Security & Compliance Specialist

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Flexible schedule

Estimated Level of Effort: 75–80 hours per month
Position Summary

The South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services (SCDPPPS) supervises individuals placed on probation, parole, and other community-release programs. SCDPPPS relies on custom, mission-critical applications while modernizing its core Offender Management System (OMS). The Security & Compliance Specialist role ensures alignment with applicable Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), South Carolina Department of Information Security (SC DIS), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirements.

The Specialist supports security modernization through the Transform Stream, executes security remediation and sustainment activities through the Run Stream, and provides elevated monitoring and response support for High Profile Hearings involving the PIC and PAC applications. The position collaborates with application, infrastructure, database, program, and operational teams to identify, remediate, and prevent security risks.

Key Responsibilities
Compliance and Security Controls

• Ensure application development, system configuration, infrastructure changes, integrations, operational processes, and documentation comply with applicable CJIS, SC DIS, and MFA security-control requirements.
• Translate security and compliance requirements into technical controls, implementation tasks, validation criteria, and remediation plans.
• Review releases, enhancements, configuration changes, and technical solutions for security and compliance impacts before deployment.
• Identify control gaps, prioritize corrective actions, track remediation through completion, and maintain supporting evidence.
• Support security assessments, audits, authorization activities, compliance reviews, and responses to oversight inquiries.

Security Modernization — Transform Stream

• Implement security modernization initiatives across the Transform Stream.
• Design, configure, and improve Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities, including authentication, authorization, role-based access control, least-privilege access, account lifecycle management, and privileged-access controls.
• Implement and maintain MFA and modern authentication patterns across applications, infrastructure, service accounts, APIs, administrative interfaces, and other assigned systems.
• Implement and enhance security logging, audit trails, log aggregation, retention, alerting, and analysis.
• Establish logging standards for authentication activity, authorization decisions, privileged actions, security-relevant application events, configuration changes, and anomalous behavior.
• Coordinate with application and infrastructure teams to integrate security capabilities into architecture, development, testing, deployment, and operations.

Vulnerability and Dependency Management — Run Stream

• Execute assigned Run Stream backlog items related to identifying, prioritizing, remediating, and validating vulnerable, unsupported, deprecated, or end-of-life libraries and dependencies.
• Review technology stacks supporting PIC, PAC, OMS, IIMS, and other assigned applications to identify vulnerable components and assess associated security, compliance, and operational impacts.
• Coordinate secure upgrades, dependency replacements, refactoring, configuration changes, patching, and compensating controls.
• Validate that remediation preserves system functionality, interoperability, performance, availability, and required security controls.
• Track vulnerabilities, remediation progress, exceptions, risk-acceptance decisions, and closure evidence in accordance with program procedures.
• Recommend remediation priorities based on severity, exploitability, exposure, business criticality, compliance obligations, and operational impact.

Monitoring, Incident Support, and High Profile Hearings

• Provide security-focused operational support and enhanced monitoring during High Profile Hearings involving PIC and PAC.
• Monitor application availability, access activity, audit logs, authentication events, performance indicators, and security alerts during designated hearing periods.
• Identify, investigate, document, escalate, and coordinate response to suspicious activity, access-control issues, security events, service disruptions, and operational risks.
• Participate in pre-hearing readiness activities, including access reviews, control verification, logging validation, contingency planning, and coordination with stakeholders.
• Maintain event records, monitoring logs, incident documentation, and post-event observations.
• Recommend post-event improvements to strengthen resilience, monitoring coverage, security posture, and incident-response readiness.

Security Operations and Documentation

• Improve security monitoring, alerting, incident-response, vulnerability-management, access-review, and change-control processes.
• Support secure software-development lifecycle activities, including security requirements, architecture reviews, code and dependency reviews, security testing, release validation, and production monitoring.
• Develop and maintain security artifacts, including control matrices, risk registers, architecture documentation, operating procedures, remediation plans, monitoring runbooks, and compliance evidence.
• Collaborate with technical teams to maintain secure configuration baselines, patch-management practices, encryption, secure communications, and audit logging.
• Communicate security risks, compliance findings, remediation priorities, and operational impacts clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, information assurance, information technology, computer science, or a related discipline; comparable experience, technical training, or certifications may be substituted.
• Experience supporting information security, cybersecurity compliance, security engineering, or security operations in a complex enterprise environment.
• Knowledge of CJIS-aligned security principles and criminal justice information protection requirements.
• Experience with IAM, role-based access control, authentication and authorization workflows, MFA, and least-privilege practices.
• Experience with vulnerability identification, dependency management, patching, remediation tracking, and corrective-action validation.
• Experience with security logging, audit trails, log aggregation, security monitoring, alerting, and incident-response support.
• Knowledge of secure application-development practices, common software vulnerabilities, software supply-chain risk, and security-testing approaches.
• Ability to assess technical risk, develop practical remediation recommendations, coordinate cross-functional resolution, and prepare clear security documentation.
• Ability to manage priorities and provide reliable support within an estimated commitment of 75–80 hours per month.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, Security+, GIAC, CCSP, CEH, Microsoft security certifications, or equivalent credentials.
• Experience supporting state or local government, courts, law enforcement, public safety, or criminal justice organizations.
• Experience with SIEM, security orchestration and response, endpoint security, vulnerability scanning, and identity-governance tools.
• Experience with cloud and hybrid security, Zero Trust principles, and secure API or microservices architectures.
• Familiarity with NIST-based risk-management frameworks, security-control assessments, secure configuration benchmarks, and authorization processes.
• Experience supporting high-visibility operational events, incident-response exercises, continuity-of-operations activities, or elevated monitoring periods.

Work Schedule and Requirements

This is a part-time role requiring an estimated 75–80 hours per month . Work may include recurring compliance activities, security reviews, planned remediation, scheduled releases, and time-sensitive support during High Profile Hearings.

Work may be remote, on-site, or hybrid, subject to program, customer, and security requirements. The incumbent may access sensitive, controlled, proprietary, or criminal justice information and must comply with applicable privacy, data-handling, personnel-screening, security-training, and acceptable-use requirements. Occasional work outside standard business hours may be required for maintenance, releases, security incidents, vulnerability remediation, or High Profile Hearings.

Flexible work from home options available.