System Owner-Boundary Compliance Owner - US Federal

Workday•Reston, VA

2d•$144,500 - $216,700•Hybrid

About The Position

This role will support one or more direct or indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which, due to federal government security requirements, mandates that all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native). As the system owner for our federal information system, you will be responsible for the lifecycle of our information systems. This is a high-impact role that will provide cross-functional ownership, stewardship, and focus for our compliance boundaries (e.g., Fedramp Moderate, IL4, Top Secret). While individual teams will focus on their respective functions (Security Operations, GRC, Engineering) this role will span all teams and boundaries and act as a focal point for the Federal business. The boundary's scope is wide-ranging, covering security, system health, compliance risks, cost/unit economics, incident/on-call trends, and future roadmaps (e.g., AI/ML capabilities or SKUs). To effectively address these complex issues, the System Owner must engage and coordinate the appropriate cross-functional experts from Security, Engineering, Product, Finance, and GRC. You will own the long-term trajectory, risk posture, and architectural runway of your assigned boundary, ensuring it is secure, efficient, and ready for future demands.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in Security Engineering, Security Architecture, or a Compliance-focused role within a cloud or SaaS environment.
5+ years of direct experience with U.S. Government compliance frameworks such as FedRAMP (Moderate/High), DoD IL4/IL5/IL6, NIST RMF, or ICD-503.
Proven ability to own and drive large-scale, multi-year architectural and security roadmaps for a single, complex system.
Deep understanding of cloud architecture AWS, Azure, GCP and how security controls are implemented at scale.
Experience integrating future technologies (e.g., AI/ML systems) into regulated, high-security environments.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate complex, multi-faceted technical risk across all domains (architecture, operations, cost) to executive leadership.
Must be a United States citizen (naturalized or native).

Responsibilities

Serve as the single point of accountability for the overall health and compliance status of the assigned boundary.
Identify, document, and socialize systemic, long-term risks related to architecture, technical debt, and control decay within your specific boundary.
Define and monitor long-term health metrics for the boundary, integrating data from SOC rules, Vulnerability Management, Incident Response, and Configuration Management to assess overall systemic risk.
Ensure all compliance controls relevant to the boundary (e.g., NIST 800-53 controls) are implemented, continuously monitored, and architecturally sustainable.
Track, prioritize and raise exceptions for the creation, maintenance, and audit readiness of all necessary compliance artifacts for the assigned boundary (e.g., System Security Plan (SSP), POA&Ms, Control Implementation Details).
Proactively assess the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) features, machine learning models, and new Product SKUs coming into the environment. Define the necessary architectural modifications and compliance controls to safely and securely integrate these future capabilities into the boundary.
Own the strategic direction for reducing the long-term vulnerability surface area within the boundary, guiding functional teams on architectural dependencies and risk prioritization unique to your system.
Collaborate with the Engineering team to analyze and optimize cloud infrastructure costs within the boundary, ensuring security requirements are met in the most fiscally responsible manner.
Interface with core Workday engineering and product teams as well as Security teams to ensure base product capabilities are designed to be compliant and deployable within your restricted government environment.