Principal Engineer II - Cyber

Job Title:

Principal Engineer II - Cyber

Location:

TX - Dallas/Irving

What you'll do:

As a Principal IT Security Governance Engineer II, you will serve as a senior principal-level individual contributor responsible for leading and advancing the organization’s cybersecurity governance, risk management, and maturity initiatives. This role combines deep expertise in cyber risk, control design, CRI Profile maturity, and policy management with a strong understanding of modern engineering practices, data, automation, and AI-driven capabilities.

You will drive highly complex, cross-functional initiatives that embed secure, compliant, and scalable practices into technology, data, and AI solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise risk management objectives and regulatory expectations. This includes designing and implementing governance frameworks, control structures, and engineering-enabled solutions that enhance the effectiveness, consistency, and automation of risk assessments, RCSAs, and control monitoring.

In this role, you will act as a governance and technical authority, setting direction for scalable governance practices and partnering closely with engineering, data, and risk teams to translate evolving technologies into defensible, regulator-ready processes, controls, and documentation. You will leverage data, automation, and AI to improve visibility into risk posture, drive operational efficiency, and enable sustained improvements in cybersecurity maturity and program scalability.

• Own and lead enterprise cybersecurity governance initiatives spanning risk identification, control design, policy management, and maturity improvement.
• Serve as a senior subject-matter expert for cyber risk management, providing guidance on control effectiveness, risk treatment, residual risk decisions, and defensible risk acceptance practices.
• Drive execution of cybersecurity Risk & Control Self‑Assessments (RCSAs), ensuring alignment to ERM standards and regulatory expectations.
• Own and manage CRI Profile assessments, maturity scoring, evidence standards, and remediation tracking. Partner with technology, security, and risk teams to drive improved, sustained, and measurable maturity gains.
• Maintain traceability between risks, controls, assessment results, remediation activities, and maturity outcomes.
• Lead the development, maintenance, and rationalization of cybersecurity policies, standards, and procedures in alignment with industry best practices (e.g., GLBA, FFIEC, NIST).
• Design, document, and maintain cyber risk statements, control descriptions, and control narratives suitable for audits and regulatory exams.
• Support internal audits, regulatory exams, and second line credible challenge through structured responses, evidence packaging, and issue management.
• Track and report on control performance, risk posture, and remediation progress using defined metrics and governance forums.
• Lead complex initiatives requiring coordination across IT, Information Security, ERM, Privacy, and Audit, including efforts with ambiguity, competing priorities, and executive visibility.
• Act as a trusted advisor and technical authority to senior leaders on risk posture, maturity trends, program health, and scalable governance practices.
• Establish reusable governance patterns, evidence standards, and control documentation approaches that improve consistency across cybersecurity programs.
• Provide technical mentorship and peer review for governance, risk, automation, and reporting deliverables to raise quality and reduce rework.
• Produce clear, executive‑ready artifacts including risk summaries, maturity dashboards, remediation roadmaps, and briefing materials.
• Develop, govern, and continuously improve automation solutions (e.g., scripting, workflow tools, AI-assisted processes) to improve efficiency of risk assessments, control testing, and evidence collection.
• Enable data-driven insights and reporting through engineering-oriented solutions (e.g., dashboards, metrics automation, control monitoring, and repeatable measurement models).
• Drive integration of AI and automation into RCSA, CRI assessments, and risk reporting processes to improve scalability, consistency, accuracy, and control sustainability.

What you'll need:

• 10+ years of related experience in Cybersecurity, Information Security Governance, IT Risk, or Enterprise Risk Management.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, or a related field. Master’s degree or MBA in related field preferred.
• Cyber Risk Management frameworks (NIST CSF, CRI Profile, FFIEC, ISO 27001 principles).
• RCSAs, risk identification, control design, and residual risk assessment.
• Policy, standard, and procedure lifecycle management.
• Regulatory and audit engagement support in a financial services environment.
• Strong ability to translate complex technical and regulatory concepts into clear, defensible documentation.
• Proven experience leading cross-functional initiatives with competing priorities, executive visibility, and complex stakeholder alignment.
• Expert verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to influence senior leaders and produce regulator-ready documentation.
• Demonstrated experience leveraging or governing AI/ML, automation, or advanced analytics within cybersecurity, risk, or compliance domains preferred.
• Strong understanding of data architectures, data flows, and system integrations, with the ability to assess associated cyber, privacy, and governance risks preferred.
• Familiarity with emerging regulatory expectations related to AI, model risk, and data usage in financial services preferred.
• Working knowledge of software engineering or scripting practices (e.g., Python, PowerShell, automation workflows) to support scalable, repeatable governance solutions preferred.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to use data and automation to enhance risk identification, monitoring, and reporting preferred.
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CISA, CRISC, CISSP, CISM, CGEIT, ITIL) preferred.

Benefits you’ll love:
We offer all the important things you'd want — like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

About the company:

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands — Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank — that remain part of the company’s heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.

Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to equal employment and will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, sex, color, religion, age, nation origin, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or genetic information. Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process and/or need an alternative method of applying, please email [email protected] or call 602-386-2488.  When contacting us, please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue.  We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests that involve a reasonable accommodation in the application process.

© Western Alliance Bancorporation