Cybersecurity Operations & Architecture

National Basketball Association•Secaucus, NJ

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The National Basketball Association (NBA) seeks 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 will integrate enterprise security architecture with cyber defense, incident response, threat detection, and infrastructure protection. The Vice President will establish security architecture strategy, standards, roadmaps, and reference architectures and ensure they 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 and analytics, media operations, basketball operations, legal, privacy, compliance, NBA teams, arena operators, and external technology partners. A core focus is setting and maintaining NBA arena cybersecurity standards and ensuring adherence. This includes practical, enforceable requirements and assessments addressing arena IT, cloud-connected services, operational technology, building and display control systems, game and event technologies, broadcast dependencies, and third-party integrations. The position leads cybersecurity operations and architecture teams, sets operating models and performance expectations, advises senior leadership on risk and resilience, and develops roadmaps, workforce plans, vendor strategies, and investment plans. It oversees security architecture reviews and standards across cloud, applications, infrastructure, identity, data, media, arenas, operational technology, data centers, and third-party integrations. It also leads monitoring, detection, threat hunting, incident response, readiness for major games and events, cloud and infrastructure security, arena assessments and remediation, threat and control validation, emerging-technology security, governance, metrics, vendor management, and organizational development. The role supports secure adoption of generative AI and other emerging technologies, aligns architecture and operations with NBA policies and applicable standards, and communicates operational effectiveness and risk to executive leadership. The Vice President leads and develops cybersecurity leaders and technical teams while building collaboration, accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement across the organization. The NBA describes this role as a strategic and operational bridge between secure design, effective cyber defense, business enablement, and resilience. The position helps protect enterprise platforms, global offices, digital products, sensitive data, games, broadcasts, events, and arena technology while enabling innovation and confident 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 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 enterprise and venue technology environments, including cloud services, network segmentation, remote access, SaaS, operational technology, telemetry, logging, endpoint protection, and third-party connectivity.
Ability to connect architecture decisions with 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.
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 and 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.
Experience establishing standards, governance, assessment, and support models across distributed or independently operated environments.
Venue, sports, media, entertainment, critical infrastructure, or large-event experience.
Working knowledge of generative AI security, AI governance, and evolving technology risk landscapes.
One or more relevant certifications, such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, CCSP, SABSA, TOGAF, or 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 Cybersecurity Operations and Cybersecurity Architecture, establishing accountability, decision rights, service models, performance expectations, and escalation paths.
Advise the CISO and senior technology leaders on cyber risk, resilience, major technology investments, crisis readiness, and security priorities.
Translate strategy into funded roadmaps, measurable outcomes, workforce plans, vendor strategies, and prioritized improvements.
Establish and maintain enterprise cybersecurity architecture strategy, standards, design patterns, roadmaps, and reference architectures.
Lead security architecture reviews for major technology initiatives and provide practical guidance balancing risk, operational needs, resilience, performance, cost, and business objectives.
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 resiliency, data protection, and secure connectivity.
Lead security operations, including continuous monitoring, threat detection, threat hunting, triage, containment, investigation, recovery coordination, and post-incident improvement.
Define the operating model for security information and event management, 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, and coordination with relevant internal and external partners.
Lead cyber readiness planning and support for major events, games, and broadcasts, including tabletop exercises and scenario-based testing.
Drive continuous improvement through after-action reviews, lessons learned, control validation, and remediation tracking.
Partner with cloud, 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 logging, cloud 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.
Develop, maintain, approve, and communicate NBA arena cybersecurity standards and minimum requirements.
Define requirements for arena IT and operational technology, including building automation, display control, game and event technologies, broadcast-related systems, physical security integrations, and other connected arena systems.
Establish security roles and responsibilities among the league office, teams, arena operators, technology providers, and service partners.
Lead or oversee arena cybersecurity assessments, control validation, risk reviews, penetration-testing strategy, remediation prioritization, exception management, and executive reporting.
Create a scalable arena support model for onboarding, architecture consultation, implementation assistance, 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.
Use risk, threat, asset criticality, exploitability, and business impact to prioritize remediation and investment decisions.
Ensure prevention and detection controls are tested against relevant threat scenarios and adjusted based on results.
Support secure adoption of generative AI, machine learning, automation, and emerging technologies through architecture standards, operational controls, and risk-based governance.
Partner 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.
Align architecture and operations with NBA policies, contractual requirements, and recognized frameworks; partner with risk, legal, privacy, audit, and technology teams 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.
Keep operational procedures, architecture standards, incident playbooks, and technical documentation current, usable, and auditable, and provide fact-based governance reporting.
Build business and technology partnerships and translate cyber risks into actionable recommendations.
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.
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.
Establish succession plans, role clarity, development pathways, and training priorities; attract and retain talent and supplement internal capabilities with external expertise.

Benefits

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