Cloud Security Engineer: Azure Defender & Policy Lead

Patient First; Glen Allen (VA); Hybrid; USD 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental and Vision insurance

Disability, Life and Long Term care

401(k) Employer Match

Paid Annual Leave

Holiday Pay

Job summary

Patient First is seeking a Security Engineer II to enhance operational security while strengthening cloud-native security across Azure and Microsoft 365 environments. You will handle security operations, vulnerability management, monitoring, auditing, firewall/EDR/SIEM support, and compliance reporting while shaping future-state governance and Azure Policy enforcement.

You will implement Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, and security baselines, and contribute to architecture reviews and

Qualifications

• At least three years in cybersecurity, security operations, cloud security, or hybrid infrastructure security.
• Experience with Azure security services and Defender for Cloud.
• Knowledge of RBAC and access control concepts.
• Understanding of vulnerability management, logging, incident response.
• Familiarity with Windows/Linux, networking, and SaaS/PaaS/IaaS security.
• Ability to communicate risk and remediation options clearly across audiences.
• Healthcare or regulated environments experience preferred.
• Security certifications such as Azure Security Engineer Associate or CISSP are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Implement Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, security baselines, and cloud posture recommendations.
• Configure RBAC, Conditional Access, privileged access, and identity governance for Azure and M365.
• Maintain centralized logging, alerting, and monitoring pipelines for cloud workloads and security investigations.
• Support security gates in deployment workflows, including policy validation and access reviews.
• Provide security input during architecture reviews and production readiness activities.
• Shift security left by embedding governance into design-time and pipelines.
• Standardize cloud security baselines and reduce manual validation.
• Translate security policies into Azure Policy, RBAC standards, and controls.
• Improve auditability with aligned monitoring, logging, and compliance reporting.
• Support firewall management, IDS/EDR, security monitoring, vulnerability management, and patch coordination.
• Investigate alerts, participate in incident response, and support threat hunting and risk analysis.
• Assist with security reviews for applications, vendors, and hybrid cloud implementations.
• Support HIPAA, PCI, access control, vulnerability remediation, and audit evidence efforts.
• Communicate risks and remediation recommendations to technical and business teams.

Skills

Cloud security knowledge

Vulnerability management

Incident response

Threat hunting

Security monitoring

Compliance reporting

RBAC and access control

Azure security concepts

Education

High School Diploma or Equivalent

Azure Security Engineer Associate

CISSP

Tools

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Azure Policy

Azure Sentinel

SIEM tools

EDR

Job description

Patient First is seeking a Security Engineer II to support operational security responsibilities while strengthening cloud-native security across Azure and Microsoft 365 environments. This role combines current security operations, vulnerability management, monitoring, auditing, firewall/EDR/SIEM support, and compliance reporting with future-state responsibilities for Azure Policy, Defender for Cloud, RBAC, Conditional Access, centralized logging, incident response, and cloud governance enforcement.

The responsibilities of this job include, but are not limited to the following:

• Implementing and maintaining Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, security baseline controls, and cloud posture recommendations;
• Configuring and supporting RBAC, Conditional Access, privileged access, and identity governance models for Azure and Microsoft 365;
• Maintaining centralized logging, alerting, and monitoring pipelines for cloud workloads and security investigations;
• Supporting security gates in deployment workflows, including policy validation, access review, and exception management;
• Providing security input during architecture reviews, workload intake, and production go-live readiness;
• Moving security from after-the-fact review into design-time and pipeline-integrated governance;
• Standardizing cloud security baselines and reducing dependency on manual security validation;
• Translating existing security policies into Azure Policy, RBAC standards, and operational control requirements;
• Improving auditability by aligning monitoring, logging, access review, and compliance reporting to cloud workloads;
• Supporting security operations including firewall management, IDS/IPS/EDR management, security monitoring, auditing, vulnerability management, and patch- related security coordination;
• Investigating alerts, participating in incident response, and supporting threat hunting, log review, and risk analysis activities;
• Assisting with security reviews for applications, systems, third-party vendors, and hybrid cloud implementations;
• Supporting compliance activities related to HIPAA, PCI, access control, vulnerability remediation, and audit evidence;
• Communicating security risks and remediation recommendations to technical teams and business stakeholders.

Minimum education and professional requirements include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Employee must be 18 years of age or older;
• High school diploma or equivalent;
• At least three years of experience in cybersecurity, security operations, cloud security, or hybrid infrastructure security roles;
• Experience with Azure security services, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sentinel or SIEM tools, identity, RBAC, and access control concepts;
• Understanding of vulnerability management, logging, alerting, incident response, and compliance evidence expectations;
• Working knowledge of hybrid environments including Windows/Linux systems, networking, firewalls, SaaS/PaaS/IaaS security, and Microsoft 365;
• Ability to communicate risk, remediation options, and control requirements clearly across technical and non-technical audiences;
• Experience in regulated, or compliance-driven environments; healthcare experience preferred;
• Knowledge of NIST, HIPAA, PCI, CIS, COBIT, or similar security frameworks;
• Azure Security Engineer Associate, CISSP, or comparable security certification;
• Experience with SIEM/SOAR, DLP, EDR, vulnerability scanning, and cloud security posture management tools.

Salary Range: $125,000 – $150,000 annually, depending on experience.

Benefits and Other Compensation:
• Health, Dental and Vision insurance for employees and dependents
• Disability, Life and Long Term care insurance
• Employee Assistance Program, Flexible Spending accounts, 401(k) Retirement Plan (with employer match)
• Paid Annual Leave, Volunteer Time Off Pay, Bereavement Leave, Emergency Leave Bank
• Holiday Pay
• Discounted medical treatment at any Patient First location for employees and immediate family
• Bonuses include:
– Recruitment bonus