Cyber Operations and Threat Management - Sr Mgr

Awarded a Healthiest Employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona aims to fulfill its mission to inspire health and make it easy. AZ Blue offers a variety of health insurance products and services to meet the diverse needs of individuals, families, and small and large businesses as well as providing information and tools to help individuals make better health decisions.

At AZ Blue, we have a hybrid workforce strategy, called Workability, that offers flexibility with how and where employees work. Our positions are classified as hybrid, onsite or remote. While the majority of our employees are hybrid, the following classifications drive our current minimum onsite requirements:

• Hybrid People Leaders: must reside in AZ, required to be onsite at least twice per week

• Hybrid Individual Contributors: must reside in AZ, unless otherwise cited within this posting, required to be onsite at least once per week

• Hybrid 2 (Operational Roles such as but not limited to: Customer Service, Claims Processors, and Correspondence positions): must reside in AZ, unless otherwise cited within this posting, required to be onsite at least once per month

• Onsite: daily onsite requirement based on the essential functions of the job

• Remote: not held to onsite requirements, however, leadership can request presence onsite for business reasons including but not limited to staff meetings, one-on-ones, training, and team building

Please note that onsite requirements may change in the future, based on business need, and job responsibilities. Most employees should expect onsite requirements and at a minimum of once per week.

This position is hybrid within the state of AZ only.  This hybrid work opportunity requires residency in the State of AZ, and work to be performed 2 days per week in office.

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

• The Cyber Risk & Technical Security Leader is responsible for leading and actively executing enterprise cybersecurity capabilities across AI risk management, network, cloud and application security, emerging threat defense, and security automation.

• This role operates as both a strategic leader and hands-on executor, driving measurable risk reduction while modernizing security operations for the AI-enabled enterprise.

• The position partners across technical, IT, data, and business teams to embed security into AI, cloud, applications, and networks, while evolving defenses against rapidly changing threat landscapes and adversarial AI risks.

• This position supports and implements Corporate Information Security direction set forth by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) that assures BCBSAZ’s customers that BCBSAZ is a secure company that intends to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of data and will remain their health insurance company.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

1.       Required Work Experience

• 12 years of progressive experience in cybersecurity/IT, including system security, cloud, application, or data security domains
• 5 years of leadership experience, including direct management or supervisory responsibilities
• Demonstrated experience leading and executing security initiatives (player-Demonstrated experience in implementing, advancing, and monitoring/reducing security risk:
  • Driving and reducing security risk across multiple domains supporting Zero Trust principles (e.g., system, business applications, networks, hybrid data centers).
  • Security modernization initiatives working in IT and/or cybersecurity [e.g., identity-based attacks, non-human identity management, secure service edge (SSE) implementations, hybrid cloud data center configurations] with a focus on maximizing security capabilities.
  • Managing and responding to new and emerging threats (e.g., ransomware, identity-based attacks, AI-based attacks).
  • AI risk management and adversarial AI protection
    • Managing and mitigating evolving AI risks
    • Advancing technical security operations functions with AI-based automation and response
• 3 years of experience driving or supporting security automation and operational efficiency
• Experience leading the development and execution of technical initiatives that integrate AI into security operations to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and threat response.
• Experience in supporting disaster recovery and/or operational resilience planning and execution.
• Demonstrated experience:
  • Solving complex problems with limited direction prioritizing solutions under their control
  • Collaborating across technical and business teams
  • Driving outcomes with high ownership and initiative

1.       Required Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, information technology, computer systems, or related field.

• Alternatively, proven track record of technical expertise, qualifying as a degree-equivalent through extensive field experience.

2.       Required Licenses

• N/A

3.       Required Certifications

• N/A

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

1.       Preferred Work Experience

• 12+ years of progressive experience in cybersecurity/IT, including system security, cloud, application, or data security domains
• 5+ years of leadership experience, including direct management or supervisory responsibilities
• Demonstrated experience leading and executing security initiatives (player-coach model)
• Demonstrated experience in implementing, advancing, and monitoring/reducing security risk:
  • Driving and reducing security risk across multiple domains supporting Zero Trust principles (e.g., system, business applications, networks, hybrid data centers).
  • Security modernization initiatives working in IT and/or cybersecurity [e.g., identity-based attacks and non-human identity management, secure service edge (SSE) implementations, hybrid cloud data center configurations] with a focus on maximizing security capabilities.
  • Managing and responding to new and emerging threats (e.g., ransomware, identity-based attacks, AI-based attacks).
  • AI risk management and adversarial AI protection
    • Managing and mitigating evolving AI risks
    • Advancing technical security operations functions with AI-based automation and response
• Proven experience in advancing security operations functions:
  • 5+ years of experience driving or supporting security automation and operational efficiency
  • AI-enabled automation in security operations (e.g., SOAR, AI-driven detection and response, automated system correction and configuration drift management)
• Experience working within enterprise risk management frameworks (e.g., NIST CSF, HIPAA)
• Experience participating and supporting disaster recovery and/or operational Proven ability to:
  • Solve complex problems with limited direction prioritizing solutions under their control
  • Collaborate across technical and business teams
  • Drive outcomes with high ownership and initiative
  • Self-starting curiosity for understanding and addressing emerging threats

2.       Preferred Education

• Master’s Degree in business, computer science or related field

3.       Preferred Licenses

• N/A

4.       Preferred Certifications

• Certified Information Systems Security Practitioner (CISSP), Certified Information Security Administrator (CISA), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), NSA Information Assessment Methodology (NSA-IAM), CompTia Security+ (S+), Certified Computer Forensic Specialist (CCFS), Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP)

ESSENTIALJOB FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

AI Risk Management & Responsible AI Security

• Lead implementation of enterprise AI security program aligned to governance policies and committee oversight models
• Solution and monitor AI risk inventory, assessment frameworks, and continuous monitoring
• Secure AI systems end-to-end, including:
  • Automated attacks and adversarial AI
  • Model, prompt, and agent security
  • Protection against prompt injection, data leakage, and adversarial misuse
• Integrate AI risks into enterprise risk management and reporting frameworks (quantitative + economic impact modeling)
• Partner with business and data teams to enable safe AI adoption at scale

Automation & AI-Enabled Security Operations

• Drive adoption of AI-driven automation across SOC and security engineering
• Automated detection, triage, and response workflows
• Reduce manual operations through intelligent orchestration and scripting
• Lead modernization of detection capabilities using:
  • Behavioral analytics and machine learning
  • Continuous monitoring and autonomous response capabilities
• Define what should vs. should not be automated to preserve critical human decisioning

Emerging Threat Coverage & Advanced Defense

• Lead strategy and execution for evolving threats including:
  • Ransomware, identity-based attacks, and token abuse
  • Adversarial AI, deepfakes, and autonomous attack chains
• Integrate threat intelligence into detection and prevention workflows
• Continuously evolve controls based on threat landscape acceleration and attacker innovation
• Drive proactive threat hunting and red-team exercises (including AI model testing)

Continuous Security Testing and Network Hardening

• Own and drive security strategy across:
  • Multi-cloud environments (Zero Trust, Hybrid Data Center)
  • Continuous Security Testing model with an emphasis on Attack Path remediation driving risk reduction
• Expand visibility, protection, and compliance monitoring across all enterprise assets, data flows, and technology layers
• Enable scalable, resilient, and secure-by-design capabilities across distributed infrastructure and operational models

5. Security Platform Management & Modernization

• Lead deployment and optimization of security technologies across the network
• Drive Zero Trust architecture and secure service edge (SSE/SASE) adoption
• Establish scalable, repeatable procedures/standards and automation-first processes
• Evaluate and integrate modern security tools aligned to strategic outcomes

Risk Management, Metrics & Business Alignment

• Translate technical risk into business impact, financial exposure, and operational risk
• Establish measurable security outcomes (e.g., detection speed, containment time, coverage metrics)
• Align program to frameworks such as NIST CSF and AI RMF
• Report risk posture and trends to executive leadership and governance committees

Leadership, Culture & Execution

• Act as a dual leader/executor:
  • Set direction and strategy
  • Personally drive critical initiatives and problem resolution
• Foster a culture of:
  • Ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement
  • Innovation in emerging areas (AI, automation, new attack vectors)
• Collaborate cross-functionally with:
  • Infrastructure IT, data, risk, and business leaders
• Operate as a self-starting leader with high initiative and bias toward action
• This position has an onsite expectation of 2 days per week and requires a full-time work schedule. Full-time is defined as working at least 40 hours per week, plus any additional hours as requested or as needed to meet business requirements
• Position may require evening, weekend, or on-call schedules, depending on project requirements and/or system status.
• Perform all other duties as assigned.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

1.       Required Job Skills

• Intermediate skill in use of office equipment, including copiers, fax machines, scanner and telephones
• Intermediate PC proficiency
• Intermediate proficiency in spreadsheet, database and word processing software
• Advanced Knowledge of hardware, software, telecommunications, operating systems, and applications. 

• Knowledge of HIPAA security and privacy standards.

• Knowledge of Microsoft, UNIX, and LINUX operating systems.

2.       Required Professional Competencies

Technical & Strategic Expertise

• Zero Trust principles across hybrid data center configurations
• AI security, governance, and adversarial threat mitigation
• Security modernization initiatives (e.g., Identity-based threats, Non-Human Identity Protections, Secure Service Edge support and optimization)
• Security operations, detection engineering, and automation
• Threat intelligence and emerging risk analysis

Leadership & Execution Profile

• Strong problem-solving mindset, able to navigate ambiguity and complexity
• Proven ability to operate at both strategic and deeply technical levels
• High ownership, initiative, and ability to drive outcomes without direction
• Exceptional collaboration across technical and business stakeholders

• Project management skills, with the ability to manage a team to coordinate all planning and implementation activities in system security and/or business continuity fields
• Strong analytical problem solving and workflow management skills demonstrated in a variety of settings; ability to listen carefully to others’ ideas and points of view before deciding how to proceed
• Excellent communication skills, including writing reports, letters and documents for internal/external publication and presenting to and facilitating groups of individuals
• Ability to see the organization in terms of critical and highly interrelated work processes

3.       Required Leadership Experience and Competencies

• Ability to lead and communicate in a crisis situation
• Ability to develop key working relationships needed to support strategic direction, both internally and external to the department and company
• Ability to set an example for others in the IT organization by working well as a team member
• Provide leadership, promote teamwork, meet objectives and exercise independent judgment
• Experience leading and implementing projects and working collaboratively with other departments levels
• Ability to prioritize tasks and work with multiple priorities, sometimes under limited time contstraints.
  
  

PREFERRED COMPETENCIES

1.       Preferred Job Skills

• N/A

2.       Preferred Professional Competencies

• N/A

3.       Preferred Leadership Experience and Competencies

• N/A
  

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Our Commitment

AZ Blue does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other protected group.

Thank you for your interest in Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.  For more information on our company, see azblue.com.  If interested in this position, please apply.