Ador Builders

The Arizona Department of Revenue's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is a visionary role that leads our Information Security organization.
This position serves to protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of ADOR information and information systems by ensuring appropriate security controls, policies, standards, and procedures are in place and effectively implemented. The CISO plans, reports, and implements all ADOR and statewide security efforts through the continuous review of industry best practices as well as the statewide regulatory and security requirements.
The ADOR CISO is not a traditional "Department of No" security leader. The ADOR CISO is an enabler, a partner, and most importantly, a builder. As our CISO, they protect the highly sensitive financial and tax data of Arizona's citizens while actively removing friction for our Business and IT teams. They champion a culture where security accelerates agility, innovation, and continuous improvement.
The CISO has an engineering mindset, a passion for DevSecOps, and believes that the best way to secure an organization is to automate compliance and partner seamlessly with engineers.
Why Join the AZ Department of Revenue?
At ADOR, you are doing more than just securing networks; you are protecting the integrity of the systems that fund Arizona's essential services. We offer a culture that embraces continuous improvement and innovation, where your ideas for modernizing government IT will be heard, supported, and implemented.

This position may offer the ability to work remotely, within Arizona, based upon the department's business needs and continual meeting of expected performance measures.

The State of Arizona strives for a work culture that affords employees flexibility, autonomy, and trust. Across our many agencies, boards, and commissions, many State employees participate in the State's Remote Work Program and are able to work remotely in their homes, in offices, and in hoteling spaces. All work, including remote work, should be performed within Arizona unless an exception is properly authorized in advance.

What You Will Do
1. Strategic Leadership & Cultural Transformation
Be the "Department of How": Shift the security paradigm from acting as a gatekeeper to serving as a trusted advisor and partner. When the business wants to move fast and experiment, your default response is, "Here is how we can do that safely and effectively."
Empower the Team: Mentor and elevate existing Infosec talent, fostering a modern security mindset that values collaboration, empathy, and continuous learning. Develop a framework to drive agility in your team to reskill and adapt to the fast pace of change in business, technology, and regulation.
Bridge the Gap: Communicate complex security and risk concepts in clear, business-friendly terms to executive leadership, technical teams, and non-technical stakeholders alike.
2. DevSecOps & Security Engineering
Lead with an Engineering Mindset: Treat infrastructure and security as code. Drive the adoption of automation to eliminate manual security reviews and bottlenecks.
Shift Left: Deeply integrate security into our CI/CD pipelines. Ensure that vulnerability scanning, compliance checks, and secure coding practices are automated and seamlessly woven into the developer experience.
Modernize Defense: Architect and oversee cloud-native security controls, zero-trust architectures, and automated incident response playbooks.
3. Risk Management & Compliance (at the Speed of Agile)

Secure the Mission: Safeguard Arizona taxpayer data and ensure rigorous compliance with critical frameworks (e.g., IRS Publication 1075, NIST, State of Arizona enterprise security policies).
Automate Compliance: Move away from spreadsheet-based compliance and manual controls and processes. Champion "Compliance-as-Code" to ensure continuous audit readiness without slowing down product delivery.
Pragmatic Risk-Taking: Help the organization make informed, risk-based decisions that balance the need for absolute data protection with the need for technological experimentation and modernization.
What You Bring to the Table
The Right Mindset: You are collaborative, open-minded, and driven by a desire to say "yes" to innovation. You view developer friction as a bug, not a feature of security.
Engineering Background: Proven, hands-on experience in security engineering, cloud architecture, or software development. You don't just read policy; you understand the underlying code and infrastructure.
DevSecOps Expertise: Deep familiarity with modern software development lifecycles, Agile methodologies, CI/CD tools, and security automation technologies.
Regulatory Fluency: A strong understanding of the compliance frameworks relevant to government and financial data (NIST 800-53, IRS Pub 1075, CIS Controls), with a track record of meeting these standards through modern, automated means.
Leadership Experience: Demonstrated success in leading, coaching, and growing high-performing technology or security teams.

Knowledge of:

• Engineering Background: Proven, hands-on experience in security engineering, cloud architecture, or software development. You don't just read policy; you understand the underlying code and infrastructure.
  
• Regulatory Fluency: A strong understanding of the compliance frameworks relevant to government and financial data (NIST 800-53, IRS Pub 1075, CIS Controls), with a track record of meeting these standards through modern, automated means.
  Skill in:

• The Right Mindset: You are collaborative, open-minded, and driven by desire to say "yes" to innovation. You view developer friction as a bug, not a feature of security.
  
• DevSecOps Expertise: Deep familiarity with modern software development lifecycles, Agile methodologies, CI/CD tools, and security automation technologies.
  Ability to:

• Leadership Experience: Demonstrated success in leading, coaching, and growing high-performing technology or security teams.
  At ADOR, you are doing more than just networks; you are protecting the integrity of the systems that fund Arizona's essential services. We offer a culture that embraces continuous improvement and innovation, where your ideas for modernizing government IT will be heard, supported, and implemented.

• Bachelor's degree plus 8 or more years of related experience plus 3 or more years of management experience (or equivalent experience)
  Experience with Continuous Improvement or LEAN is preferred.

The final candidate will be required to abide by the the following pre-employment checks:

• This position requires driving or the use of a vehicle as an essential function of the job to conduct State business, then the following requirements apply: Driver's License Requirements. Any employee operating a motor vehicle on State business must possess and retain a current, valid class-appropriate driver's license, complete all required training, and successfully pass all necessary driver's license record checks. The license must be current, unexpired, and neither revoked nor suspended. Employees who drive on state business are subject to driver's license record checks, must maintain acceptable driving records, and must complete all required driver training. An employee who operates a personally owned vehicle on state business shall maintain the statutorily required liability insurance (see Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.) R2-10-207.11).
  
• Successfully pass background and reference checks; employment is contingent upon completion of the above-mentioned process and the agency's ability to reasonably accommodate any restrictions.
  
• Arizona Tax Filing Records Check
  
• State and Federal Criminal Background Check, including fingerprinting
• All newly hired State employees are subject to and must successfully complete the Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Program (E-Verify).
  

The Arizona Department of Revenue offers a comprehensive benefits package to include:

• Affordable medical, dental, life, and short-term disability insurance plans
  
• Participation in the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) and long-term disability plans
  
• 10 paid holidays per year
  
• Vacation time accrued at 4.00 hours bi-weekly for the first 3 years
  
• Sick time accrued at 3.70 hours bi-weekly
  
• Paid Parental Leave-Up to 12 weeks per year paid leave for newborn or newly-placed foster/adopted child (pilot program).
  
• Deferred compensation plan
  
• Wellness plans
  
• Tuition Reimbursement
  
• Infant at Work Program
  
• Rideshare and Public Transit Subsidy
  
• Career Advancement & Employee Development Opportunities
  
• Flexible schedules to create a work/life balance
  

By providing the option of a full-time or part-time remote work schedule, employees enjoy improved work/life balance, report higher job satisfaction, and are more productive. Remote work is a management option and not an employee entitlement or right. An agency may terminate a remote work agreement at its discretion.

Learn more about the Paid Parental Leave programhere. For a complete list of benefits provided by The State of Arizona, please visit our benefits page

Top ranked Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) provides 100% employer matched contributions (enrollment eligibility will be effective after 27 weeks of State employment). ASRS provides a lifelong benefit based on years of service earned, or worked, and your ending salary. Learn more about ASRS at: https://www.azasrs.gov/content/new-and-prospective-members.

If you have any questions, need assistance, or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact the ADOR Talent Team at talentgroup@azdor.gov.
*The State of Arizona is an Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation Employer.