Job Description

Who we are:
At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are.

To learn more: https://plc.pearson.com

Our team: Protective Services helps Pearson keep its people, operations, reputation, and business continuity safe across global markets. The team provides practical expertise across safety, security, incident response, travel risk, physical security, and enabling the business to operate confidently in complex and changing environments.

About the Role:

We are looking for a Senior Protective Services Specialist to lead regional Protective Services activity across the US and LATAM. This senior, autonomous role will strengthen Pearson’s preparedness, improve regional coverage, and bring expert safety and security judgement closer to the business.

You will act as the regional authority for Protective Services during US/LATAM business hours, leading incident response, proactive risk work, travel risk activity, and physical security assurance. The role is designed to move Pearson from reactive, UK-centred coverage to a more proactive, globally resilient, and regionally informed model.

Working with a high degree of independence, you will make time-critical, risk-based decisions within Pearson’s global frameworks and partner closely with HR, Legal, Facilities, Cyber, Communications, Real Estate, and regional business leaders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead regional incident response for US/LATAM during business hours, assessing, coordinating, escalating, and documenting safety, security, regulatory, reputational, and life-safety incidents.
• Provide calm, informed, and proportionate judgement during incidents, aligned with Pearson’s global response frameworks.
• Partner with HR, Legal, Facilities, Cyber, Communications, Real Estate, business leaders, and external providers to manage incidents and reduce risk.
• Lead proactive preparedness work, including capability assessments, scenario planning, tabletop exercises, and local stakeholder engagement.
• Identify emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and regional risk trends, adding US/LATAM context to intelligence and threat assessment outputs.
• Own travel risk intake and approvals for US/LATAM-based travellers, advising on high-risk travel, events, deployments, and duty of care.
• Support executive, trainer, and other high-risk traveller movements in line with Pearson’s global duty of care framework.
• Act as the regional authority for physical security changes, site assurance visits, and risk input for offices, test centres, and facilities.
• Provide practical, risk-based recommendations that enable business delivery while managing exposure.
• Support supplier due diligence, assurance activity, internal standards, client expectations, and regional compliance requirements.
• Build trusted relationships with regional stakeholders, translating complex risk topics into clear, business-relevant guidance.

Required skills and experiences: Key Responsibilities:

• Significant corporate security, protective services, travel security, physical security, risk, resilience, or incident management experience in a complex corporate environment.
• Ideally experience within a multinational organisation or in a large scale company with multiple sites.
• Strong hands-on experience in either physical security or travel security, with enough exposure to develop across the broader Protective Services remit.
• Practical experience managing or supporting real incidents, including stakeholder coordination, judgement, response processes, and business impact.
• Strong business acumen, independent judgement, and the ability to make risk-based decisions in ambiguous, time-sensitive, or high-pressure situations.
• Ability to build trust across countries, functions, and business areas, translating regional risk context into clear, practical guidance.
• Fluent English is required, with native-level Spanish and/or Portuguese. Any additional Latin American language is a plus.
• Desirable: multi-country LATAM experience, Spanish and/or Portuguese, supplier due diligence or assurance exposure, geopolitical risk experience, and relevant security, resilience, risk, or crisis management certifications.

#LI-TZ1