Cloud Security Architect Team Lead

We support 9 million customers and businesses nationwide with electric utilities in three states and natural gas distribution utilities in four, and provide wholesale energy, customized distributed energy solutions and fiber optics and wireless communications across the country.

4 Days in the office – Atlanta, GA or Birmingham, AL

Southern Company, a major U.S. energy firm, is seeking an experienced Senior Cloud Security Architect to design secure cloud solutions and reduce enterprise risk as part of the Cybersecurity Architecture organization. The candidate will directly support the company’s efforts to mitigate real and potential cyber threats to its facilities, personnel, technology, operations, and brand — including critical electric and gas utility infrastructure and privately owned telecommunications networks.

This role has significant individual impact and high visibility within corporate leadership and governance.

This role serves as both a Cloud Security Architect and the Cloud Security Operations Team Lead, with responsibility for helping define and execute the strategic direction for Enterprise Security Architecture in the areas of Cloud and Application Security, in partnership with the Cybersecurity Architecture Manager. The position is focused on designing, deploying, and operationalizing cloud security architectures, tools, and processes, and leading cloud security operations to ensure consistent, measurable risk reduction.

The role operates within a multi‑cloud environment, with primary emphasis on Azure, and additional responsibility across Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and others. The successful candidate will work across architecture, engineering, and operations to design secure solutions, deploy new security capabilities, and integrate security into cloud platforms and delivery processes at scale.

Qualified candidates must be able to operate in a fast‑paced environment; translate strategy into execution; design and implement secure cloud architectures; assist with cloud security operations; influence outcomes through strong partnerships; stay current with evolving cloud and security technologies; and maintain a strong focus on delivery and results.

This position is responsible for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the company’s information assets by:

• Establishing and implementing cloud security architecture, standards, and operating models.
• Designing, deploying, and operating cloud security applications, tools, and processes.
• Providing cloud security leadership, technical expertise, and consulting across the enterprise.

• Develop and execute the enterprise Cloud Security Architecture and Operations roadmap in alignment with cybersecurity leadership direction.
• Lead the Cloud Security Operations team, providing technical direction, prioritization, mentorship, and oversight.
• Design, implement, and maintain secure cloud architecture patterns and services across Azure and other cloud environments.
• Establish and maintain cloud security operating models, workflows, and procedures to support reliable, repeatable execution.
• Oversee deployment and operational maturity of cloud security capabilities, including identity security, CSPM, logging, monitoring, and automation.
• Coordinate cross‑functional delivery efforts across Cybersecurity, Cloud Engineering, Identity, Network, Application, and Infrastructure teams.
• Ensure cloud security initiatives are operationally ready prior to scale, including validated architectures, documented processes, runbooks, and escalation paths.
• Partner with SOC and Incident Response teams to support cloud security alerting, investigation workflows, and response readiness.
• Drive ongoing maturity of cloud security controls through tuning, coverage expansion, continuous monitoring, and remediation of risk.
• Identify, assess, and coordinate remediation of cloud security risks such as misconfigurations, excessive permissions, insecure deployments, and architecture gaps.
• Develop and maintain metrics, dashboards, and reporting to measure cloud security posture, control effectiveness, and risk reduction.
• Support…