M365 Security · Implementation
M365 Security Senior Consultant
Senior Consultant · 4–6 yrs exp
A mid-size enterprise on Microsoft E5 licensing has deployed the suite but not activated its security value — Defender for Endpoint is running in audit mode, Purview labels are unconfigured, and Sentinel has no analytic rules. You perform a health check across the M365 security stack, deliver a prioritized configuration backlog, and lead the deployment sprint across Entra ID, Purview, Defender XDR, and Sentinel. You are the technical delivery lead, not a project manager.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Defender XDR
Purview
Entra ID
Sentinel
Intune
Security Copilot
Core Experience
3–5 years in IT security consulting with direct client delivery accountability — not internal IT. Billable engagement experience expected.
Hands-on deployment across the M365 security stack — Defender for Endpoint, Defender XDR, Entra Conditional Access, and Purview DLP all configured in production environments, not just lab.
Health-check and gap assessment delivery — able to read a tenant configuration, identify what's inactive or misconfigured, and translate findings into a prioritized remediation backlog for a non-technical sponsor.
Why it matters to clients
Most E5 clients are paying for capabilities they haven't activated. This role recovers that investment and turns a license cost into a measurable security improvement — typically the highest ROI engagement type in the Microsoft security practice.
Cloud Security · Posture Management
Cloud Security Posture Consultant
Senior Consultant · 5–7 yrs exp
A national retail chain has grown its Azure footprint rapidly through autonomous product teams, resulting in an ungoverned estate with inconsistent security baselines. You run a CSPM assessment using Defender for Cloud, rationalize Secure Score findings into a prioritized remediation backlog, design the Azure Policy guardrails that prevent misconfiguration at the landing zone level, and advise on the DevSecOps pipeline changes needed to shift security left into CI/CD. Hands-on Defender for Cloud and Sentinel deployment experience are table stakes for this engagement type.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Defender for Cloud
Azure Policy
Defender CSPM
Sentinel
GitHub Advanced Security
Core Experience
5+ years in cloud security engineering or consulting, with at least 2 years focused on Azure environments — infrastructure security, not just identity or endpoint.
Production hands-on with Defender for Cloud and Azure Policy — Secure Score remediation, initiative assignments, and policy-as-code deployments across multi-subscription landing zones.
DevSecOps pipeline experience — integrating IaC scanning (Checkov, Terrascan, MSDO) into CI/CD workflows and translating SARIF findings into actionable developer feedback.
Why it matters to clients
Ungoverned cloud estates compound risk silently. Clients benefit most when posture work connects to policy-as-code and DevSecOps, making the improvement structural rather than a one-time clean-up.
Data Security · Information Protection
Data Security & Purview Architect
Senior Consultant / Manager · 5–8 yrs exp
A national law firm handling client M&A data needs a classification and protection scheme satisfying HIPAA Business Associate obligations, SEC data-handling requirements, and insider-risk exposure reduction. You design the Purview sensitivity label taxonomy, the DLP policy set across M365 and Teams, the insider risk management baseline, and the eDiscovery workflow aligned to US federal litigation holds. You also advise on DSPM integration to extend coverage to unmanaged data in Azure and third-party SaaS. Depth across Purview Information Protection, DLP, and eDiscovery is expected at this level.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Purview Info Protection
Purview DLP
Insider Risk Mgmt
DSPM for AI
Compliance Manager
Core Experience
5+ years in information protection or data governance consulting, with demonstrable delivery across sensitivity labeling, DLP policy design, and insider risk program buildout in M365 tenants.
End-to-end Purview platform depth — label taxonomy design, auto-labeling policy configuration, DLP rule tuning, and eDiscovery hold/search workflows configured for real client environments.
US regulatory fluency — able to map Purview controls to HIPAA safeguard requirements, SEC data-handling obligations, and state breach notification timelines without relying on a compliance attorney to translate.
Why it matters to clients
Data protection failures carry regulatory and reputational consequences that dwarf the cost of the engagement. Clients in legal, financial services, and healthcare need someone who speaks both the Purview technical language and the US regulatory risk language simultaneously.
Zero Trust Transformation
Zero Trust Program Lead
Senior Consultant / Manager · 6–8 yrs exp
A mid-market manufacturing company in the defense supply chain suffered a ransomware incident and the board has mandated a Zero Trust initiative to meet CMMC Level 2 obligations under the DFARS rule effective November 2025. You lead a 12-week assessment and design engagement: baseline the current identity and network posture, map lateral movement paths, design the Conditional Access policy set, and define the phased implementation plan mapped to NIST SP 800-171 controls. You own the executive readout and the implementation brief handed to the client's internal team. Hands-on Entra ID, Defender for Identity, and Intune experience are expected, along with the ability to lead architecture sessions with CISO-level stakeholders.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Entra Conditional Access
Entra PIM
Defender for Identity
Intune
Entra ID Governance
Core Experience
6+ years in security consulting with program delivery ownership — led engagements from scoping through executive readout, not just contributed technically. Change management experience expected.
Hands-on Entra ID Conditional Access and PIM design — built and tested CA policy sets in production, including named locations, authentication strength, sign-in risk integration, and JIT elevation workflows.
NIST SP 800-171 / CMMC control mapping experience — able to map Zero Trust architecture decisions to specific control requirements and document the evidence a C3PAO assessor will need.
Why it matters to clients
Post-incident clients in the defense supply chain need a credible external voice to give the board confidence the remediation plan is sound — and CMMC Level 2 certification is now a hard requirement for DoD contract eligibility. This role bridges the gap between the incident debrief and the long-term program, preventing checkbox Zero Trust implementations.
Identity Architecture · IAM
Identity & Access Architect
Senior Consultant · Specialist track · 6–9 yrs exp
A regional health system is consolidating three Active Directory forests after an acquisition and needs a unified identity architecture for 18,000 users across clinical and administrative roles. You design the Entra ID target state, the AD migration sequencing, the privileged access model (PIM/PAM), and the governance framework for access reviews and lifecycle management. EHR system integration (Epic, Cerner) adds significant complexity, and HIPAA minimum-necessary access requirements shape every design decision. Deep expertise across Entra ID P2, ID Governance, PIM, and Conditional Access is expected at this level.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Entra ID P2
Entra PIM
Entra ID Governance
AD Connect Cloud Sync
Entra Agent ID
Core Experience
6+ years specializing in identity and access management, including at least one large-scale AD migration or forest consolidation delivered end-to-end in a consulting capacity.
Deep Entra ID P2 platform depth — entitlement management, access reviews, PIM role configuration, lifecycle workflows, and AD Connect Cloud Sync all deployed in production for enterprise-scale tenants.
Regulated-industry IAM experience — designed access models where HIPAA minimum-necessary requirements or financial services access-control frameworks shaped architecture decisions, not just technical preference.
Why it matters to clients
Identity is the primary attack surface. A clean identity architecture reduces breach risk, simplifies HIPAA access audits, and enables the Zero Trust controls everything else depends on — making this one of the highest-leverage architecture investments a client can make.
Security Architecture · Customer-Facing
Security Cloud Solution Architect
Manager / Senior Manager · 7+ yrs exp
Working as a senior customer-facing architect at a Microsoft partner, you serve as the technical trusted advisor for a portfolio of enterprise accounts across financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing verticals. You lead Architectural Design Sessions, drive adoption of Sentinel and Defender for Cloud as the primary security posture investments, assess multi-cloud environments for Secure by Design compliance, and feed customer insights back to product teams. This role requires 7+ years of cybersecurity and consulting experience, hands-on Sentinel and Defender for Cloud delivery, and the ability to present to CISO and SOC leadership simultaneously.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Sentinel
Defender for Cloud
Defender XDR
Entra ID
Purview
Security Copilot
Core Experience
7+ years in cybersecurity consulting or customer-facing architecture — portfolio account management experience expected, not single-engagement delivery. Demonstrated CISO and SOC leadership engagement at enterprise scale.
Production hands-on with Sentinel and Defender for Cloud across multiple client environments — workspace architecture, data connector configuration, analytic rule deployment, and Secure Score remediation programs.
Architectural Design Session facilitation — led multi-stakeholder ADS engagements that produced documented reference architectures adopted by client engineering teams, not just slide decks.
Why it matters to clients
Enterprise clients at this scale need an architect who bridges product roadmap knowledge with implementation reality across a complex account portfolio. This role delivers strategic continuity that project-based engagements alone cannot provide.
AI Security · Agent Governance
AI Security & Governance Architect
Manager / Senior Manager · 7–10 yrs exp · Emerging role
A financial services firm regulated under NYDFS Part 500 has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot to 6,000 users and is piloting Copilot Studio agents, but has no formal AI governance program. You run the DSPM for AI assessment, quantify oversharing exposure across SharePoint, design the Purview label taxonomy and DLP policies that govern Copilot processing, register all agents through Entra Agent ID, and advise on the Conditional Access policies that treat agents as governed non-human identities. NYDFS now expects covered entities to factor AI risks into their annual cybersecurity compliance reports — this engagement directly addresses that regulatory requirement.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
DSPM for AI
Security Copilot
Entra Agent ID
Purview DLP
Copilot Studio
M365 Copilot
Core Experience
7+ years in security consulting with recent AI governance advisory — has run DSPM for AI assessments or equivalent AI data security engagements, not just general Purview deployments.
Hands-on with M365 Copilot security controls — configured DLP policies scoped to Copilot processing, audited Copilot interaction logs, and built oversharing remediation workflows in SharePoint in production environments.
Non-human identity governance experience — designed Entra Agent ID registrations and Conditional Access policies for service principals or AI agents; understands the distinction between human and workload identity risk models.
Why it matters to clients
AI adoption is outpacing governance in almost every enterprise. Regulators including NYDFS and the SEC are actively scrutinizing AI risk programs. This role closes that gap before regulators or a data breach force it — and is one of the fastest-growing advisory conversations in the Microsoft ecosystem as of 2025–26.
Cyber Defense · SOC Transformation
Cyber Defense & SOC Transformation Lead
Senior Manager · 10+ yrs exp
A national insurance carrier's security operations center runs on a legacy SIEM with fragmented tooling and no detection engineering practice. You lead the Sentinel migration and modernization engagement: design the workspace architecture, migrate detection rules from Splunk or QRadar, build the KQL detection engineering practice, operationalize Security Copilot for incident triage, and advise on the SOAR playbook library. CIRCIA's 72-hour incident reporting requirements and NYDFS Part 500 logging retention obligations shape both detection scope and workspace architecture decisions. At this level you carry accountability for engagement scope, commercials, and delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Microsoft Sentinel
Defender XDR
Security Copilot
Defender for Endpoint
Logic Apps / SOAR
Core Experience
10+ years in cybersecurity with a SOC or detection engineering background — prior hands-on analyst or detection engineer experience, not just advisory. Has owned a SIEM migration from scoping through cutover.
KQL proficiency and Sentinel architecture depth — written production analytic rules, built SOAR playbooks in Logic Apps, and designed workspace architectures across multiple client environments including data connector configuration and retention tiering.
Senior stakeholder management across technical and executive audiences — regularly presents engagement status to CISOs and boards, owns commercial scope, and manages delivery across concurrent workstreams with direct reports or subcontractors.
Why it matters to clients
Most enterprise SOCs are under-resourced and over-alerted. A Sentinel-native SOC with Security Copilot triage and engineered detections measurably reduces MTTR and analyst burnout — and directly supports CIRCIA 72-hour incident reporting obligations. The business case is clear and quantifiable.
GRC · Compliance Architecture
Cloud Compliance & Risk Advisor
Manager / Senior Manager · GRC track · 8–12 yrs exp
A federal agency migrating workloads to Azure Government must achieve a FedRAMP Moderate Authorization to Operate (ATO) within 18 months and demonstrate continuous compliance with NIST 800-53 Rev 5 and FISMA requirements. You run the control mapping exercise against Purview Compliance Manager assessments, identify gap controls, design the evidence collection workflow, and advise on which native Microsoft controls satisfy framework requirements versus where third-party tooling is needed. For defense-adjacent clients, CMMC 2.0 control mapping is an additional deliverable. Familiarity with the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF), ATO processes, and continuous monitoring workflows is expected.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Compliance Manager
Purview Audit
Azure Policy
Defender for Cloud
Secure Score
Core Experience
8+ years in GRC consulting or IT audit, with at least 3 years focused on cloud compliance — has taken an organization through a FedRAMP ATO, SOC 2 Type II audit, or FISMA assessment from gap analysis through evidence package.
NIST RMF and control framework fluency — can map NIST 800-53 controls to native Azure and Microsoft 365 configurations without a framework-to-tool translation guide; familiar with continuous monitoring workflows and POA&M management.
Regulator and auditor communication experience — has presented compliance posture to federal agency IGs, FedRAMP assessors (3PAOs), or internal audit committees; can defend control design decisions under scrutiny.
Why it matters to clients
Federal and regulated clients cannot move at commercial pace without an advisor who knows which native Microsoft controls satisfy FedRAMP and NIST auditors and which require supplementary evidence. This role shortens ATO timelines and prevents expensive last-minute remediation before agency authorization decisions.
Security Architecture · Principal / Director
Enterprise Security Architect
Principal / Director · 10–15+ yrs exp
A global financial services firm headquartered in New York is migrating 40 legacy applications to Azure and needs a unified security architecture satisfying both internal risk policy and external regulatory requirements — PCI-DSS, SOC 2 Type II, and NYDFS Part 500 — with the SEC cybersecurity disclosure rule adding board-level reporting obligations. You design the end-state reference architecture, define Zero Trust controls across identity, network, and data layers, produce the gap assessment driving the three-year roadmap, and lead the executive steering committee. At this level you are expected to own the commercial relationship alongside the technical outcome, and to carry multi-cloud architecture depth alongside deep Microsoft platform knowledge.
MS Ecosystem touchpoints
Entra ID P2
Defender XDR
Purview DLP
Sentinel
Defender for Cloud
Security Copilot
Core Experience
10+ years in enterprise security with principal-level consulting delivery — owns commercial client relationships, not just technical workstreams. Has led multi-year security transformation programs with board-level steering committee accountability.
Full-stack Microsoft security architecture depth — designed end-state reference architectures spanning Entra, Defender XDR, Purview, Sentinel, and Defender for Cloud that were adopted and implemented by client engineering teams across multi-subscription Azure estates.
Multi-framework regulatory fluency — has simultaneously mapped architecture decisions to PCI-DSS, SOC 2 Type II, and NYDFS Part 500 requirements; can translate SEC cybersecurity disclosure obligations into board-level reporting structures without outside counsel doing the translation.
Why it matters to clients
Clients pay a premium for architects who can translate regulatory pressure — NYDFS Part 500, PCI-DSS, SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules — into a coherent multi-year platform strategy, not just a product list. This role owns the outcome, not just the design, and is the engagement type that builds long-term client relationships.