Zero Trust Application Advisor

Pueo Business Solutions LLC•McLean, VA

About The Position

The Zero Trust Application Advisor serves as a principal technical liaison, application domain expert, and technical advisor supporting the CIO’s Zero Trust Program and the wider Defense Intelligence Enterprise. The Advisor guides application owners through Zero Trust functional requirements and pre-accreditation readiness, explaining the security intent behind requirements and what applications must do before formal accreditation and onboarding to the JWICS network. The Advisor reviews application architectures and related artifacts, identifies gaps, translates Zero Trust objectives into developer-ready functional guidance, and recommends architectural alternatives or mitigations. The role facilitates technical collaboration among application teams and enterprise stakeholders, but does not govern applications, dictate schedules or implementation methods, select technologies, write code or scripts, or implement solutions. Those responsibilities remain with the application teams. The role focuses on application and workload security, including workload identity and attestation, mutual TLS, API security, least privilege, continuous verification, secure delivery, and integration with enterprise identity, posture, data protection, network segmentation, and telemetry services. The position requires substantial experience in federal, DoD, or Intelligence Community environments, along with an active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility and the ability to pass a Counterintelligence Polygraph examination.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline for Senior level; Master’s degree in one of these fields or a related technical discipline for Expert level.
12+ years in enterprise cybersecurity, application architecture, systems engineering, or technical advisory roles in federal, DoD, or IC environments.
5+ years of prior software development, application engineering, DevSecOps, or software architecture experience supporting design reviews and developer guidance.
3+ years advising on Zero Trust, ICAM integration, secure APIs, micro-segmentation, or application readiness for classified or enterprise federal networks.
Demonstrated success leading technical engagements, building developer buy-in, and guiding multiple teams through technical requirements.
Knowledge of Zero Trust principles and federal guidance, including NIST SP 800-207, OMB M-22-09, DoD Zero Trust Strategy and Reference Architecture, and the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model.
Knowledge of application architecture and development concepts, including microservices, containers, APIs, and cloud/hybrid patterns; JWICS and IC/DoD compliance requirements, including NIST SP 800-37/800-53 and ICD 503.
Knowledge of identity and cryptography, including PKI, certificate authentication, mTLS, OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, and non-person entity credentials.
Ability to evaluate application designs, explain compliance expectations, and recommend practical architectural alternatives or compensating controls.
Ability to translate mandates into functional requirements, acceptance criteria, checklists, and clear technical guidance, and facilitate consensus among developers, owners, and leadership.
Ability to guide and influence teams without controlling implementation or schedules, and explain security intent to technical and program audiences.
Ability to identify architecture, legacy-system, and protocol gaps early while coordinating numerous concurrent pre-accreditation engagements.
Current/Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.
Ability to pass a Counterintelligence (CI) Polygraph examination.

Nice To Haves

CISSP, CSSLP, CASP+ CE, CCZT, or CASS certification.
AWS Solutions Architect or Security Specialty, Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert (SC-100), CKA/CKS, or Red Hat OpenShift credentials.

Responsibilities

Guide application owners through pre-accreditation readiness, mandatory functional criteria, compliance evidence, and submission gates.
Review architectures, data flows, API specifications, interfaces, and identity integrations against CIO-issued Zero Trust requirements, the DoD Zero Trust Reference Architecture, and Intelligence Community security baselines; document gaps and actionable advisory findings.
Translate Zero Trust objectives into developer-ready functional requirements, acceptance criteria, and checklists covering workload identity, mTLS, API security, least privilege, and continuous verification.
Recommend architectural alternatives, interim mitigations, compensating controls, and technical workarounds for legacy, proprietary, or third-party constraints without implementing changes.
Build relationships with application owners, developers, architects, and program managers; facilitate technical exchanges, workshops, and readiness reviews; resolve integration challenges and connect delivery teams with enterprise cyber leadership.
Coordinate alignment with enterprise identity, device and workload posture, data tagging and protection, network segmentation, and telemetry/SIEM services; advise on common controls and inherited capabilities to reduce RMF/ATO preparation burden.
Escalate persistent architecture bottlenecks, ambiguous requirements, and unresolved integration risks to senior Zero Trust architects and program leadership with recommended actions.
Advise on workload identity and attestation, mTLS, secure credentials, PBAC/ABAC, and continuous request/API verification.
Advise on API gateway integration, token and schema validation, rate limiting, and secure REST/gRPC exchanges across JWICS enclaves.
Address secure delivery considerations, including DevSecOps security checks, vulnerability mitigation, and software-component transparency for JWICS readiness.