Cloud, Application Governance, and Transition Consultant

DESCRIPTION:

Key Responsibilities:

1. Transition and Access Reclamation

• Lead the coordinated transfer of administrative access, accounts, credentials, repositories, infrastructure, and related technical assets from the outgoing vendor to Agency control.
• Conduct a comprehensive audit of current access privileges, role assignments, authentication mechanisms, service accounts, and administrative controls.
• Ensure all critical environments including cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, source code repositories, and operational consoles are configured so that the Agency holds ultimate administrative authority.

1. Governance and Control Framework Establishment

• Develop and implement standardized procedures for access management, version control, release management, and operational governance.
• Establish role-based access controls (RBAC) that comply with Agency security and compliance requirements.
• Create and document processes for onboarding/offboarding vendor personnel, including access requests, approval workflows, and periodic access reviews.

1. Vendor Transition Oversight

• Serve as the Agency s technical liaison during the transition to the incoming application support vendor.
• Validate that the incoming vendor receives appropriate but not excessive access consistent with the Agency s security policies.
• Monitor and verify the outgoing vendor s deprovisioning from all systems and environments.

1. Risk Mitigation and Security Assurance

• Identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and operational risks resulting from legacy vendor-controlled practices.
• Recommend and help implement remediation measures, such as rotating long-lived credentials, enforcing MFA, establishing logging and auditing practices, and improving environment segmentation.
• Ensure that all changes align with Agency cybersecurity standards and best practices.

1. Documentation and Knowledge Restoration

• Reconstruct, update, and produce technical and operational documentation to re-establish institutional knowledge.
• Document architecture, workflows, administrative procedures, and application lifecycle processes to support continuity and future oversight.
• Provide briefings, reports, and knowledge transfer sessions to Agency IT and leadership as required.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience managing or supporting transitions of complex, mission-critical applications between vendors or organizational units.
• Proven background in application governance, access control management, cloud infrastructure administration (AWS preferred), and secure DevOps/DevSecOps practices.
• Experience working within or supporting public-sector agencies or regulated environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise security frameworks, least-privilege principles, and operational risk management.
• Ability to coordinate across multiple stakeholders, including technical teams, IT security, business owners, and vendor personnel.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to prepare clear documentation, reports, and status updates suitable for executive audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security Agency s mission, organizational structure, and operational workflows relevant to the supported application.
• Prior experience working with or supporting the ReEmployMS program area for which the application was developed.
• Knowledge of the historical development, scope, and functional requirements of the application and its stakeholder community
• Experience ensuring appropriate balance between vendor access and Agency oversight.

Additional Expectations

• Uphold strict confidentiality and security protocols.
• Provide objective, Agency-first recommendations throughout the transition effort.
• Ensure that all governance structures implemented are sustainable and can be maintained by Agency staff after contract completion.