Senior Cloud Solution Architect - Cybersecurity Exercises - CTJ - TS/SCI

Microsoft Federal is seeking individuals passionate about advancing cybersecurity readiness through immersive, hands-on exercises that strengthen operational resilience for U.S. Federal agencies. Candidates for this role will demonstrate technical expertise, effective facilitation skills, and a commitment to driving measurable security outcomes. As a Senior Security Cloud Solution Architect focused on Cyber Exercises, you will support the planning, facilitation, and delivery of immersive cybersecurity exercises for U.S. Federal customers. Working alongside senior CSAs, you will help design scenarios, operationalize technical solutions, and drive measurable security outcomes through hands-on engagement and collaboration. Responsibilities include: 

• Blue Cell Design Authority 

• • Own the design of defender-facing content across exercises, including workflows, tasks, success criteria, and evaluation frameworks. 

• • Ensure all defender activities align to realistic security operations and customer mission requirements. 

• • Establish and run the daily briefing rhythm to confirm customer findings. 

• Blue Team-focused Stakeholder Orchestration 

• • Align exercise scope, objectives, and communications with account team, customer, and delivery stakeholders; coordinate control‑cell and intelligence for injects; manage blue team operations schedule.  

• • Represent the program in customer briefings and executive touchpoints; set expectations and ensure outcomes are landed with account teams. 

• • Translate complex technical tradecraft into clear, outcome-focused narratives for senior customer leadership and non-technical stakeholders. 

• • Ensure defensive actions remain grounded in realistic operational constraints and decision-making 

• Drive Business Outcomes 

• • Translate exercise results into actionable recommendations for improving customer security operations. 

• • Own and lead defender outcomes aligned to strategic customer objectives, accelerating adoption and operationalization of Microsoft security tools through repeatable, measurable defender workflows. 

• • Partner with account teams to translate exercise findings into follow-on opportunities (control fixes, detection coverage improvements, and roadmap-aligned next steps). 

• • Track and communicate exercise-driven outcomes (skill uplift, detection gaps closed, and prioritized remediation guidance) in a way that is actionable for customer leadership and Microsoft account teams. 

• Design Defender Workflows & Hunt Content 

• • Develop and govern defender-facing content: workflows, evaluation points, and success criteria aligned to security operations and customer mission needs. 

• • Build and maintain reusable hunting content packages (KQL quick sheets, investigation playbooks, validation checklists, and scenario-aligned hunt guides) that scale delivery consistency. 

• • Translate red team TTPs into defender detection expectations (telemetry sources, logging gaps, validation steps), enabling rapid iteration during delivery and clear improvements post-exercise. 

• • Lead after-action analysis focused on defensive performance, detection coverage, and response effectiveness. 

• • Drive post-exercise refinement of defender guidance, detection expectations, and learning materials based on observed outcomes and identified gaps. 

• Mentorship & Collaboration 

• • Mentor team members in defensive tradecraft, analytical reasoning, and exercise delivery.. 

• • Lead regular team knowledge-sharing sessions that improve blue-team hunting quality and delivery consistency across parallel exercises. 

• • Develop and standardize playbooks, methodologies, and content to improve consistency across the team. 

• • Partner tightly with red team and control-cell to ensure timing, injects, and debriefs produce maximum defender learning value and actionable takeaways. 

 
Travel is an integral part of this position. You should be willing to travel as is demanded by the needs of our customers and our business. This position requires approximately 50-75% overnight travel.   

Embody our Culture and Values

• Defensive Cyber Operations (Proactive + Reactive): 

• • Experience leading or operating within security operations, threat hunting, detection engineering, or incident response functions in enterprise or U.S. Federal environments 

• • Ability to design and execute both proactive (hypothesis-driven hunting, coverage development) and reactive (investigation, containment, recovery) defensive workflows 

• • Experience translating operational activity into improved detection logic, response playbooks, and defensive tradecraft  

• • Coach and mentor customers on defensive actions during live cyber exercises (e.g., account actions, device isolation, blocking indicators, mitigation activity), including justifications and operational risk. 

• Detection Engineering & Telemetry Analysis: 

• • Proficient understanding of how adversary behaviors map to telemetry across identity, endpoint, network, application, and cloud environments. . 

• • Experience developing and iterating detection logic, hunting methodologies, and investigation workflows.   

• • Experience building reusable defensive content (playbooks, analytic patterns, hunt guides, validation frameworks). 

• • Ability to identify visibility gaps, define data requirements, and validate detection coverage against adversary techniques. 

• • Lead and facilitate exercise delivery after action reports (AARs) with customer-facing security response teams, executive level leadership, and Microsoft security personnel. 

• • Experience applying AI/ML and GenAI-assisted workflows to defensive cyber operations 

• Cloud, Identity, & Hybrid Environments: 

• • Experience investigating and defending modern environments, including identity-centric attacks, cloud resource abuse, and hybrid infrastructure scenarios. 

• • Ability to correlate activity across multiple data sources and platforms to build a complete operational picture. 

• Cyber Exercise Design & Blue Cell Leadership 

• • Experience designing defender-facing exercise content, including: 

• Detection and response workflows 

• Participant tasks and decision points 

• Success criteria and evaluation metrics. 

• • Ability to translate real-world adversary behavior into structured learning objectives and measurable outcomes. 

• • Experience supporting or leading cyber exercises, simulations, or operational training environments. 

• Leadership & Operational Excellence 

• • Ability to lead and mentor teams in dynamic environments. 

• • Effective facilitation skills across technical operators and senior leadership audiences.  

• • Experience driving consistency and quality across multiple concurrent efforts. 

• • Ability to translate technical findings into clear, mission-relevant insights and recommendations.. 

• Preferred Certifications 

• • Microsoft Security Operations Analyst (SC-200) or Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500). 

• • Industry recognized blue team or cybersecurity security certifications like GCFR, GCIH, or GCFA are desirable but not mandatory. 

• Experience Level: 

• • 8–10 years in blue team operations, threat hunting, detection engineering or related role OR equivalent academic/project experience. 

• • Demonstrated interest in cyber exercises, incident response, or cloud security architecture.