Federal Security Engineering Manager

Horizon3

3d•$175,950 - $230,000

About The Position

Horizon3 is hiring a Federal Security Engineering Manager to build and lead the team responsible for securing dedicated federal cloud environments that meet FedRAMP and DoD Impact Level 4/5 requirements. This founding leadership role sets the team’s direction and is accountable for secure cloud architecture, detection, and incident response across federal boundaries. The manager will recruit and develop a team, define standards and operating practices, remove obstacles, and represent the team to company leadership and partner organizations. The role leads federal cloud security engineering, including identity and access management, network segmentation, encryption and key management, hardening, logging, Infrastructure as Code, and policy-as-code. It also establishes the federal SIEM and SOC capabilities, detection and threat-hunting roadmaps, incident response practices, metrics, tooling strategy, budget, and vendor relationships. The team’s work is aligned with requirements and frameworks including NIST 800-53/800-171, FedRAMP, the DoD Cloud Computing SRG, CIS, and MITRE ATT&CK. The position requires U.S. citizenship and the ability to meet DoD personnel security requirements and obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance. The role may require up to 5% travel. Horizon3 describes itself as a remote cybersecurity company and supports remote and hybrid work models depending on role and location.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship and the ability to meet DoD personnel security requirements for IL4/IL5 environments; ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
At least 8 years of cybersecurity experience, including at least 5 years in cloud security; AWS is strongly preferred.
At least 3 years of experience managing or technically leading security engineers, with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining talent.
Experience building and scaling a security engineering team.
Working knowledge of how FedRAMP High and DoD IL4/IL5 requirements shape cloud architecture, logging, and incident response.
Strong technical foundation in cloud security architecture, IAM, encryption and key management, network security, secure SDLC, and Infrastructure as Code.
Familiarity with SIEM and detection engineering concepts and SOC operating models, including incident response and automation.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical risks and tradeoffs to engineers, executives, and government stakeholders.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience standing up security capabilities for a SaaS product entering the federal market.
Prior hands-on or leadership experience operating within FedRAMP or DoD IL4/IL5 environments.
Background in incident management, detection engineering, or logs/events processing.
Experience building and scaling a SOC in a high-growth company.
Active security clearance.
Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP, AWS Certified Security – Specialty, GCIH/GCIA, or similar.

Responsibilities

Recruit, hire, onboard, coach, and develop a security engineering team dedicated to FedRAMP and DoD IL4/IL5 environments.
Define the team’s hiring roadmap, role profiles, interview loops, sequencing, priorities, and operating rhythms.
Lead horizontally with peers in commercial and partner teams, and represent the team to leadership and partner organizations.
Set technical direction for securing federal cloud environments, including identity and access, network segmentation, encryption and key management, hardening baselines, and logging.
Ensure cloud security controls meet FedRAMP and DoD Cloud Computing SRG requirements and are automated through Infrastructure as Code and policy-as-code.
Review and approve architecture decisions, threat models, and risk assessments for federal deployments and new features.
Partner with Engineering to embed security into the SDLC and CI/CD pipelines for federal workloads.
Set identity and access management standards for federal environments, including least privilege, federated identity, and privileged access.
Define the vision and roadmap for SIEM, log aggregation, and detection within the federal boundary, including audit-logging and retention requirements.
Build the federal SOC function, including functional requirements, operating model, on-call structure, escalation paths, and documentation standards.
Promote automation-first practices, including SOAR and AI/ML-assisted triage, investigation, and response.
Direct detection content development and threat hunting aligned to MITRE ATT&CK, using internal pentests and purple-team exercises to guide improvements.
Lead security incident response in federal environments, including escalation, cross-team coordination, post-incident review, and required customer and government reporting.
Define team metrics such as MTTD/MTTR, detection coverage, false-positive rates, and control and tooling health, and report posture, risk, and priorities to leadership and federal stakeholders.
Own the team’s budget, tooling strategy, and vendor relationships, including selection of FedRAMP-authorized and IL-appropriate tools.
Develop and maintain security standards, SOPs, and engineering practices aligned with NIST 800-53/800-171, FedRAMP, the DoD SRG, CIS, and MITRE ATT&CK.
Evaluate and recommend tools, techniques, and controls to improve security posture within federal constraints.
Stay current on emerging threats and federal security requirements and translate them into team priorities.