Cybersecurity Lead Engineer/Architect

GCM Grosvenor • Chicago, IL

2d • $175,000 - $225,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Cybersecurity Lead Engineer/Architect is the firm’s most senior individual contributor in security, joining a lean security operations team responsible for evolving, designing, and advancing the firm’s cybersecurity program. The role combines strategic security architecture direction with hands-on engineering: setting technical vision, reference architectures, and standards while building, configuring, and hardening the controls that implement them. It safeguards the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of firm data and systems in alignment with organizational policies and regulatory expectations, and proactively identifies risks and recommends improvements.

This highly self-directed role operates within a team responsible for cybersecurity and enterprise risk. It independently assesses emerging threats and control effectiveness, prioritizes initiatives, and owns security projects and architectural roadmaps from concept through execution. The role collaborates regularly with infrastructure, software engineering, product, and service desk teams to improve the firm’s security posture and enable secure AI and application development.

The position is onsite/hybrid, with an expectation to be in the office Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The firm describes itself as a global alternative asset management solutions provider with approximately $97 billion in assets under management and approximately 560 professionals.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 8 years of progressive cybersecurity or information security engineering experience, including time in a lead, principal, or security architect capacity.
• Demonstrated experience implementing and engineering security controls in enterprise environments.
• Experience leading or independently managing technical security projects.
• Strong familiarity with the CIS Framework and system hardening standards.
• Hands-on experience securing and monitoring cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure.
• Deep understanding of security controls, including DLP, MFA, encryption, intrusion detection, and mobile device/application management.
• Strong scripting and automation skills using PowerShell, Python, or similar.
• Experience designing and maintaining centralized logging and SIEM solutions.
• Ability to independently assess risk, define problems, and implement practical, scalable solutions.
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence stakeholders and represent the security function.
• Proven experience designing enterprise security and reference architectures, balancing strategic roadmap direction with hands-on implementation.
• Experience securing AI/ML systems and enterprise AI adoption, including familiarity with risks such as prompt injection, data leakage, and model abuse, and frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications.
• Experience with threat modeling and partnering with software and product engineering teams to enable secure AI and application development.

Nice To Haves

• Software engineering experience.
• Experience in financial services or investment management.
• Relevant security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, or AWS Security.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, implement, and continually enhance security controls across endpoint, network, cloud, identity, and SDLC, from design through deployment and tuning.
• Lead security projects, including scoping, planning, execution, stakeholder communication, and documentation.
• Own and optimize security tooling, including application security, AI security, endpoint protection, IDS/IPS, SIEM, vulnerability management, and cloud security.
• Develop automation for threat detection, alerting, response workflows, ticket creation, and reporting metrics.
• Work with technology teams to embed secure design principles and hardening standards in infrastructure, cloud platforms, and application development (DevSecOps).
• Lead the firm’s AI security program by establishing governance, guardrails, and technical controls for enterprise AI adoption and use.
• Partner with product and software engineering teams to enable secure AI engineering and development, including threat modeling, secure-by-design patterns, and safeguards.
• Monitor compliance with cybersecurity policies and regulatory requirements, identify gaps, and drive remediation.
• Serve as a technical escalation point during incident response and contribute to post-incident analysis and control improvements.
• Identify emerging threats, tools, and technologies and recommend strategic direction for the cybersecurity program.

Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare coverage, including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Employer-sponsored retirement plan.
• Paid time off.
• Parental leave.
• Short-term and long-term disability.
• Other care and wellness programs.
• Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus based on individual, team, and company performance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior