity), Al-Asl (authenticity), An-Nama (growth), Al-Yusr wal-Yaqin (ease and certainty), and one system, one accountability.

Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia  |  Programme type: College Cooperative Training / COOP  |  Experience level: Student / Pre-graduation