careers
Security Architect
Design security once, as patterns that hundreds of teams can reuse.
A security architect defines how identity, networks, cloud and data fit together without creating gaps. The work is systems thinking: principles such as zero trust and least privilege turned into reference architectures, guardrails and decisions that engineering teams can follow without a queue.
see this path on the journey mapA day in the job
- Review the design of new systems and major changes, and threat-model them with the team.
- Define reusable patterns: landing zones, identity and authorization services, paved pipelines.
- Write down decisions and their trade-offs so the reasoning outlives the meeting.
- Handle exceptions with owners and expiry dates, and fold recurring ones back into the pattern.
Stage 1· Foundations
Learn the principles, the vocabulary and the building blocks.
Study here
- Security frameworks and standards
- Security risk management
- IAM - identity and access
- Network - segmentation and zero-trust
Learn elsewhere
- Networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, routing
- Operating systems and how cloud platforms are built
Build this
Draw the architecture of a small system and list its trust boundaries, data flows and the controls at each one.
Stage 2· Practitioner
Design reusable patterns and verify them with threat modeling.
Study here
- Security architecture principles
- Zero-trust - trust model
- Threat modeling: think like the attacker before coding
- KMS & crypto - keys and envelopes
Learn elsewhere
- At least one cloud provider's architecture guidance
- Identity protocols: OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML
Build this
Write an architecture decision record for service-to-service authentication, with alternatives and consequences.
Stage 3· Advanced
Govern architecture at scale and tie it to the business.
Study here
Learn elsewhere
- Enterprise architecture frameworks and how decisions get made
- Communicating trade-offs to executives
Build this
Publish a landing-zone reference with guardrails as code, and measure how many teams adopt it.
What to show
- A reference architecture for a multi-account cloud setup, with the reasoning behind each control.
- Three architecture decision records that show real trade-offs and a rejected alternative.
Certifications (examples)
- CISSP (ISC2)
- SABSA
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty
Examples, not endorsements or requirements. Check the issuer for current details.