Chief Information Security Office

Job Description

Take Your Corporate Career to the Next Level

Kleinfelder, a Forbes' Top Employer for Engineers in North America, is committed to a people-first culture, technical excellence, and creating opportunities where employees can thrive!

Are you ready to be challenged, make a difference, and experience professional growth in your career? Kleinfelder’s Corporate Services team is looking for you! From Accounting & Finance, Human Resources, Marketing & Communications, and Information Technology to Legal and Health & Safety, our corporate employees are part of the Kleinfelder ecosystem – supporting the projects that improve the communities we work and live in.

Step into Your New Role

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is the enterprise executive accountable for the cybersecurity, information risk, privacy-supporting security, and cyber resilience program. The CISO establishes strategy, governance, architecture, and operating priorities that protect the organization, its clients, regulated data, intellectual property, and business operations while enabling growth, digital transformation, cloud adoption, artificial intelligence, and secure delivery of technology-enabled services.

The CISO advises executive leadership and the Board on material cyber risk, regulatory and contractual obligations, threat conditions, investment priorities, and risk acceptance. The role leads enterprise security, coordinates incident readiness and response, and partners with Information Technology, Legal, Privacy, Human Resources, Internal Audit, Procurement, Operations, and business leadership. The CISO also provides executive sponsorship for secure-by-design and DevSecOps practices and for federal compliance programs, including Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), Federal Contract Information (FCI), NIST SP 800-171, DFARS cybersecurity requirements, and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).

Accepting applications through November 6, 2026.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Enterprise Security Strategy, Governance and Leadership

• Own and maintain a multi-year enterprise cybersecurity strategy, operating model, roadmap, and investment plan aligned with business objectives, enterprise risk appetite, legal obligations, client commitments, and the evolving threat landscape.
• Lead cybersecurity governance and provide concise, decision-ready reporting to executive leadership and the Board on risk posture, incidents, control effectiveness, program maturity, investment needs, and remediation progress.
• Define clear accountability across the three lines model; establish enterprise security policies, standards, control objectives, exceptions, and risk acceptance processes with documented business ownership.
• Build, lead, develop, and retain a high-performing security organization; define roles, succession plans, performance measures, and strategic sourcing models for internal and managed security capabilities.
• Manage the cybersecurity operating and capital budgets, workforce plan, technology portfolio, and third-party services to optimize risk reduction and business value.

Cyber Risk, Compliance and Federal Contracting

• Own the enterprise cyber risk management framework and maintain consistent methods for identifying, assessing, prioritizing, treating, accepting, monitoring, and reporting information security risk.
• Partnering with Director of Federal Compliance, provide executive oversight for federal cybersecurity compliance, including FCI and CUI scoping, shared-responsibility models, evidence retention, continuous monitoring, and assessment readiness.
• Oversee implementation and sustainment of applicable requirements under CMMC, NIST SP 800-171 and related assessment objectives, DFARS cybersecurity clauses, FAR safeguarding requirements, governance for Systems Security Plans (SSPs), Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), assessment results and contractual incident-reporting and information-protection obligations.
• Partner with Legal, Contracts, Procurement, Compliance, and business leaders to review solicitations and contract language, determine security obligations, flow down requirements to subcontractors, and prevent unsupported representations of compliance.
• Coordinate internal assessments, independent reviews, customer inquiries, regulator interactions, and CMMC assessment preparation; ensure findings are risk-ranked, assigned, funded, tracked, and validated to closure.
• Maintain alignment with other applicable frameworks and obligations such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST SP 800-53, ISO/IEC 27001, privacy requirements, state breach-notification laws, and client-specific requirements.

Security Architecture, Cloud and DevSecOps

• Establish enterprise security architecture principles and reference architectures for identity, endpoint, network, cloud, data, application, API, operational technology, and third-party connectivity.
• Act as executive sponsor for DevSecOps and secure software development lifecycle practices that integrate security into product and solution planning, architecture, coding, build, test, release, deployment, and operations.
• Require risk-based security gates and automated controls in CI/CD pipelines, including source-code and dependency scanning, secrets detection, software composition analysis, infrastructure-as-code scanning, container and artifact assurance, and security testing appropriate to the technology and risk.
• Ensure engineering teams apply threat modeling, secure coding standards, code review, least privilege, environment segregation, change control, vulnerability remediation, logging, and security acceptance criteria.
• Define governance for software supply-chain risk, open-source use, code provenance, artifact integrity, software bills of materials when required, third-party components, and secure release practices.
• Partner with technology and engineering leaders to create reusable security patterns, paved roads, guardrails, and metrics that improve developer experience while reducing risk and delivery friction.
• Provide security governance for cloud platforms, Infrastructure as Code, APIs, low-code/no-code platforms, citizen development, artificial intelligence, and machine learning use cases.

Security Operations, Incident Response and Resilience

• Oversee security monitoring, detection engineering, threat intelligence, vulnerability and exposure management, penetration testing, identity threat protection, endpoint security, email security, data protection, and security operations center capabilities.
• Maintain an enterprise cyber incident response program with defined severity criteria, decision rights, communications, legal and regulatory coordination, evidence preservation, customer notification support, and executive escalation.
• Lead or coordinate response to material cyber incidents and ensure after-action reviews result in measurable corrective actions.
• Partner with business continuity, disaster recovery, crisis management, and operational leaders to validate recovery strategies, ransomware resilience, backup protection, and exercises for high-impact scenarios.
• Develop measurable key risk and performance indicators that demonstrate control effectiveness, remediation velocity, resilience, and business impact rather than activity alone.

Data Protection, Third-Party Risk and Workforce Security

• Establish security requirements for data classification, handling, retention, encryption, loss prevention, access governance, records protection, and secure disposal in partnership with Legal, Privacy, and data owners.
• Oversee cybersecurity due diligence and lifecycle risk management for suppliers, software providers, cloud services, managed service providers, subcontractors, and other third parties.
• Ensure security requirements are incorporated into procurement, contracts, onboarding, monitoring, renewal, and termination processes, including federal flow-down obligations when applicable.
• Lead enterprise security awareness, role-based training, phishing resilience, executive education, and privileged-user training programs; reinforce a culture of shared accountability for security.
• Coordinate insider-risk, personnel-security, physical-security, and workplace-safety interfaces with Human Resources, Legal, Facilities, and business leadership.

POSITION COMPETENCIES

• Executive leadership and influence: translates complex cyber risk into business decisions and earns trust across technical, operational, legal, and executive audiences.
• Risk-based judgment: makes defensible decisions using evidence, business context, threat intelligence, materiality, and documented risk ownership.
• Strategic execution: converts strategy into funded roadmaps, accountable outcomes, measurable controls, and sustainable operating processes.
• Collaboration and enablement: partners with technology and business teams to implement secure solutions without unnecessary friction.
• Crisis leadership: communicates clearly, remains decisive under pressure, and coordinates cross-functional response to high-impact events.
• Financial and commercial acumen: connects cyber investments and contractual obligations to business value, loss avoidance, client trust, and growth.

EXPERIENCE AND ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS

Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration, Risk Management, or a related field required. Master's degree or equivalent advanced study preferred.

Required Experience:

• 12 or more years of progressive experience in cybersecurity, technology risk, information technology, engineering, or related disciplines, including significant enterprise security leadership responsibility.
• 5 or more years leading managers, multidisciplinary security teams, or enterprise-wide security programs in a complex, distributed organization.
• Demonstrated experience advising executive leadership or a Board on material cyber risk, incidents, regulatory obligations, program maturity, and investment priorities.
• Demonstrated ownership of security strategy, governance, architecture, operations, incident response, third-party risk, vulnerability management, identity, data protection, and security awareness capabilities.
• Experience establishing or governing DevSecOps and secure SDLC practices across CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms, application development, APIs, Infrastructure as Code, and software supply chains.
• Experience with federal contracting cybersecurity requirements, including CUI and FCI handling, NIST SP 800-171 implementation or assessment, DFARS cybersecurity obligations, CMMC scoping and readiness, SSPs, POA&Ms, evidence management, and supplier flow-downs.
• Experience managing budgets, vendors, managed services, workforce plans, and multi-year transformation roadmaps.
• Experience operating in a highly regulated, project-based, engineering, professional services, critical infrastructure, or similarly complex environment preferred.

Technical and Business Knowledge:

• Working knowledge of modern enterprise architecture, cloud security, Zero Trust, identity and access management, data security, security operations, threat and vulnerability management, privacy-supporting controls, resilience, and secure software development.
• Ability to interpret laws, regulations, standards, contractual clauses, and customer requirements and translate them into practical governance, control, evidence, and accountability models.
• Ability to communicate technical and compliance issues in concise business language, including consequences, options, cost, and residual risk.

CERTIFICATIONS

One or more senior cybersecurity certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP, CRISC or equivalent is strongly preferred. Additional credentials in cloud security, risk, privacy, secure software development, federal compliance, or CMMC assessment are advantageous.

Following an offer, candidates will be required to satisfactorily complete employment reference checks, verification of professional licensure and/or educational credentials, a motor vehicle report (MVR), and a comprehensive background check.

Move Forward with Kleinfelder: Kleinfelder and its’ subsidiaries and affiliates, has been connecting great people to the best work since 1961. We are engineers, scientists, and construction professionals providing solutions that improve our clients’ transportation, water, energy, and other private infrastructure. As a responsive, cross-disciplinary team of bright, curious, and innovative problem-solvers, we are dedicated to doing the right thing, every day, on every project from over 110 offices in the US, Canada, and Australia.Connecting great people to the best work is our purpose – together, we deliver.

Progress with an Employer that Values You

Kleinfelder, and its’ subsidiaries and affiliates, is an inclusive organization free from discrimination. We are a stronger organization when we are a diverse workforce and believe that through diversity, equity, and inclusion comes creativity, innovation, and unity. We are proud to offer the following:

Benefits: Kleinfelder, and its’ subsidiaries and affiliates, offers an excellent compensation and benefits package, including: medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k) plan, and paid holidays. The expected salary range for the position is displayed in accordance with the State Pay Transparency Law. Final agreed upon compensation is based upon individual qualifications and experience. Salary Range:$182,548-$275,000.

Career Development: We are committed to investing in the professional development of our staff, offering each employee every opportunity to grow, develop, and take control of their career paths. We support these efforts through reimbursements for continuing education as well as many of the expenses associated with trainings