Virtual CISO & Cybersecurity Practice Lead

• 7-10+ years of hands-on cybersecurity experience spanning at least two of the following: penetration testing, incident response, security architecture, GRC (governance, risk, and compliance)
• 3+ years operating at the CISO, Director of Security, or senior consulting level, you've sat in the room with boards and translated technical risk into business impact
• CISSP certification (active and in good standing)
• Deep working knowledge of SOC 2, HIPAA, NIST CSF, and at least one additional framework (PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, CMMC, CCPA)
• Experience building or significantly expanding a security program from early stages, not just maintaining one someone else built
• Ability to manage multiple client engagements simultaneously without quality degradation
• Comfortable participating in sales and business development conversations — you understand that your credibility is what closes deals
• CMMC Registered Practitioner (RP) or Certified CMMC Assessor (CCA) — the Southern California defense industrial base is a priority vertical
• Additional certifications: CISM, CRISC, OSCP, GPEN, or SANS GIAC credentials
• Experience running a cybersecurity consulting practice, MSSP, or vCISO firm — either as founder or practice lead
• Background in incident response or digital forensics
• Familiarity with AI-driven security platforms and willingness to integrate emerging AI tooling into service delivery
• Experience with cyber insurance underwriting requirements and risk assessment frameworks
• Existing professional network in the Southern California cybersecurity community

WHAT WILL SET YOU APART

• You've built something before, a practice, a team, a firm, and you want to do it again with resources and infrastructure behind you
• You can explain a zero-day exploit to a board member and a budget justification to a CFO in the same meeting
• You're not just a technician who moved into management, you genuinely enjoy the client relationship and advisory aspects of the work
• You see AI as a force multiplier for your expertise, not a threat to it

WHY THIS ROLE

You'll have an existing client base to cross-sell into from day one. You'll have AI-powered tooling that handles the repetitive analytical work so you can focus on the high-value advisory that clients actually pay for. And you'll have a leadership team that understands professional services, client management, and scaling consulting practices. because that's what we've done for over two decades.

If you want to build a cybersecurity practice with the autonomy of a founder and the support system of an established firm, this is it.