Deputy Cybersecurity Program Manager

Excentium., Inc.; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Excentium, Inc. seeks a Deputy Program Manager (DPM) — Cybersecurity Services (ISSO Support) to lead RMF modernization efforts for a federal cybersecurity services program.

The role requires on-site presence in the Washington, DC metro area with potential travel, holding an active Secret clearance and PMP or equivalent PM credentials. The DPM will backstop the Program Manager, drive continuous monitoring/enhancement of RMF processes, and coordinate with CO/COR while mentoring a compliance team

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in a computing or cybersecurity-related field.
• Eight+ years of cybersecurity program management experience.
• PMP or equivalent project management certification.
• Active Secret clearance required.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the secondary point of contact for contractual, administrative, and performance matters.
• Provide leadership, resource planning, and coordination to meet deliverables and timelines.
• Interface with the Contracting Officer and COR to resolve issues and report status.
• Support staffing, risk management, and change-management processes.
• Deliver periodic status reports and ensure QA for all deliverables.
• Assist with transition-in/out activities and continuity of Key Personnel roles.
• Identify opportunities to improve RMF practices and introduce automation or DevSecOps where appropriate.

Skills

Project management

Cybersecurity

Clearance: Secret

Federal government experience

PMP certification

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or related field

Job description

Position Description

Deputy Program Manager — Cybersecurity Services (ISSO Support)

Excentium, Inc.

• Position Title: Deputy Program Manager (DPM) — Key Personnel
• Program / Contract: Cybersecurity Services Program (Information System Security Officer / ISSO Support)
• Client: Federal Government Agency
• Location: Contractor facility within the National Capital Region (NCR); on-site presence required at customer facilities in the Washington, DC metro area, with occasional travel to other domestic and/or overseas locations as required
• Clearance Required: Active Secret personnel security clearance, to be maintained throughout the period of performance
• Status: Key Personnel — full-time upon contract award; availability required within the timeframe specified by the awarded contract (commonly within 10 calendar days of award)

Position Summary

The Deputy Program Manager (DPM) serves as the secondary point of contact for all contractual, administrative, and performance matters on a federal cybersecurity services engagement providing Information System Security Officer (ISSO) support, standing ready to step into the Program Manager's (PM) role at any time to preserve continuity of leadership — and the mandate goes beyond steady-state compliance. We are looking for a cybersecurity leader who wants to help a federal customer genuinely modernize how it applies the Risk Management Framework (RMF): fully leveraging the customer's existing processes and investments, while identifying and recommending continuous monitoring and continuous authorization (cATO) models, streamlined Assessment and Authorization (A&A) processes, and automation or DevSecOps principles where appropriate, rather than simply maintaining the status quo. The DPM shares leadership of the effort alongside the PM, helps ensure deliverables and timelines are met, and interfaces with the customer's Contracting Officer (CO) and Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) — while also acting as a trusted advisor who brings forward‑looking RMF practice into that relationship. This is typically a Key Personnel position: the individual named for this role is often a stated basis for contract award and, once under contract, generally may not be removed, replaced, or substituted without prior written Contracting Officer approval.

Why This Role

This position is built for a thought leader, not a caretaker. Excentium is looking for someone who wants to help leave the customer's RMF program measurably better than they found it, with room to:

• Help shape the customer's RMF roadmap alongside the PM — leveraging what the customer already has in place and proposing better paths to authorization (continuous monitoring/cATO, control automation, RMF-as-code) where appropriate, rather than just executing a fixed scope of work.
• Get the most out of the customer's existing GRC and compliance tooling, and recommend modern tooling or automation where appropriate, to reduce the paperwork burden of traditional Assessment and Authorization work for the customer's own security staff.
• Represent Excentium's cybersecurity practice externally — through publications, conference presentations, professional associations, or agency working groups focused on RMF modernization, Zero Trust, and continuous authorization.
• Help build and mentor a high-performing ISSO/compliance team, elevating the program's practice and setting a standard other engagements can point to.
• Partner with Excentium's broader Cybersecurity Professional Services practice — including its FedRAMP 3PAO assessors and CMMC advisors — to bring cross-program innovation back into this engagement.
• Grow into the Program Manager role over time, with direct exposure to full contract accountability as the PM's designated backup.

Minimum Qualifications (Required)

Typical minimum qualifications for this labor category include:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• At least eight (8) years of experience in cybersecurity program management.
• A current Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent project management certification.
• A current Secret-level personnel security clearance.
• Experience with federal government cybersecurity requirements.
• Availability to begin within the timeframe specified at contract award.

Preferred / Distinguishing Qualifications

Candidates who stand out for this role typically also bring:

• A demonstrated track record of modernizing or streamlining an RMF/A&A program — e.g., leveraging and extending existing continuous monitoring or continuous authorization (cATO) practices, or recommending automation of control assessment/POA&M workflows or integration of security into CI/CD pipelines (DevSecOps) where appropriate.
• Visible thought leadership in the RMF/cybersecurity-compliance community: published articles or white papers, conference or webinar speaking engagements, active participation in NIST or industry working groups, or contributions to public RMF tooling or methodology.
• Experience getting the most out of a customer's existing GRC platforms and automation tooling, and recommending new tooling only where it clearly reduces manual compliance burden for both the contractor and customer teams.
• A history of building, mentoring, and retaining strong ISSO or cybersecurity compliance teams.
• A Master's degree in a related field, and readiness to assume full Program Manager responsibilities if called upon.

Key Responsibilities

Core responsibilities of this role typically include:

• Serve as the secondary point of contact for all contractual, administrative, and performance matters under the contract, standing in for the Program Manager as needed.
• Provide overall leadership, resource planning, and coordination to ensure deliverables and timelines are met.
• Interface directly with the Contracting Officer (CO) and Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) to resolve issues and report status.

In addition, consistent with standard program management expectations for this type of engagement, the DPM is expected to:

• Support the program's staffing plan, including recruitment, retention, and timely substitution of personnel consistent with Key Personnel requirements.
• Assist with risk identification, issue resolution, and change-management processes.
• Help prepare and deliver periodic status reports (activities, progress against milestones, performance metrics, risks, resource utilization, financial status).
• Support quality assurance and quality control for all deliverables prior to customer submission.
• Assist with transition-in and, at contract completion, transition-out activities, including knowledge transfer to a successor contractor.
• Help ensure continuity of Key Personnel roles and support prompt notice to the customer of any proposed change.
• Identify opportunities to get more value from the customer's existing RMF practice, and recommend continuous monitoring/authorization approaches, automation, or other process improvements where appropriate, building the business case to bring them to the customer's stakeholders.