Certified Cloud Architect

MARS Solutions Group is looking for a User Experience Cloud Security Architect. Our client is a (Technology/Financial Services) industry leader looking for high-quality talent to make a difference. They are known to respect a traditional work week and often extend contracts for added job security and stability.

Interview Process: Virtual via Teams with the CISO

Onsite or Remote? Candidate MUST be a WI resident or willing to relocate to WI prior to starting the role at their own expense. This position can work 100% remote with occasional onsite visits 1-2 times required throughout the duration of the contract.

Top Required Skills & Years of Experience:

Must be able to demonstrate prior experience doing the following in a large/complex environment:

• Proven experience serving as a trusted technical advisor to CISOs, CIOs, or senior executive leaders within public sector or heavily federated enterprise environments.
• Documented success as a technical mentor, trainer, or engineering lead focused on pair-engineering and technical upskilling of infrastructure and security operations staff.
• Comprehensive expertise operationalizing security controls, including tiering models, compensating control validation, and time bound risk governance structures.
• Enterprise cyber stack Google Threat Intel or VirusTotal, Google SecOps, Mandiant ASM, Tenable.io, Microsoft Azure Arc, GitHub, GitHub Advanced Security, Ansible Tower, and Gemini/Anthropic AI security frameworks.
• loud Architecture & DevSecOps Engineering

Nice to have Skills:

• Federated/Government environment
• Tech Stack to include: Google, Microsoft, AWS, Splunk

Objective: To build long-term internal capabilities while operationalizing and enforcing the State's newly updated Flaw Remediation (SI-2) Standard. This initiative transitions the State from reactive, manual vulnerability management to an AI-accelerated, continuous authorization, and automated DevSecOps posture.

1. Scope

The consultant shall perform hands-on engineering, deliver strategic CISO advisory, and provide direct mentoring across the following core operational pillars:

2.1 CISO Strategic Advisory and Engineering

• Act as a direct technical advisor to the CISO, translating federal mandates, emerging AI threat models, and architectural gaps into actionable enterprise security directives.
• Execute a hands-on knowledge transfer model, co-engineering data pipelines and security automation alongside internal DET staff to institutionalize elite technical skills.
• Deliver real time training and co-develop automation playbooks within the security operations (SecOps) using live demonstration approach.

2.2 Flaw Remediation (SI-2) Standard Operationalization

• Tier Optimization & Enforcement: Architect automated tracking, logging, and validation mechanisms to implement compliance with the State's updated SI-2 timeframes:
  • Tier 1 (Highest Urgency): Ensure all public-facing vulnerabilities, CISA KEV listings, active exploits, and identity/privileged system flaws implement approved mitigations or compensating controls within 24 hours, with full remediation closed inside 7 calendar days.
  • Tier 2 (High-Risk/Internal): Configure alerting and metric reporting to validate mitigation within 48 hours and full remediation within 15 calendar days.
  • Tier 3 (Moderate/Low): Establish repeatable monthly scheduling to ensure remediation within 30 calendar days.
• Clean Deployment Architectures: Partner with agency development teams to pivot away from manual, in-place patching. Author and implement automated templates for clean deployments using virtualized system images, containers, and cloud-native configurations.
• DevSecOps Integration: Embed secure builds, automated software testing, code scanning, and dependency updates natively into agency deployment pipelines.

2.3 AI Capability Deployment & Toolchain Integration

• Operationalize Gemini Government and Google Codemender or equivalent directly inside active workflows, showing security analysts and application developers how to leverage generative AI to automate log parsing, threat hunting, and source-code remediation.
• Engineer automated data pipelines to feed the centralized enterprise platform (incorporating telemetry from Tenable.io, Google Mandiant ASM, Microsoft Azure Arc, Splunk, and Google SecOps) to maintain a single, authoritative pane of glass.
• Ensure all AI-assisted capabilities comply strictly with State privacy, data classification, and logging safeguards, preventing non-public vulnerability metrics from leaking into unvetted environments.

2.4 Governance Safeguards & Escalation Automation

• Build automated low-code workflows to manage the SI-2 time-bound exception lifecycle, ensuring every granted exception maps back to a named owner, specific compensating controls, and an explicit financial tiedown capturing technical debt.
• Configure automated alert thresholds and workflow routing for significant business risks that exceed normal management tolerance, ensuring rapid escalation in line with the SI-2 update.

3. Project Timeline

Project	Description	Target Schedule
1: SI-2 Baseline & Architecture Alignment	Mapping of all automated data feeds (Tenable, Mandiant, Azure Arc) into the single authoritative platform, aligned to track Tier 1, 2, and 3 findings.	Day 30
2: Co-Engineered AI Playbooks	Delivery of production-ready LLM and Frontier Cyber model runbooks and prompt libraries, co-developed with internal staff via hands-on mentoring.	Day 45
3: Automated Exception & Escalation Engine	Implementation of automated workflow paths for time-bound exceptions, financial tiedowns, and high-risk executive escalation paths.	Day 60
4: DevSecOps Clean Deployment Framework	Standardization of approved repository templates and CI/CD security gate controls to enforce clean deployment preferences.	Day 75
5: Knowledge Transfer & Sustainment Hand-off	Final technical transition briefing, configuration documentation, and validation logs proving internal staff autonomy in sustaining the SI-2 operational baseline.	Day 90 365 (Ongoing)

4. Minimum Qualifications and Core Competencies

The designated expert must demonstrate a unique blend of strategic advisory presence and deep, practical engineering capability:

• Executive Advisory: Proven experience serving as a trusted technical advisor to CISOs, CIOs, or senior executive leaders within public sector or heavily federated enterprise environments.
• Teach-by-Doing Expertise: Documented success as a technical mentor, trainer, or engineering lead focused on pair-engineering and technical upskilling of infrastructure and security operations staff.
• Security Control Mastery (SI-2): Comprehensive expertise operationalizing security controls, including tiering models, compensating control validation, and time bound risk governance structures.
• Advanced Tooling Fluency: enterprise cyber stack Google Threat Intel or VirusTotal, Google SecOps, Mandiant ASM, Tenable.io, Microsoft Azure Arc, GitHub, GitHub Advanced Security, Ansible Tower, and Gemini/Anthropic AI security frameworks.
• Cloud Architecture & DevSecOps Engineering

5. Performance Monitoring & Safeguards

• Knowledge Transfer Auditing: Progress will be measured not only by technical deployment velocity but also by the documented proficiency gains of internal DET staff who assume ownership of the deployed tools.
• Data Isolation Guardrails: The consultant is strictly forbidden from utilizing public or unvetted commercial AI models for analyzing State code, logs, or asset data. All engineering must occur exclusively within authorized, state-managed enterprise security instances.

About MARS Solutions Group:
MARS Solutions Group provides a range of opportunities for meaningful work by understanding that employment fit is a combination of people, process, and technology. We leverage our experienced and compassionate team to bring humanity to matching you with the right advanced technology role, and stay connected with you to help you attain your professional goals.