Cybersecurity Operations & Architecture

National Basketball Association (NBA)•Secaucus, NJ

1d•$360,000 - $415,000

About The Position

The NBA is seeking a strategic, collaborative, and technically credible Vice President, Cybersecurity Operations & Architecture to lead the design, operation, and continuous improvement of cybersecurity capabilities across its global technology ecosystem. Reporting directly to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), this senior leader integrates enterprise security architecture with cyber defense, incident response, threat detection, and infrastructure protection. The Vice President establishes security architecture strategy, standards, roadmaps, and reference architectures and ensures these designs translate into sustainable operational controls, measurable detection coverage, effective response capabilities, and resilient technology services. The role partners across Cybersecurity, Enterprise Technology, Infrastructure, Engineering, Digital Products, Data & Analytics, Media Operations, Basketball Operations, Legal, Privacy, Compliance, NBA teams, arena operators, and external technology partners. A central focus is establishing and maintaining NBA arena cybersecurity standards and ensuring they are followed. This includes defining practical requirements, guiding assessments and remediation, and addressing security across arena IT, cloud-connected services, operational technology, building and display control systems, game and event technologies, broadcast dependencies, and third-party integrations. The role also leads cybersecurity operations and architecture teams, manages strategic partners and significant investments, and supports secure innovation and resilient business operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
15+ years of progressive experience across cybersecurity, technology operations, architecture, engineering, incident response, or related disciplines.
8+ years of leadership experience across enterprise security operations, cybersecurity architecture, cloud security, infrastructure security, or a comparable technical portfolio.
Demonstrated success leading complex cybersecurity capabilities in global, highly visible, or operationally demanding environments.
Experience developing enterprise architecture standards and operating security capabilities across cloud-native, hybrid, SaaS, application, infrastructure, identity, data, and operational technology environments.
Experience leading major cyber incidents, crisis coordination, executive communications, exercises, and post-incident improvement.
Demonstrated ability to establish standards, governance, assessment, and support models across distributed or independently operated environments.
Experience influencing enterprise-wide technology decisions and collaborating with executive leaders, engineers, operators, business stakeholders, legal teams, and external partners.
Experience managing leaders, multidisciplinary technical teams, strategic vendors, and significant cybersecurity investments.
Deep expertise in security operations, incident response, detection engineering, threat hunting, security architecture, cloud security, infrastructure security, identity, network security, and cyber resilience.
Strong understanding of modern enterprise and venue technology, including cloud services, network segmentation, remote access, SaaS, operational technology, telemetry, logging, endpoint protection, and third-party connectivity.
Ability to connect architecture decisions to operational outcomes such as visibility, detection quality, response speed, recoverability, reliability, and supportability.
Strong knowledge of AWS, Azure, hybrid-cloud environments, modern application architectures, data platforms, automation, and emerging technologies.
Working knowledge of generative AI security, AI governance, and evolving technology risks.
Expertise with NIST CSF, NIST guidance for operational technology, ISO 27001, CIS Controls, SOC 2, and related industry standards.
Exceptional leadership, collaboration, stakeholder management, negotiation, and executive communication skills.
Ability to lead through influence across complex, matrixed organizations and diverse external stakeholder groups.
Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to balance risk, operational needs, user experience, innovation, resilience, and cost.
Ability to remain composed, decisive, and clear during high-pressure incidents and high-visibility events.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
Venue, sports, media, entertainment, critical infrastructure, or large-event experience is strongly preferred.
One or more relevant certifications, such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, CCSP, SABSA, TOGAF, AWS or Azure security certifications, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute an integrated, multi-year cybersecurity operations and architecture strategy aligned with business priorities, technology roadmaps, risk tolerance, and the threat landscape.
Lead and mature the Cybersecurity Operations and Cybersecurity Architecture functions, establishing accountability, decision rights, service models, performance expectations, and escalation paths.
Advise the CISO and senior technology leadership on cyber risk, resilience, major technology investments, crisis readiness, and strategic security priorities.
Translate strategy into funded roadmaps, measurable outcomes, workforce plans, vendor strategies, and prioritized improvement initiatives; promote shared ownership of cybersecurity across technology and business initiatives.
Establish and maintain enterprise cybersecurity architecture strategy, roadmaps, standards, design patterns, and reference architectures.
Lead security architecture reviews for major technology initiatives, balancing risk, operational realities, resilience, performance, cost, and business objectives.
Develop reference architectures for cloud services, applications, infrastructure, identity, data platforms, media operations, arena technologies, operational technology, on-premises data centers, and third-party integrations.
Ensure security requirements are incorporated into technology planning, procurement, design, development, deployment, and lifecycle management.
Provide architectural leadership for identity and access management, network segmentation, zero trust, encryption, logging, monitoring, cyber resilience, data protection, and secure connectivity; represent cybersecurity in architecture and technology governance forums.
Lead security operations, including continuous monitoring, threat detection and hunting, incident triage, containment, investigation, recovery coordination, and post-incident improvement.
Define operating models for SIEM, detection engineering, automation, orchestration, case management, and operational metrics.
Improve security visibility across cloud, hybrid, on-premises, endpoint, identity, application, office, data center, arena, game, event, and broadcast environments.
Establish incident response roles, severity criteria, escalation protocols, executive communications, evidence-handling expectations, and coordination with Legal, Privacy, Communications, business continuity, and external partners.
Lead cyber readiness planning and support for major games, broadcasts, events, and other high-visibility operations, including tabletop exercises and scenario-based testing.
Drive continuous improvement through after-action reviews, lessons learned, control validation, and remediation tracking.
Partner with Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure, Enterprise Technology, and product teams to define and implement security standards across cloud, hybrid, SaaS, and on-premises environments.
Guide secure design and operation of centralized logging, cloud-native monitoring, network telemetry, packet visibility, endpoint and identity protection, deception capabilities, and infrastructure detection and response.
Oversee security design and operational support across regional offices, data centers, global deployments, and critical enterprise platforms; work with platform owners to reduce control gaps, technical debt, unsupported configurations, and inconsistent implementations.
Own the development, maintenance, approval, and communication of NBA arena cybersecurity standards and minimum requirements.
Define arena requirements for network segmentation, remote access, identity, logging, monitoring, vulnerability management, incident response, resilience, and third-party connectivity, including requirements for arena IT, operational technology, building automation, display controls, game and event technologies, broadcast-related systems, and physical security technology integrations.
Establish security roles and responsibilities among the league office, teams, arena operators, technology providers, and service partners.
Lead or oversee arena assessments, control validation, risk reviews, penetration testing strategy, remediation prioritization, exception management, and executive reporting.
Partner with teams and arena technology leaders on venue-specific secure designs while maintaining consistent minimum standards and league-wide visibility.
Create a scalable arena support model for onboarding, architectural consultation, implementation assistance, operational troubleshooting, incident escalation, and continuous improvement.
Coordinate cyber readiness for games and events, including exercises, communications, dependency mapping, and recovery expectations for critical arena services.
Prioritize remediation and investment using risk, threat, asset criticality, exploitability, and business impact; partner with application security, engineering, infrastructure, and third parties to drive sustainable remediation.
Ensure detection and prevention controls are regularly tested against relevant threat scenarios and adjusted based on results.
Assist in enabling secure adoption of generative AI, machine learning, automation, and emerging technologies through architecture standards, operational controls, and risk-based governance.
Partner with technology, data, product, Legal, Privacy, and business teams on model governance, data protection, third-party AI services, secure development, monitoring, and evolving threats.
Evaluate and implement cybersecurity technologies and automation that improve operational speed, scale, visibility, analytical quality, and effectiveness while balancing security, compliance, resilience, and budget considerations.
Assist in aligning architecture and operations with NBA policies, contractual requirements, and recognized frameworks, including ISO 27001, CIS Controls, and SOC 2.
Partner with Governance, Risk & Compliance, Legal, Privacy, Internal Audit, and Enterprise Technology to assess risk, document decisions, manage exceptions, and sustain controls.
Develop executive metrics and dashboards covering operational effectiveness, detection and response maturity, architecture adoption, arena compliance, remediation, risk reduction, resilience, and strategic outcomes.
Maintain current, usable, and auditable operating procedures, architecture standards, incident playbooks, and technical documentation; provide fact-based reporting to executive leadership and governance bodies.
Build trusted business and technology relationships and translate cyber risks into actionable recommendations; influence enterprise technology decisions through risk analysis, operational evidence, and architectural guidance.
Oversee strategic security partners, managed services, and technology vendors, including service quality, accountability, roadmap alignment, risk, and value realization.
Develop and manage operating and capital plans for the operations and architecture portfolio, balancing risk reduction, resilience, innovation, and cost effectiveness.
Coordinate with external partners, venues, teams, and service providers during incidents, assessments, exercises, and technology changes.
Lead, mentor, and develop cybersecurity leaders, architects, engineers, analysts, incident responders, and technical specialists.
Foster collaboration, inclusion, accountability, sound judgment, operational discipline, innovation, and continuous improvement; establish succession plans, role clarity, development pathways, and training priorities.
Promote effective partnerships across Cybersecurity, Engineering, Infrastructure, Product, Data, Media, Basketball Operations, teams, and arena stakeholders; attract and retain talent and supplement internal capabilities with external expertise.

Benefits

Annual discretionary performance bonus, awarded at the Company’s sole discretion and subject to Company terms and conditions.
Medical benefits.
Dental insurance.
Vision insurance.
Life/AD&D insurance.
Short- and long-term disability coverage.
Fertility and family-forming assistance.
Wellbeing allowance.
Educational assistance.
Mental health coaching/therapy.
Tax-advantaged accounts, including HSA and healthcare/dependent care FSAs.
401(k) retirement plan.
Vacation, sick time, and personal days.