Assistant Security Manager Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Job Overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled Azure Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) to serve as a central technical authority for CNA's Azure cloud environment. This role is primarily focused on enabling and supporting Managed Service Providers (MSPs) through expert technical guidance, hands-on oversight, and acting as the primary escalation point for complex Azure issues.

The Azure Technical SME will collaborate closely with CNA's Security and Architecture teams to uphold and advance the organization's security posture and enforce approved architectural patterns. They will partner with Application and Business teams to facilitate the deployment and provisioning of key Azure services at scale, including Microsoft Power Platform and Power BI, ensuring solutions are delivered securely, efficiently, and in alignment with enterprise standards.

Additionally, this role will work in close partnership with CNA's AI Governance and Digital Workplace Enablement teams to ensure the smooth, compliant, and scalable deployment of AI technologies from both Azure and infrastructure perspectives. The Azure Technical SME will also champion cloud cost management and FinOps practices, driving financial accountability, spend transparency, and optimization across Azure services and MSP-delivered workloads.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft 365, and enterprise security architectures, with a strong focus on automation, governance, scalability, and cost optimization.

Key Responsibilities

1. MSP Technical Guidance & Escalation Support

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact and escalation resource for CNA's Managed Service Providers (MSPs) across Azure cloud operations.

• Provide expert technical guidance on Azure platform capabilities, service configurations, and best practices to MSP teams.

• Review and validate MSP-proposed solutions and change requests against CNA's architectural standards and security requirements.

• Monitor MSP delivery quality, identify gaps or risks, and intervene with targeted guidance or remediation direction.

• Facilitate structured knowledge transfer sessions and technical workshops to uplift MSP capability and alignment.

• Coordinate escalation paths and resolution timelines for critical Azure incidents, working with MSPs and internal teams to drive rapid resolution.

• Maintain clear documentation of escalation outcomes, architectural decisions, and operational standards for MSP engagement.

2. Azure Platform Guidance and Governance

• Provide SME oversight for Azure landing zones, subscriptions, resource groups, networking, identity integration, policy controls, role-based access, and platform governance.

• Guide the use of Azure services including compute, storage, networking, monitoring, backup, automation, and platform management capabilities.

• Ensure Azure services are designed and provisioned using approved CNA architecture patterns, security baselines, naming standards, tagging standards, and operational controls.

• Partner with Architecture to evaluate new Azure services and determine the right adoption path, guardrails, and support model.

• Support cloud cost management, including budget tracking, consumption reviews, forecasting, tagging compliance, cost allocation, and optimization recommendations in partnership with MSPs, Finance, and service owners.

• Provide guidance on Azure cost controls, including reserved capacity, savings plans, right-sizing, lifecycle policies, unused resource cleanup, and showback or chargeback reporting where appropriate.

• Evaluate and implement emerging Azure services to improve platform capabilities and operational efficiency.

• Develop endpoint standards, deployment strategies, and governance processes.

• Automate endpoint provisioning, software deployment, and compliance reporting.

3. Security & Compliance

• Partner with the CNA Security team to implement, validate, and continuously improve the organization's Azure security posture.

• Engage with the CNA Architecture team to define, enforce, and evolve approved Azure architectural patterns, guardrails, and reference architectures.

• Ensure all Azure services, deployments, and configurations adhere to CNA's security baselines, compliance frameworks, and governance standards.

• Conduct regular architecture and security reviews of Azure environments, identifying and driving remediation of gaps or deviations.

• Contribute to the development of Azure security policies, standards, and control frameworks in alignment with regulatory requirements (e.g., SOC 2, NIST, PCI-DSS).

• Collaborate on Zero Trust strategy and implementation across Azure infrastructure and services.

• Serve as a technical subject matter resource in security assessments, audits, and risk reviews related to Azure.

4. AI Technology Enablement & Infrastructure Support

• Collaborate with CNA's AI Governance team to ensure AI technologies and services deployed via Azure comply with governance frameworks, policies, and ethical standards.

• Partner with the Digital Workplace Enablement team to support the smooth deployment and adoption of AI-powered capabilities (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot) from an infrastructure and platform perspective.

• Provide technical guidance on Azure AI/ML infrastructure requirements including networking, identity, data residency, and security for AI workloads.

• Assist in evaluating and onboarding Azure AI services (Azure OpenAI Service, AI Foundry, Cognitive Services) within CNA's approved architecture.

• Ensure AI service deployments adhere to CNA's data governance, privacy, and security requirements.

• Serve as a technical bridge between AI product teams, infrastructure teams, and governance stakeholders to resolve deployment blockers and streamline delivery.

• Contribute to AI readiness assessments and infrastructure planning for enterprise-scale AI initiatives.

5. Operations & Continuous Improvement

• Develop monitoring, alerting, and operational dashboards for Azure and Microsoft 365 services.

• Automate routine administrative and operational processes using PowerShell, Azure Automation, Logic Apps, and related tools.

• Create and maintain technical documentation, standards, and operational runbooks.

• Provide Level 4 technical support and serve as an escalation point for complex cloud and workplace issues.

• Mentor MSP engineers and administrators on Azure, Microsoft 365, and endpoint management best practices.

• Identify opportunities for operational improvement, automation, and service modernization.

• Participate in project planning, architecture reviews, and technology roadmaps.

Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities:

• Solid analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to follow structured troubleshooting approaches.

• Ability to learn new technologies and processes efficiently in a regulated enterprise environment.

• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical partners.

• Strong attention to detail and adherence to security, compliance, and operational standards.

• Ability to manage multiple tasks, priorities, and service requests in a fast-paced environment.

• Experience creating or updating technical documentation and operational procedures.

• Demonstrated technical aptitude with an interest in continuous learning and development.

• Proven experience designing and supporting enterprise-scale Azure and Modern Workplace environments.

Strong knowledge of:

• Azure Compute, Storage, Networking, and Identity Services

• Azure Landing Zones

• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, ARM)

• Microsoft Intune and Endpoint Manager

• Microsoft 365 Administration

• Microsoft Defender Security Solutions

• Experience with PowerShell scripting and automation.

• Strong understanding of cloud governance, operational excellence, and cost optimization practices.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.

• Typically a minimum of 10 years of progressive IT infrastructure, cloud, or workplace technology experience.

• Typically 5+ years of hands-on Microsoft Azure engineering and administration experience.

• Excellent communication, leadership, documentation, and stakeholder management skills.

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