Director of Cybersecurity

Corporate Office - Knoxville, TNWho Are We?

Altar'd State is a rapidly growing women's fashion brand with more than 120 boutiques in 38 states. We offer a place of respite and a distinctive shopping experience with the latest fashion finds, the most sought-after accessories, as well as charming home décor and gifts.

Our Mission“Stand Out. For Good”. At Altar’d State, those four words are more than just our motto, they are why we exist. From Mission Mondays, where 10% of our net proceeds go directly to local charitable organizations, to our long-standing partnership with Coprodeli USA, in which we are in the process of building 22 schools for impoverished communities in Peru, we are committed to giving back in meaningful ways to those in need.

The Role The Director of Cybersecurity provides strategic leadership, governance, and operational oversight for the organization’s entire information security and risk management ecosystem. This executive role is responsible for establishing the enterprise security roadmap, managing cybersecurity budgets, and protecting digital assets against evolving global threats.

Unlike execution-focused security analysts, this position centers on defining corporate security policies, managing incident response strategies, ensuring regulatory compliance, and cultivating a proactive culture of risk awareness across the enterprise.

Primary Responsibilities Platform Administration & Support Strategic Oversight:
Direct the design, deployment, and modernization of global security architectures, including IAM, SIEM, EDR, and cloud security frameworks.

Governance & Standards:
Establish comprehensive security frameworks, vulnerability management plans, and corporate-wide incident response policies to mitigate risk.

Incident Escalation:
Act as the ultimate authority for major security incident response, directing containment, forensics, and post-mortem investigations.

Capacity Planning:
Forecast security tooling requirements, resource allocation, and continuous control testing to outpace emerging threat landscapes.

Vendor & Service Delivery Management Contract Negotiation:
Manage enterprise agreements and high-value partnerships with managed security service providers (MSSPs), external auditors, and security OEMs.Strategic Auditing:
Review top-tier security vendor deliverables, penetration testing results, and third-party risk assessments against compliance metrics.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement Executive Advisory:
Partner directly with the C-suite and Board of Directors to align security investments with organizational risk tolerance and business objectives.

Talent Cultivation:
Lead, mentor, and build accountability within internal security engineering, threat intelligence, and compliance teams.

Stakeholder Communication & Leadership Vision Alignment:
Translate highly technical threat data and risk metrics into clear, value-driven business strategies for non-technical executive leaders.

Steering Committees:
Chair regular cross-functional risk committees to coordinate enterprise vulnerability remediation and data protection strategies.

Collaboration & Communication Enterprise Unity:
Collaborate closely with Infrastructure, IT Operations, and Software Engineering divisions to champion a unified, secure-by-design culture.

Qualifications8+ years of cybersecurity leadership experience overseeing enterprise security, risk management, incident response, and compliance programs.

Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent experience); CISSP, CISM, or similar certifications preferred.

Strong expertise in cloud and network security, modern security architectures, threat management, Zero Trust, Dev Sec Ops , and compliance frameworks including NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR.Proven ability to lead security strategy, manage budgets and vendors, optimize security technologies, and direct crisis response efforts during critical security incidents.

Exceptional communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence technical teams, business stakeholders, executive leadership, and Board members.

Collaborative leader with a strong commitment to data…