Director, Security Architecture & Engineering

ACLU - National Office • New York, NY

58d • Hybrid

About The Position

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Director of Security Architecture & Engineering in the Information Security Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. This leadership position reports directly to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and is responsible for driving enterprise security architecture and engineering strategy across the ACLU’s national and affiliate environments. The Director serves as the principal architect for reducing organizational attack surface, minimizing the risk of lateral movement, and embedding enforceable, risk-aligned security design standards into the ACLU’s environment. This role will lead enterprise-wide efforts to operationalize Secure by Design, strengthen identity architecture and segmentation, and ensure the consistent enforcement of core security controls. The Director will translate policy and risk into technical designs, baseline controls, and sustainable engineering practices—working in close partnership with Technology and IT teams, platform teams, affiliates, and key National stakeholders, including Legal, National Political Advocacy (NPAD), and Development. The Director will lead a highly collaborative and technically skilled team of three direct reports, each of whom manages a core domain of the security architecture program.

Requirements

• Extensive experience in progressive cybersecurity, with equivocal expertise in a technical architecture, engineering leadership, or hands-on security infrastructure role.
• Deep expertise in security architecture across hybrid enterprise environments, including identity and access management, network segmentation, endpoint security, cloud/SaaS hardening, and exposure management.
• Demonstrated success designing and delivering secure architecture programs, including Secure by Design frameworks, threat-informed reference architectures, and platform security initiatives.
• Familiarity with modern authentication and access control frameworks, including Entra ID (Azure AD), Microsoft 365, phishing-resistant MFA (e.g., FIDO2, number matching), PIM/JIT, device trust, and conditional access.
• Experience building and leading high-performing security teams, with a proven ability to mentor talent, drive accountability, and manage cross-functional delivery.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to effectively translate technical risk for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• A demonstrated commitment to mission-driven work and an understanding of the role of security in protecting civil liberties, legal advocacy, and digital rights.
• Hands-on experience maturing core cybersecurity domains such as attack surface management, segmentation enforcement, secure integration design, and insider threat mitigation.
• Technical experience with Microsoft 365 security configuration, Microsoft Purview data protection features (DLP, sensitivity labels), AWS service hardening, and secure data platform integration.
• Familiarity with the legal and advocacy sector’s unique operational needs, including privilege boundaries, sensitive communications workflows, and affiliate organizational structures.

Nice To Haves

• Certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, GIAC (GCSA, GMON, GCPN), or cloud-specific security certifications (e.g., AWS Security Specialty, Azure Security Engineer Associate) are welcome but not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the ACLU’s Secure by Design and Secure by Default strategy; translate policy and risk priorities into reference architectures, technical baselines, and automated guardrails.
• Establish and chair the Control Design Review Board (CDRB) to govern architectural decisions involving identity boundaries, network segmentation, data egress, privileged access, third-party integrations, and other critical control points.
• Define, publish, and maintain enterprise reference architectures covering cloud services (Microsoft 365, AWS), identity zones, network segmentation tiers, privileged access models, SaaS security, and service-to-service authentication standards.
• Drive the secure implementation of ZTNA/SASE, configuration drift detection, phishing protection, and secure baseline management across cloud, endpoint, and infrastructure systems.
• Oversee the development and enforcement of modern identity and access management models.
• Design and implement an enterprise segmentation strategy, incorporating both macro- and micro-segmentation approaches to reduce lateral movement risk and isolate sensitive business processes and data environments.
• Oversee the organization’s Attack Surface Management (ASM) capabilities by formalizing asset inventory, exposure tracking, remediation prioritization, and SLA adherence across all relevant environments.
• Advance the ACLU’s Insider Threat and Data Protection programs.
• Provide executive-level decision-making on risk tradeoffs, technical exceptions, and compensating control design, ensuring a clear path to resolution with expiration timelines and audit visibility.
• Partner with the GRC to align technical controls with policy, regulatory requirements, vendor standards, and internal audit frameworks.

Benefits

• Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
• Focus on your well-being with comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• Plan for your retirement with 401k plan and employer match
• We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees