Principal Consultant - Cyber Security Architect

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.

The Principal Consultant: Secure Architecture Team Lead is a hands-on delivery leader and team manager who owns AHEAD's Zero Trust consulting capability and contributes technical architecture expertise to adjacent security offerings. This is not a single-domain specialist role. You will lead complex, cross-pillar security assessments and strategy engagements that span Identity, Device, Network, Applications and Workloads, and Data, using frameworks such as the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model 2.0 to deliver evidence-based evaluations, maturity scoring, gap analysis, and prioritized roadmaps that clients can actually execute.

Beyond delivery, you are the connective tissue between AHEAD's Security practice and the broader organization. You will scope and solution multi-disciplinary engagements, coordinate specialist SMEs from across AHEAD's practices, close business alongside sales, and continuously mature the Zero Trust service portfolio. As AHEAD's service portfolio evolves, this role will also provide technical architecture and standards expertise to adjacent capabilities, including AI Security Governance, where the GRC team needs hands-on security architecture support to translate governance frameworks into implementable controls. You will also directly manage and develop a small team of consultants, setting quality standards and building bench depth in Zero Trust delivery.

This role requires someone who can credibly operate at the executive level with CISOs and CIOs, then turn around and lead a technical workshop on micro-segmentation, identity governance, or data classification with the same fluency. Depth in at least two Zero Trust pillars is expected; working knowledge across all five is required.

Core Responsibilities...

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of cybersecurity experience, with at least 5 years in a consulting or professional services delivery role.
• Demonstrated depth in at least two CISA Zero Trust pillars (Identity, Devices, Networks, Applications and Workloads, Data) with practical, working knowledge across all five.
• Hands-on experience leading Zero Trust assessments, security architecture reviews, or comparable multi-domain security strategy engagements in client environments.
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust frameworks and reference models: CISA ZTMM 2.0, NIST SP 800-207, or equivalent.
• Proven ability to lead complex, multi-workstream consulting engagements end to end, including scoping, delivery, and closeout.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior consultants and setting quality standards for a delivery team.
• Demonstrated business development capability: scoping, proposal development, client presentations, and direct participation in closing deals.
• Strong executive communication skills: able to whiteboard with engineers and present to CISOs/CIOs with equal confidence.
• Ability to produce high-quality written deliverables: assessment reports, architecture narratives, roadmaps, and executive summaries.
• 3 or more professional and/or technical certifications aligned to cybersecurity (e.g., CISSP, CCSP, CISM, CISA, relevant GIAC certifications, Microsoft Security certifications, cloud security certifications).

USD 200,000 - 240,000 a year

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (OTE) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

USA Employment Benefits include: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance; 401(k); Paid company holidays; Paid time off; Paid parental and caregiver leave; Plus more! See benefits for details.

Use of AI: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process...