Zero Trust Junior Architect

Job Family:

Cyber Consulting

Travel Required:

Up to 10%

Clearance Required:

Ability to Obtain Public Trust

Our Cybersecurity Consultants are a team of business integrators with extensive consulting and industry experience who help our clients solve their complex business issues from strategy through execution. A career in an integrated team of developers and consultants provides the opportunity to grow and contribute to our clients' business issues every day, applying a collection of security spectrum capabilities, including security strategy and governance, IT risk, security technologies, and cybercrime and breach response.

We are seeking an experienced Zero Trust Junior Architect to lead the design, assessment, and implementation of Zero Trust architecture across all security pillars. This role is ideal for a strategic thinker and hands‑on technologist who thrives in dynamic environments and is passionate about advancing cybersecurity maturity across complex organizations. Must bring deep expertise in Zero Trust principles, with hands‑on experience on industry‑leading security platforms and a strong understanding of emerging trends and government‑driven maturity frameworks (CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model(s) and DoD Zero Trust Strategy).

This role will be responsible for guiding enterprise security transformation initiatives, conducting detailed maturity assessments, and providing architectural leadership to ensure secure, scalable, and resilient solutions for our federal government clients.

Key Responsibility Areas include, but are not limited to:

• Design, document, and maintain enterprise Zero Trust architectures spanning identity, device, network/environment, application/workload, and data pillars.

• Define strategic roadmaps and reference architecture aligned with organizational objectives and mission requirements.

• Partner with cross‑functional teams to embed Zero Trust principles into technology modernization efforts, cloud transitions, and cybersecurity initiatives.

• Partner with cybersecurity, network engineering, cloud, Dev Sec Ops , and governance teams to ensure cohesive implementation and maturity.

• Perform organizational assessments using the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model.

• Produce gap analyses and prioritized remediation plans aligned with maturity expectations.

• Evaluate and architect solutions leveraging leading Zero Trust technologies, particularly:

• Crowd Strike (endpoint detection and response, identity protection).

• Zscaler (Zero Trust access, secure web gateway, private access).

• Okta (identity and access management, MFA, lifecycle management).

• Automate Zero Trust processes to improve scalability, efficiency, and compliance while adhering to established security policies.

• Support solution engineering, configuration guidance, integration patterns, and proof‑of‑concept deployments across hybrid and multi‑cloud environments.

• Continuously monitor emerging Zero Trust trends, frameworks, technologies, and threat intelligence.

• Advise senior leadership on advancements and evolving best practices in Zero Trust architecture and secure‑by‑design methodologies.

• Develop documentation, whitepapers, or briefings to support executive decision‑making.

• Minimum of EIGHT (8) years of experience in IT or managing large‑scale deployments and cross‑functional technical teams with five (5) years of US Federal government consulting experience.

• Bachelors degree

• US Citizenship is required

• Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal or DoD "PUBLIC TRUST"; candidates must obtain approved adjudication of their PUBLIC TRUST prior to onboarding with Guidehouse. Candidates with an ACTIVE PUBLIC TRUST or SUITABILITY are preferred.

• Experience working in federal civilian, defense contractor, or highly regulated environments.

• Experience leading teams for IT security operations, threat response, or security architecture development, including IAM system requirements, design, implementation, integration, testing, or change management.

• Demonstrated expertise across all pillars of Zero Trust (identity,…