Senior Security Architect (Cloud, Zero Trust, Identity, Security Patterns))

Connected Logistics•Springfield, VA

9d•$140,000 - $150,000•Remote

About The Position

Connected Logistics is seeking a Senior Security Architect to support the Cybersecurity Architecture and Engineering Services for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information Security (OIS) Cybersecurity Operations Systems Engineering (COSE) program. This role is contingent upon contract award and is remote with occasional on-site support. The Senior Security Architect will define, design, and govern enterprise security architectures across cloud, hybrid, application, identity, data, and network environments. They will establish security architecture principles, reusable security patterns, and technical controls to protect organizational systems and data while enabling secure modernization. The role involves evaluating existing cybersecurity architectures, identifying risks and gaps, and developing target-state architectures and implementation approaches. Key areas of technical leadership include Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM), cloud security, secure application architectures, data protection, network security, and security automation. The Senior Security Architect will collaborate with enterprise architects, solution architects, cloud and platform engineering teams, cybersecurity personnel, application teams, and program leadership to ensure cybersecurity requirements are integrated throughout the system and solution lifecycle.

Requirements

Public Trust: T4 or T5 (TS)
Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline or an Associate's degree in the above discipline with an additional 2 years of experience.
Minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in cybersecurity, security engineering, security architecture, information technology, or a closely related field.
Demonstrated experience designing, evaluating, and implementing cybersecurity architectures for complex IT environments.
Demonstrated experience with cloud security architecture, including security considerations for cloud-native and hybrid environments.
Demonstrated knowledge of Zero Trust architecture and security principles.
Experience designing or integrating identity and access management capabilities, including authentication, authorization, privileged access, and identity federation.
Experience developing security architecture standards, reference architectures, technical patterns, and secure design guidance.
Strong understanding of cybersecurity concepts related to network security, application security, data protection, encryption, vulnerability management, logging, monitoring, and incident detection.
Experience assessing existing security architectures and developing recommendations for modernization or remediation.
Ability to translate cybersecurity policies and requirements into actionable architecture and engineering requirements.
Ability to communicate complex cybersecurity concepts to technical, program, and executive stakeholders.
Ability to collaborate effectively across cybersecurity, architecture, engineering, application development, cloud, infrastructure, and operations teams.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.
Professional cybersecurity or cloud certifications relevant to the role, such as CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, or cloud security/architecture certifications.
Experience designing cybersecurity architectures for large-scale federal or highly regulated enterprise environments.
Experience with federal cybersecurity frameworks, security controls, and risk management practices.
Experience developing and implementing enterprise Zero Trust transformation strategies and roadmaps.
Experience with ICAM, privileged access management, identity federation, multifactor authentication, and modern identity architectures.
Experience securing cloud-native technologies, including containers, Kubernetes, APIs, microservices, serverless technologies, and infrastructure-as-code environments.
Experience integrating cybersecurity capabilities into DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines.
Knowledge of security automation, continuous monitoring, security telemetry, vulnerability management, and threat detection architectures.
Experience facilitating architecture reviews, technical design reviews, security assessments, and architectural governance processes.
Experience developing current-state, transition-state, and target-state architectures and associated modernization roadmaps.
Demonstrated ability to establish security patterns and guardrails that enable engineering teams to implement secure solutions consistently and at scale.

Responsibilities

Lead the development and evolution of enterprise and solution-level cybersecurity architectures across cloud, hybrid, application, identity, data, network, and platform environments.
Define security architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, reusable security patterns, and technical guardrails that enable consistent implementation of security requirements across the enterprise.
Architect and support implementation of Zero Trust capabilities across identity, devices, networks, applications and workloads, and data.
Develop security architectures for cloud and hybrid environments, including identity, access controls, network segmentation, workload protection, data protection, encryption, logging, monitoring, and secure connectivity.
Define and evaluate identity and access management architectures, including authentication, authorization, privileged access, federation, identity lifecycle management, and role- and attribute-based access controls.
Assess existing cybersecurity systems, architectures, controls, and protocols to identify vulnerabilities, architectural gaps, technical debt, and opportunities for modernization.
Develop current-state and target-state security architectures and associated transition strategies to guide implementation and modernization efforts.
Establish reusable security architecture patterns for common technical scenarios, including cloud workloads, APIs, applications, containers, data services, identity services, external connectivity, and system integrations.
Integrate security requirements into enterprise architecture, solution architecture, application modernization, cloud adoption, and DevSecOps activities.
Provide cybersecurity architecture guidance during system design and engineering reviews to ensure solutions meet security requirements before implementation.
Collaborate with engineering and DevSecOps teams to incorporate security controls, automated security testing, vulnerability management, configuration management, and continuous monitoring into delivery pipelines.
Evaluate cybersecurity technologies and proposed solutions for architectural fit, security effectiveness, interoperability, scalability, and alignment with enterprise standards.
Define security boundaries, trust relationships, security zones, authentication and authorization flows, and secure interfaces between systems and services.
Support development of cybersecurity roadmaps and modernization initiatives that improve organizational security posture while reducing architectural complexity and security technical debt.
Provide senior-level technical leadership and cybersecurity subject matter expertise to program leadership, architects, engineers, developers, and security stakeholders.
Develop and maintain architecture documentation, technical diagrams, security patterns, design decisions, standards, and implementation guidance.
Support cybersecurity risk assessments and recommend appropriate architectural safeguards and risk mitigation strategies.
Ensure security architecture remains integrated with enterprise modernization initiatives and evolving mission and business requirements.