Senior Azure Government Security & Compliance Architect

Accountabilities

• Lead comprehensive security compliance gap assessments and develop control crosswalks mapping technical implementations to NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, FedRAMP High, and applicable state requirements.
• Define and enforce identity and access architectures based on least privilege, role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and secure user lifecycle management.
• Architect and validate audit logging, monitoring, retention, and traceability capabilities covering user activity, administrative events, configuration changes, and sensitive data access.
• Conduct detailed assessments of cloud, network, storage, and application configurations to identify, document, prioritize, and remediate security weaknesses and misconfigurations.
• Manage vulnerability scanning and penetration testing activities, coordinate remediation of high and critical findings, and maintain evidence demonstrating effective resolution.
• Perform third-party security and supply-chain assessments, evaluate vendor and software dependencies, and develop Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) documentation and critical service-provider registers.
• Establish and conduct privileged-access reviews to monitor elevated permissions, investigate account activity, and reduce credential-related risk.
• Design incident-response integration, including escalation procedures, security-event reporting, vulnerability remediation, patch-management workflows, and operational response processes.
• Compile and validate technical authorization artifacts, including security documentation, data-flow diagrams, system security plans, readiness-review materials, and evidence packages required for independent assessment and production authorization.
• Provide security engineering guidance for Azure Government data environments and help ensure the platform is architected for secure, compliant, and sustainable operations.

Requirements

• 10+ years of comprehensive information security engineering experience, including at least 5 years focused on hands-on cloud security architecture, cloud hardening, security automation, or comparable work.
• Demonstrated experience implementing and mapping security controls against NIST SP 800-53 and NIST SP 800-171 in federal, state, military, or other government environments.
• Direct experience preparing systems for or operating within FedRAMP High or similarly stringent, highly regulated security environments.
• Strong hands-on expertise securing Microsoft Azure and Entra ID, including managed identities, secrets and key management, and Azure Key Vault.
• Proven experience managing vulnerability lifecycles, conducting configuration assessments, integrating incident-response processes, and validating security controls.
• Practical knowledge of third-party risk management, software supply-chain security, dependency analysis, and SBOM frameworks.
• Verifiable experience acting as a security control assessor or leading technical security-control validation and readiness assessments.
• Experience with Azure Government environments and, preferably, Azure Databricks, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, and Power BI security controls.
• Familiarity with Florida government security requirements, particularly Florida Administrative Code Rule 60GG-2 and Section 282.318, Florida Statutes, is strongly preferred.
• Experience securing government data subject to CJIS or HIPAA requirements is advantageous.
• Experience compiling, submitting, or auditing formal FedRAMP Authority to Operate authorization packages is preferred.
• Active certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CCSP are strongly preferred.
• Strong technical documentation, analytical, communication, and independent decision-making skills.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident currently residing in the United States and able to successfully complete an FDLE Level II background screening, including fingerprinting, within 5 business days of contract award.
• Resume must clearly document government customers, applicable compliance frameworks, architecture scale, individual technical contributions, authorization or deployment status, and measurable security outcomes for relevant engagements.

Benefits

• Part-time consulting engagement averaging approximately 8–10 hours per week, with additional workload during security engineering phases, readiness reviews, and major deliverables.
• Remote work within the United States.
• Potential for occasional travel to Tallahassee based on project and sprint requirements.
• Opportunity to serve as the primary security and compliance authority for a high-visibility government technology initiative.
• Exposure to complex Azure Government, data analytics, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance environments.
• Opportunity to influence security architecture, authorization readiness, and long-term operational resilience.
• Technical ownership and autonomy within a mission-critical government program.
• Compensation and contract terms based on the engagement requirements.