Senior Configuration Management Specialist

By joining the National Student Clearinghouse, you can be sure that the work you do now will help shape the future of education and the workforce in the U.S. As the trusted source for higher education data since 1993, the Clearinghouse is the leading provider of transcript and data exchange services, automated enrollment and degree verifications, learner insights and research, and compliance solutions for schools, businesses, and learners nationwide.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Clearinghouse works with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions to meet their compliance needs and with thousands of high schools and districts to provide continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics about their alumni. In addition, the Research Center publications inform policymakers and business leaders about student educational pathways. Using our unique combination of data, analytics, and software to drive our mission, security and privacy is paramount.

Join us as we continue to invest in our talent and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data on behalf of all learners.

The Senior Specialist, Configuration Management (known externally as Senior Configuration Management Specialist) serves as the organization's subject matter expert and functional owner for configuration management practices, governance, and compliance. This role is responsible for establishing, governing, and continuously enhancing configuration management processes that ensure the integrity, security, consistency, traceability, and control of software, infrastructure, systems, environments, and associated technical documentation throughout the system development lifecycle.

Working closely with Dev Sec Ops , Engineering, Information Security, Quality Assurance, Operations, and other technology stakeholders, this role leads enterprise configuration management governance, establishes organizational standards and controls, identifies and mitigates configuration-related risk, and drives compliance with internal policies and external regulatory requirements.
The Senior Specialist is accountable for the organization's configuration management control domain supporting CMMC, NIST 800-171, and related cybersecurity frameworks. This includes ownership of configuration management practices, supporting documentation, evidence management, audit readiness activities, remediation efforts, and ongoing compliance necessary to achieve and sustain regulatory and cybersecurity requirements.

This role serves as a trusted advisor to technology leadership and governance teams, ensuring configuration management capabilities effectively support secure software delivery, operational resilience, audit readiness, and organizational cybersecurity objectives.

Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

• Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies:
  Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
• Lead the organization's configuration management program and strategy, ensuring configuration management practices effectively support software development, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, operational resilience, and compliance objectives.
• Serve as the organizational owner and primary subject matter expert for configuration management controls supporting CMMC, NIST 800-171, and related cybersecurity frameworks, accountable for establishing, maintaining, and continuously improving configuration management practices necessary to achieve and sustain compliance.
• Lead assessment readiness, audit preparation, evidence management, remediation planning, control implementation, and ongoing compliance activities associated with configuration management requirements.
• Develop, implement, govern, and continuously enhance enterprise configuration management standards, policies, procedures, governance processes, and control frameworks across software, infrastructure, systems, environments, and technical documentation.
• Establish and maintain enterprise configuration baselines and governance processes to ensure configuration…