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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cloud Security Manager

💰 $120,000 - $180,000

SecurityCloudITManagementDevSecOps

🎯 Role Definition

The Cloud Security Manager is responsible for defining, implementing, and continuously improving the organization's cloud security strategy and controls across public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP). This role leads cross-functional security programs—covering identity and access management, infrastructure as code (IaC) security, container and Kubernetes protections, cloud-native security tooling (CSPM/CNAPP), threat detection, incident response, and regulatory compliance—while partnering with engineering, product, and operations teams to embed security into the software development lifecycle.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Cloud Security Engineer
  • Security Architect (Cloud-focused)
  • DevSecOps Lead

Advancement To:

  • Director of Cloud Security
  • Head of Enterprise Security / Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
  • VP of Security Operations

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Security Architect
  • DevSecOps Engineering Manager
  • Compliance & Risk Manager (Cloud focus)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own and continuously evolve the enterprise cloud security strategy, roadmaps, and standards for AWS, Azure, and GCP to reduce risk and enable secure cloud adoption across business units.
  • Lead cloud security program management including planning, resource allocation, KPI/OKR tracking, and reporting to senior leadership and board-level stakeholders.
  • Design, implement, and enforce identity and access management (IAM) policies and governance for cloud accounts, including least privilege, role design, cross-account access, and identity federation (SAML/OIDC).
  • Operate and optimize cloud-native security tooling (CSPM/CNAPP) such as Prisma Cloud, Dome9, Tenable Cloud, GuardDuty, Security Hub, Azure Defender, or GCP Security Command Center to detect and remediate configuration drift and misconfigurations.
  • Define and implement secure infrastructure as code (IaC) controls and scanning (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM templates) to prevent insecure templates from being deployed in CI/CD pipelines.
  • Establish and lead a cloud incident response and forensics program: develop runbooks, orchestrate tabletop exercises, manage major incidents, and coordinate with SOC and platform teams for containment and remediation.
  • Implement and manage cloud logging, monitoring, and SIEM integration (Splunk, Datadog, Azure Sentinel, Chronicle) to ensure high-fidelity detection of cloud-native threats and abnormal behavior.
  • Create and drive a vulnerability management process for cloud workloads, containers, serverless functions, and managed services, including prioritization, remediation SLAs, and patching strategies.
  • Architect secure networking patterns for cloud environments: VPC/VNet segmentation, private connectivity, Transit Gateway/Hub architectures, firewall management, and zero trust network principles.
  • Lead container and orchestration security efforts for Kubernetes and container registries: runtime protection, image scanning, admission controllers, pod security policies, and supply-chain hardening.
  • Manage cloud encryption and key management programs (KMS, HSM, BYOK), including data classification, encryption-at-rest and in-transit policies, and secure secrets management (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager).
  • Define cloud-native application security requirements and integrate security gates into CI/CD pipelines (static analysis, SCA, DAST) to enable DevSecOps practices and shift-left security.
  • Establish compliance and audit readiness programs for cloud workloads aligned to SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and regional privacy laws, liaising with internal audit and external assessors.
  • Conduct cloud risk assessments, threat modeling, and third-party assessments for managed cloud services, SaaS integrations, and partner solutions; quantify business impact and recommend mitigations.
  • Build and coach a high-performing cloud security team: hire, mentor, set objectives, and cultivate cross-functional collaboration across engineering, platform, and product organizations.
  • Develop and maintain cloud security policies, playbooks, standards, and runbooks; ensure they are practical, automated where possible, and adopted by Dev and Ops teams.
  • Drive cost-effective cloud security automation—remediation playbooks, auto-remediation scripts, detection engineering, and policy-as-code—to increase reliability and lower manual toil.
  • Manage vendor relationships and evaluate cloud security products and services; lead proof-of-concepts, procurement input, and total cost of ownership analysis.
  • Serve as a security escalation point for platform and engineering teams; provide subject matter expertise to design secure architectures and to remediate complex vulnerabilities.
  • Report on cloud security posture and metrics to senior leaders: risk exposure, incident metrics, remediation timelines, compliance gaps, and progress against roadmap.
  • Collaborate with privacy, legal, and risk teams to ensure secure handling of sensitive data in cloud systems and compliance with data residency and protection requirements.
  • Champion security awareness and training specific to cloud risks—deliver workshops, create onboarding curricula, and embed secure engineering best practices into engineering guilds.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc cloud security assessments for new projects, acquisitions, or pilot initiatives.
  • Contribute to the organization’s cloud security architecture and strategy documentation, including reference architectures and well-architected reviews.
  • Participate in sprint planning, agile ceremonies, and security backlog grooming to prioritize security work with product and platform teams.
  • Provide subject matter input for RFPs, vendor evaluations, and procurement related to cloud security tooling.
  • Maintain threat intelligence and awareness of evolving cloud attack techniques; translate into actionable detection and prevention improvements.
  • Assist in coordinating cross-functional remediation workstreams for widespread or systemic cloud security issues.
  • Facilitate regular cloud security metrics and posture reviews with engineering leadership to maintain alignment and shared accountability.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep working knowledge of public cloud platforms: AWS (IAM, Security Hub, GuardDuty, Config), Azure (AD, Defender, Sentinel), and/or GCP (Cloud IAM, SCC).
  • Expertise in Identity and Access Management (IAM) design, role-based access control (RBAC), least privilege enforcement, and identity federation (SAML/OIDC).
  • Hands-on experience with cloud-native security tools and CSPM/CNAPP solutions (Prisma Cloud, Dome9, Aqua, Lacework, Wiz).
  • Proficiency with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM templates) and policy-as-code tools (OPA, Sentinel, Conftest).
  • Container and Kubernetes security skills: image scanning, runtime defense, admission controllers, Helm security best practices.
  • Strong background in logging, monitoring, and SIEM integration (Splunk, Datadog, ELK, Azure Sentinel, Chronicle).
  • Vulnerability and patch management for cloud workloads and serverless environments; integration with ticketing and remediation workflows.
  • Knowledge of cryptography, KMS/HSM operations, secrets management platforms (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault).
  • Experience with secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC), SAST/DAST tools, SCA (software composition analysis), and CI/CD security automation.
  • Incident response, cloud forensics, and containment experience; familiarity with threat hunting and detection engineering.
  • Understanding of network security in cloud contexts: VPC/VNet design, transit architectures, security groups, NACLs, private link, and zero trust.
  • Familiarity with compliance frameworks and standards: SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, NIST CSF / SP 800-53.
  • Scripting and automation competency (Python, Bash, PowerShell) to develop remediation playbooks and orchestration.
  • Experience conducting cloud risk assessments, threat modeling, and third-party/cloud vendor security reviews.
  • Hands-on experience with secrets rotation, key lifecycle management, and encryption policy enforcement.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management: hiring, coaching, performance management, and building cross-functional influence.
  • Excellent communicator able to translate complex technical risks into business-impact language for executives and stakeholders.
  • Strong program and project management skills with the ability to coordinate multi-team remediation efforts and enforce SLAs.
  • Strategic mindset with pragmatic, risk-based decision-making and ability to prioritize work in ambiguous environments.
  • Collaborative and customer-oriented: builds trust with engineering, DevOps, product, and legal teams to drive secure outcomes.
  • Instructional ability: delivers training, runbooks, and documentation that empower engineers to own security.
  • High attention to detail with a bias for automation and repeatability to reduce manual effort.
  • Resilient under pressure and experienced managing incidents and communicating during crises.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Systems, or related technical discipline (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or an MBA with security-focused coursework.
  • Advanced security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSK, CCSP, or cloud-specific certifications (AWS Security Specialty, Azure Security Engineer, Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Information Security / Cybersecurity
  • Information Systems / Network Engineering
  • Cloud Computing / DevOps

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 7–12+ years in information security, with 3–6+ years focused specifically on cloud security and at least 2+ years in a leadership or managerial capacity.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years total experience with demonstrable experience leading cloud security programs at scale, managing cross-functional teams, and owning cloud security strategy across multiple cloud providers; experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, SaaS) is a plus.
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