Novacoast is supporting a retail industry client in the search for a Senior Security Engineer / Architect with proven experience delivering security outcomes across Application Security, Security Engineering, Security Operations, and Governance/Risk/Compliance (GRC). This role requires a senior practitioner who has operated within a mature enterprise security program spanning both on-premises and cloud environments.

This is a hands-on engineering and architecture role—not policy-only, not SOC-only, and not limited to a single domain. The ideal candidate understands how enterprise defenses operate as an integrated system, can engineer and improve controls at scale, and can work cross-functionally to support security across infrastructure, cloud, applications, and business teams.

This position is contract-based (Temp) with hybrid flexibility. While being on-site 2 days per week in Monrovia is strongly preferred, fully remote candidates will be considered.

Key Responsibilities

Identity & Access Management (IAM) / Zero Trust

• Architect and refine identity security controls across Azure AD/Entra, Okta, or equivalent platforms.
• Implement Conditional Access, MFA, SSO, SCIM, SAML/OAuth/OIDC, and identity lifecycle automation.
• Support Zero Trust access models and privileged access frameworks.

Endpoint Security & Hardening

• Engineer and tune EDR platforms (Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Carbon Black).
• Develop secure configuration baselines, OS hardening standards, and endpoint protection controls.
• Lead investigations of endpoint alerts, malware activity, privilege misuse, and behavioral detections.

Network & Perimeter Security

• Architect and support policies for firewalls, IDS/IPS, VPN, proxy layers, and network segmentation.
• Perform packet inspection, traffic analysis, and secure network design reviews.
• Partner with Infrastructure teams to implement perimeter and internal defense-in-depth strategies.

Security Operations & SIEM Engineering

• Lead engineering and tuning of SIEM platforms (Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar, LogRhythm).
• Develop detection rules, correlation logic, dashboards, and data ingestion pipelines.
• Contribute to incident response: triage, containment, eradication, forensics coordination, and RCA.

Application Security (AppSec)

• Support secure SDLC practices, including SAST, DAST, SCA, threat modeling, and dependency analysis.
• Perform code-level or design-level security review with development teams.
• Collaborate with DevOps/Engineering to secure CI/CD pipelines and application architectures.

Vulnerability & Risk Management

• Operate enterprise vulnerability tools (Tenable, Qualys, Nessus, Rapid7).
• Prioritize and track vulnerabilities with system owners; ensure remediation against SLAs.
• Support risk assessments, gap analyses, and control effectiveness evaluations across systems.

Security Engineering & Architecture

• Define and implement secure configurations, baselines, logging standards, and control patterns across cloud and on-prem systems.
• Evaluate and improve current-state architecture across identity, access, network, compute, cloud, and application layers.
• Drive cross-domain initiatives to mature the enterprise security program.

Cloud Security (Azure / AWS / Google Cloud Platform)

• Architect and enforce cloud security controls, including IAM, network security, workload protections, encryption, monitoring, and compliance frameworks.
• Review cloud logs, alerts, identity events, and misconfigurations.

Automation, Scripting & Integration

• Leverage scripting languages (PowerShell, Bash, Python) to automate workflows and integrate tooling.
• Build API-based automations for reporting, threat visibility, and enforcement of controls.
• Enhance operational efficiency through orchestration and repeatable processes.

GRC & Cross-Functional Security Support

• Support organizational alignment with frameworks such as NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, CIS, and PCI.
• Develop or contribute to security documentation, including standards, baselines, playbooks, and architectural diagrams.
• Partner with IT, Cloud, Application, and Infrastructure teams to implement and validate controls.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on experience across multiple cybersecurity domains, including:
  • Identity & Access Management
  • Endpoint/EDR Security
  • Network & Perimeter Security
  • Application Security
  • Cloud Security
  • Security Operations / SIEM
  • Vulnerability Management
  • Security Engineering & Architecture
  • GRC & Risk Management
• Proven experience supporting or architecting security solutions within an enterprise environment (on-prem + cloud).
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust principles, enterprise security architecture, and modern defense models.
• Experience supporting incident response at an engineering and/or architectural level.
• Strong communication, documentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Preferred Tools & Technologies

• EDR: Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Carbon Black
• SIEM: Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, LogRhythm, QRadar
• Vulnerability Management: Tenable, Qualys, Nessus, Rapid7
• Identity: Azure AD/Entra, Okta, SAML/OAuth/SCIM
• Email Security: Proofpoint, Defender for O365
• Cloud: Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform
• Scripting: PowerShell, Bash, Python
• AppSec: SAST/DAST/SCA tools (e.g., Checkmarx, Veracode, SonarQube)

Other Requirements

• Hybrid availability (2 days on-site)** strongly preferred**; fully remote considered.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Strong ownership of tasks, with the ability to function independently as a senior contributor.