Senior Cybersecurity Consultant (Contract Role)

(This is a fractional/contract consulting opportunity—not a full-time employment position)

Engagement: Part-time / hourly 1099 contractor

Experience: 7+ years in cybersecurity, with strong Microsoft Azure security experience

About the Role

Trusted Ascent is looking for an experienced cybersecurity professional to support our growing cybersecurity consulting practice.

This is a senior individual-contributor and client-facing role. The person will independently lead specific client engagements or cybersecurity workstreams while working within Trusted Ascent's overall consulting direction.

We are looking for someone who can take a business problem or broad security objective, determine what needs to be done, develop an appropriate approach, and drive the work through execution.

For example, a client may know that its configuration management, logging, incident response, or cloud security needs improvement. We need someone who can assess the situation, establish an appropriate framework and identify key activities, prioritize the work, and execute with discipline.

The role may also involve coordinating and providing feedback to other cybersecurity consultants.

What You May Do

Depending on the engagement, responsibilities may include:

1. Independently leading specific cybersecurity projects or workstreams for Trusted Ascent clients.
2. Assessing a client's current cybersecurity capabilities and defining improvement priorities.
3. Developing security frameworks, roadmaps, procedures, and implementation plans.
4. Leading initiatives such as Azure boundary protections, configuration management for workstations and servers, vulnerability management and reporting, SIEM implementation and management, and Business Impact Analysis (BIA).
5. Designing and implementing security capabilities using Microsoft and other tools including Defender, Intune, and Purview.
6. Helping establish or mature a client's SIEM/SOC capabilities, potentially using Microsoft Sentinel.
7. Translating broad client objectives into concrete activities, deliverables, and implementation plans.
8. Planning and executing consulting work while maintaining Trusted Ascent quality standards.
9. Leading selected client meetings and presenting recommendations to executives or technology leaders.
10. Coordinating the work of other consultants and providing technical direction when appropriate.
11. Reviewing deliverables of other consultants and providing quality assurance and constructive feedback.
12. Documenting findings, recommendations, decisions, and implementation results.

Ideal Experience

The ideal candidate has:

1. 7+ years of cybersecurity experience, with substantial hands-on experience securing Microsoft Azure environments.
2. Strong experience with Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Sentinel.
3. Experience developing and improving cybersecurity programs, frameworks, policies, procedures, and controls.
4. Experience with security architecture, configuration management, vulnerability management, logging/SIEM, incident response, and security operations.
5. The ability to translate ambiguous client needs into a structured plan of action.
6. Strong project planning, written and verbal communication, and client-facing skills.
7. Experience working independently and making sound decisions without needing detailed instructions.
8. A disciplined approach to documentation, execution, follow-through, and quality.
9. Experience coordinating or reviewing the work of junior cybersecurity professionals.
10. The ability to explain technical issues and recommendations clearly to both technical teams and business leaders.

What We Value

We are particularly interested in someone who combines:

Strategy + Communication + Planning + Technical Depth + Execution

You should be comfortable hearing:

"We know this needs to be better. Figure out what good looks like, tell us how to get there, and make it happen."

You should be able to work with ambiguity while still creating structure, establishing priorities, and moving work forward.

This is not a practice-management or sales leadership role. It is an opportunity for a senior cybersecurity professional to take meaningful ownership of client work, lead important cybersecurity initiatives, and help mentor and develop other consultants.

As Trusted Ascent grows, there will be opportunities to expand the scope of responsibility based on the individual's capabilities and interests.