Security Architect

Education Qualification:

• Required: Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering, or equivalent.
• Preferred: Masters degree in Computer Science or specialized Cybersecurity.

Architectural Credentials: Formal training or certifications in enterprise security architecture frameworks (e.g., SABSA, TOGAF, CISSP-ISSAP, or CCSP).

Keyskills and Experience:

• Architectural Blueprinting: Master-level capability in designing and maintaining secure reference architectures, security design patterns, and enterprise-wide zoning models.
• Strategic Security Direction: Proven experience translating high-level business goals and risk tolerances into technical security strategies and engineering roadmaps.
• Cross-Domain Governance: Strong architectural oversight across modern infrastructure paradigms, including hybrid cloud (AWS/Azure), edge retail networks, and multi-tenant digital ecosystems.
• Threat Modelling Mastery: Expert knowledge of structural threat modelling methodologies (e.g., STRIDE) to review and approve complex designs before deployment.
• Regulatory & Framework Mapping: Ability to align technical architecture with international and domestic frameworks (NIST CSF, ISO 27001) and privacy regulations like Indias DPDP Act.

High-Level Stakeholder Influence: Exceptional articulation skills to advise, guide, and defend security architectural decisions to both engineering leads and business executives.

Key Responsibilities:

1. System Configuration and Maintenance

• Define, maintain, and govern enterprise-wide secure configuration baselines, hardening standards, and "golden image" architecture blueprints for all infrastructure assets.
• Provide strategic direction for centralized configuration management frameworks to ensure automated, drift-free baseline enforcement across the digital footprint.

2. Vulnerability Management

• Architect the overarching framework and structural strategy for corporate vulnerability management, defining prioritization logic, systemic risk tolerances, and remediation SLAs.
• Review systemic vulnerability trends to identify structural design flaws in the network or infrastructure, and engineer permanent, architectural workarounds.

3. Application Security

• Establish reference architectures, secure design patterns, and cryptographic standards to guide engineering and DevOps teams toward building resilient software.
• Govern the structural integration requirements for security gates within CI/CD pipelines, ensuring architectural compliance is built-in by design.

4. Data Security

• Design and maintain the enterprise data protection architecture, including encryption-at-rest/in-transit standards, key management topologies, and tokenization frameworks.
• Provide architectural direction to align data storage, user access matrixes, and data flow pipelines with India's DPDP Act 2023 and compliance requirements.

5. Security Incident Management

• Act as the ultimate architectural advisor during critical, high-severity security incidents to analyze root causes and diagnose systemic design vulnerabilities.
• Direct the post-incident architectural remediation strategies to permanently eliminate vector exposure and structurally immunize the organization against recurrence.

6. Hardware and Software Upgrades

• Author and maintain the security evaluation gate criteria for all corporate technology lifecycles, ensuring new hardware, software, or cloud platforms natively align with security architecture.
• Provide strategic technical direction for decommissioning legacy systems to prevent architectural debt and exposure.

7. Security Governance and Strategy

• Own, evolve, and maintain the mid-to-long-term Enterprise Security Architecture Strategy, ensuring seamless alignment with corporate risk profiles and business expansion goals.
• Act as the primary technical advisor to leadership, validating that all new digital initiatives conform to security-by-design and zero-trust principles.

8. System Monitoring and Performance Optimization

• Define the structural telemetry, logging, and visibility requirements across the enterprise to ensure the Security Operations Center (SOC) has optimized architectural coverage.
• Collaborate with infrastructure leads to ensure security controls are architected to scale dynamically without degrading core retail performance.

9. Research and Continuous Improvement

• Actively research next-generation security paradigms (e.g., Zero Trust Network Access, AI-driven defense, Decentralized Identity) to continually mature the enterprise security blueprint.
• Formulate proactive proof-of-concepts (PoCs) to validate and introduce modern, resilient security technologies into the technology ecosystem.

10. Technical Support and Guidance

• Provide high-level architectural mentorship, advisory, and technical direction to engineering, DevOps, cloud, and traditional IT operational teams.
• Serve as the final authority and arbitrator for all technical security design disputes or risk-exception requests across the organization.

11. Documentation and Compliance

• Author, maintain, and publish the official Enterprise Security Architecture Documentation, reference patterns, and structural policies.

Audit and ensure that current operational workflows and technical configurations map precisely back to approved architectural standards and corporate compliance mandates.