Requisition ID: 97398
Florida Power & Light Company is the largest electric utility in the U.S., providing reliable energy to nearly 12 million Floridians. With one of the nation’s most fuel-efficient, cost-effective power generation fleets and industry-leading reliability, we’re redefining what’s possible in energy. Want to be part of something powerful? Join our outstanding team and help shape the future of energy.
Position Specific Description
NextEra Energy / Florida Power & Light — America's largest electric utility — is seeking a Cybersecurity Architect to augment its Cybersecurity Architecture team and support the assessment of cybersecurity risk associated with new technology implementations across a large, complex Fortune 500 enterprise.
This is a highly technical architecture and risk assessment position. The architect will evaluate proposed technologies and solutions across cloud, SaaS, enterprise applications, infrastructure, networks, identity, APIs, AI/GenAI, OT/ICS, third-party solutions, and other emerging technologies. The role spans the full technology lifecycle — from early planning and solution design through formal architecture review, implementation support, and pre-production validation.
This role operates with a business-enablement mindset. The architect is not expected to approve or reject technology implementations. Instead, they identify and clearly communicate cybersecurity risk, define appropriate controls and mitigations, and work collaboratively with project teams and vendors to find practical solutions that allow business objectives to move forward securely. Where risk cannot or will not be mitigated, the architect clearly documents the residual risk so the appropriate Business Unit Director can make an informed risk-acceptance decision.
Key Responsibilities
- Independently lead cybersecurity architecture reviews for complex projects, platforms, applications, infrastructure, cloud services, SaaS platforms, vendor solutions, APIs, and enterprise integrations.
- Analyze solution architectures, network and data flows, trust boundaries, authentication models, integrations, external connectivity, and security controls.
- Perform threat modeling to identify realistic threat scenarios, attack paths, trust-boundary concerns, and potential security weaknesses.
- Identify cybersecurity risks and assign appropriate risk ratings using established enterprise risk methodologies combined with senior-level professional judgment.
- Clearly articulate the technical and business implications of identified cybersecurity risks.
- Define required and recommended security controls and practical mitigation strategies based on identified risk.
- Produce concise, defensible risk documentation identifying the exposure, potential impact, risk rating, mitigation requirements, and residual risk.
- Document residual cybersecurity risks requiring Business Unit Director acceptance when appropriate mitigations will not be implemented.
- Assess internet-facing technologies and external attack surfaces, including web applications, APIs, exposed services, authentication mechanisms, WAFs, DDoS protections, DNS, certificates, ingress architectures, and external connectivity.
- Assess cloud architectures with consideration for identity and access management, networking, workload security, logging and monitoring, data protection, encryption, and shared-responsibility models.
- Evaluate application security architecture, including authentication and authorization, APIs, web application security, secrets management, encryption, secure architecture patterns, OWASP risks, and third-party integrations.
- Evaluate identity and access management architectures, including SSO, federation, MFA, RBAC, privileged access, service/workload identities, and least-privilege principles.
- Evaluate data security and privacy considerations, including data classification, collection, storage, processing, transmission, encryption, access controls, retention, and third-party handling of sensitive or regulated information.
- Assess cybersecurity resiliency, including single points of failure, backup and recovery dependencies, ransomware resilience, and the potential operational impact of cybersecurity controls.
- Review and critically evaluate vendor security architectures and supporting technical evidence — including security assessments, penetration-test results, vulnerability scans, and architecture documentation — rather than accepting vendor security assertions at face value.
- Recognize regulatory, privacy, and compliance implications associated with proposed solutions, including NERC CIP, and engage appropriate subject-matter experts when specialized expertise is required.
- Develop reusable cybersecurity architecture patterns, reference architectures, standards, and implementation guidance when recurring risks or architecture patterns are identified.
- Facilitate architecture review sessions with application teams, project teams, technical stakeholders, and third-party vendors.
- Guide migration and modernization strategies and coordinate with domain specialists for novel or high-risk technical decisions.
- Mentor other cybersecurity professionals, share technical knowledge, and help improve review methods, templates, and architecture quality.
- Monitor industry threats and technology trends and incorporate relevant improvements into architecture standards and patterns.
- Independently manage a high volume of concurrent cybersecurity architecture assessments while maintaining quality and meeting established review timelines.
Required Qualifications
The ideal candidate will demonstrate senior-level cybersecurity architecture experience and the ability to independently assess complex enterprise technologies. Selection should emphasize demonstrated capability and experience rather than a rigid number of years in the profession.
Candidates should possess:
- Demonstrated senior-level experience performing cybersecurity architecture, solution security, or technology risk assessments in large and complex enterprise environments.
- Strong understanding of cybersecurity architecture principles and the ability to apply them across diverse technology environments.
- Strong working knowledge of cloud security architecture, including IAM, networking, data protection, workload security, logging/monitoring, encryption, and shared-responsibility models (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP).
- Strong working knowledge of network and infrastructure security, including segmentation, firewalls, WAFs, proxies, DNS, load balancers, certificates, encryption, remote access, and secure connectivity.
- Strong working knowledge of application security, including authentication and authorization, APIs, web application security, secrets management, secure design patterns, OWASP risks, and third-party integrations.
- Strong working knowledge of identity and access management, including SSO, federation, MFA, RBAC, privileged access, service/workload identities, and least privilege.
- Strong knowledge of data security and privacy architecture, including protection of sensitive and regulated information throughout its lifecycle, with familiarity with data classification, encryption, key management, tokenization, and DLP.
- Demonstrated ability to perform threat modeling and identify attack surfaces, trust boundaries, realistic threat scenarios, and potential attack paths.
- Ability to interpret vulnerability assessments, penetration-test findings, and vendor-provided security assessment results and determine their relevance to architecture risk.
- Experience evaluating third-party/vendor technologies and challenging vendor security assertions when supporting evidence is incomplete or insufficient.
- Working knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks and standards, including NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-53, NERC CIP, and ISO/IEC 27001.
- Broad working knowledge of regulatory and compliance considerations, with the judgment to recognize when specialized legal, privacy, compliance, or regulatory expertise should be engaged.
- Ability to independently lead architecture review meetings and drive technical discussions toward a clear risk determination.
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent assessments in a high-volume, fast-paced environment.
- Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
- Strong written communication skills, particularly the ability to develop concise and defensible cybersecurity risk statements.
- Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to establish productive relationships with application/project teams and third-party vendors.
- Ability to translate technical cybersecurity concerns into practical mitigation requirements.
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, identify missing information, ask appropriate technical questions, and drive assigned assessments through completion.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent relevant professional experience will be considered.
- Industry certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, or comparable cybersecurity/cloud/architecture certifications.
- Experience performing cybersecurity architecture assessments within a Fortune 500 or similarly large, complex enterprise.
- Experience with multiple cloud environments such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
- Familiarity with OT/ICS cybersecurity environments and the unique security and operational considerations associated with critical infrastructure, including safety, availability, reliability, and regulatory constraints.
- General awareness of emerging AI/GenAI security risks and considerations.
- Experience contributing to cybersecurity reference architectures, reusable security patterns, technical standards, or architecture guidance.
- Experience in a utility, critical infrastructure, or other highly regulated environment.
Operating Philosophy
The Cybersecurity Architect should approach cybersecurity as a business enabler.
This role is not intended to function as a technology approval gate or a default to rejecting solutions because cybersecurity risk exists. The architect is expected to understand the business objective, thoroughly assess the proposed implementation, identify and clearly communicate cybersecurity risks, and determine appropriate mitigations. The architect actively works with project teams and vendors to identify practical solutions that reduce risk while allowing the business objective to move forward. Where risk remains, the architect clearly documents the residual risk so the appropriate Business Unit Director can make an informed decision regarding risk acceptance.
A successful Cybersecurity Architect will:
- Consistently deliver high-quality cybersecurity assessments within established timelines.
- Identify material cybersecurity risks that might otherwise be overlooked.
- Assign risk levels consistently and defensibly.
- Recommend practical and proportionate security mitigations.
- Produce clear risk documentation that enables informed business decisions.
- Independently manage a significant volume of concurrent assessments without sacrificing quality.
- Maintain productive relationships with project teams, vendors, and business stakeholders.
- Be viewed by stakeholders as a knowledgeable cybersecurity partner who helps the organization implement technology securely — rather than as an obstacle to implementation.
Job Overview
This job performs ongoing cybersecurity risk reviews for new and existing technologies and services and supports ongoing and new cybersecurity projects. Individuals develop requirements for and implement technical security projects and tools, as well as define the company’s cybersecurity policies and control framework. This position collaborates with the company’s IT department and business units to identify the need for, select, and deploy technical controls to meet specific security requirements. Employees in this role build processes and standards to ensure security requirements continue to be met.
Job Duties & Responsibilities
- Administers, operates and monitors NextEra Energy (NEE) information security sensors, logging, alerting and other detection mechanisms to identify and respond to threats
- Acts as subject matter expert for one or multiple assigned cybersecurity technology stacks (e.g., identity and access management, network intrusion detection and prevention, host based security tools)
- Collaborates with security architecture to identify, evaluate and recommend new security technologies for suitability within NEE’s environment and security posture
- Communicates ongoing cybersecurity activities, priorities and risk measurements or mitigations at multiple organizational levels
- Provides guidance for security activities and requirements in the system development life cycle (SDLC) and application development efforts. Participates in organizational projects, as required
- Performs other job-related duties as assigned
Required Qualifications
- High School Grad / GED
- Bachelor's or Equivalent Experience
- Experience: 4+ years
Preferred Qualifications
- Certified Information Systems Aud (CISA) certification
NextEra Energy offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees and their eligible family members. Click here to learn more.
Employee Group: Exempt
Employee Type: Full Time
Job Category: Information Technology
Organization: Florida Power & Light Company
Relocation Provided: Yes, if applicable
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