Cybersecurity SME

Ignite IT; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k)

401(k) matching

Dental insurance

Flexible spending account

Health insurance

Life insurance

Paid time off

Professional development assistance

Referral program

Tuition reimbursement

Vision insurance

Job summary

Ignite IT is seeking a Subject Matter Expert (SME) Cybersecurity Architect to lead security architecture across enterprise solutions for a large federal modernization program. This hands-on role delivers implementable designs through review, implementation, and operations, not just policy setting.

Based in Washington, DC, this hybrid position requires U.S. citizenship and close collaboration with solution, data, cloud, network, and operations teams to embed security from the start.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in cybersecurity with security architecture leadership.
• Knowledge of federal RMF, controls, authorization, monitoring, zero trust, identity, network, cloud, data, and logging considerations.
• Ability to translate security requirements into implementable designs, reviews, mitigations, and risk decisions.
• Strong communication with engineers, architects, PMs, and government decision-makers.
• U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and assess security architectures, patterns, requirements, controls integration, trust boundaries, data flows, and identity/segmentation design.
• Design logging, resilience, and operational safeguards into solution architecture.
• Translate federal and agency security requirements into practical design decisions, implementation actions, and residual-risk statements.
• Participate in architecture reviews, governance, and risk-informed recommendations.
• Coordinate with stakeholders to embed security into design from the start.
• Produce implementable security designs, review findings, mitigations, and risk decisions.
• Communicate security decisions and residual risk clearly to engineers and Government stakeholders.
• Support incident and learning feedback into architecture improvements.

Skills

Cybersecurity leadership

Security architecture

Federal RMF

Communication

Identity & access

Zero Trust

Cloud security

Documentation

Job description

We are seeking a Subject Matter Expert (SME) Cybersecurity Architect to join our team supporting a large-scale federal modernization program. This role owns security architecture across enterprise solutions, platforms, networks, identity, mobility/endpoints, data, and cloud, bridging cybersecurity policy and controls with implementable designs, evidence, and risk decisions throughout the system lifecycle.

This is a hands‑on architecture role. You'll be expected to produce real security designs and see them through review, implementation, and operations, not just set policy from a distance.

This is a hybrid role based out of Washington, DC. Candidates must be U.S. citizens.

Key Responsibilities

• Security Architecture & Design
• Develop and assess security architectures, patterns, requirements, controls integration, trust boundaries, data flows, and identity and segmentation design
• Design logging, resilience, and operational safeguards into solution architecture
• Translate federal and agency security requirements into practical design decisions, implementation actions, and residual-risk statements
• Reviews & Governance
• Participate in architecture compliance, technical design, engineering, security, and phase‑gate reviews
• Evaluate proposed deviations and waivers, and provide risk‑informed recommendations for approval
• Maintain security architecture artifacts, review findings, decisions, and risks in approved repositories, with clear traceability
• Cross‑Domain Coordination
• Coordinate with solution, data, cloud/platform, network, identity, endpoint/mobility, and operations stakeholders to embed security into design from the start
• Identify design gaps, threats, vulnerabilities, technical debt, and noncompliance early in the lifecycle, and propose mitigation options
• Risk & Compliance
• Apply federal risk management framework and security control knowledge to real design decisions
• Support authorization evidence, implementation readiness, and post‑deployment validation as needed
• Produce implementable security designs, review findings, mitigations, and risk decisions that engineers can act on
• Communication & Advisory
• Communicate security architecture decisions, tradeoffs, and residual risk clearly to engineers, architects, program managers, and Government stakeholders
• Support incident and problem learning to feed back into architecture improvements

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in cybersecurity, including significant time in security architecture or enterprise technical leadership
• Working knowledge of federal risk management, security controls, authorization, continuous monitoring, zero trust, identity, network, endpoint, cloud, application, data, and logging considerations
• Ability to interpret security requirements and produce implementable designs, review findings, mitigations, and risk decisions
• Strong communication skills, with experience engaging engineers, architects, program managers, and Government decision-makers
• U.S. citizenship required

Nice to Have

• Direct federal, government, or mission‑critical system security architecture experience
• CISSP, CCSP, CISM, SABSA, GIAC, cloud security, or comparable security credentials
• Experience with NIST RMF/control families, zero trust, cloud security, identity, endpoint security, segmentation, logging/SIEM, and vulnerability management
• Experience documenting security architecture views in Sparx/Prolaborate or comparable architecture/modeling tools

Benefits

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance