{"id":3320847,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2","title":"Advanced Specialist, Security Engineer","company":{"id":34029,"name":"Pearson","domain":"pearson.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/pearson","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Oracle","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":25,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.88,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":29,"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"}},"role":"Security","role_family":"Security","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Durham, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":80000,"max":125000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":125000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"FedRAMP","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"ISO 27001","optional":false},{"name":"KEV","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"SIEM","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"GDPR","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-27T05:17:06Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-27","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T00:39:00Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Summary\nThe Sovereign Team is the technical cybersecurity team of Pearson’s cybersecurity organization that works with the Lines of Business on contractual and regulatory obligations as it relates to sovereign requirements from countries around the world. We are not compliance or audit function - we are the deep technical experts on cloud, infrastructure and application security who hold the architectural knowledge that makes certifications such as FedRAMP, GovRAMP and Cyber Essentials Plus achievable and defensible.\nAs a Security Engineer, you will be a senior hands-on practitioner and technical individual contributor within the team, leading your own efforts. You will validate that architecture is actually deployed correctly against each sovereign requirement, design and operate the security tooling that underpins regulated boundaries, and provide oversight, direction and mentorship to engineers across the team. You will be expected to represent the team credibly with business units, enterprise security teams, external auditors and government customers - and to carry senior-level conversations, including budget and vendor discussions.\nThis is a technical role with leadership responsibility. It is not a people-management role, but you will set technical direction, mentor engineers, and act as the escalation point for complex sovereign security problems.\nKey Responsibilities\nSovereign architecture & readiness\nConduct readiness assessments for business units entering regulated or sovereign environments; review authorization boundaries and data flows.\n\nIdentify architectural blockers early across identity, cloud, application, logging and data controls.\n\nValidate that proposed tools and services are suitable for the applicable boundary - and escalate where they are not.\n\nTranslate regulatory and contractual requirements into concrete technical designs, standards and hardening guidance.\n\nSecurity engineering & approved tooling\nLead paved road tool selection, design and onboarding for regulated environments.\n\nDefine sovereign requirements for enterprise operated tooling, validate suitability, and coordinate with the enterprise owners who run the platforms.\n\nDesign and support boundary critical capability such as identity, WAF, DSPM and logging/SIEM architecture.\n\nIdentify and automate opportunities to reduce manual control validation and evidence gathering.\n\nAbility to create scripts to support FedRAMP 20x to automate governance and compliance measurements for Rules and KSIs\n\nContinuous assurance & authorization maintenance\nOwn vulnerability and control health oversight across the sovereign estate, escalating risk trends and missed remediation commitments to the right owner.\n\nProvide penetration test scope assurance and cadence support, including annual IT Health Check and ATO cycles.\n\nLead technical audit preparation and evidence quality review; support POA&M, KEV and STIG activity.\n\nInterface directly with 3PAOs, external assessors and government customers on technical control questions.\n\nTechnical leadership & enablement\n\nProvide oversight, direction and advice to cybersecurity engineers by reviewing security designs and implementations.\n\nMentor and develop engineers on sovereign requirements, secure architecture and secure SDLC practice.\n\nBuild reusable playbooks, standards and onboarding material so team capability scales beyond individuals.\n\nServe as a single technical entry point for business units at project intake, security kickoff and tool onboarding.\n\nContribute to budget, licensing and vendor conversations, and communicate technical risk clearly to senior leadership.\n\nEssential Skills & Experience\nBachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Security, MIS or an equivalent technical discipline.\n\nSignificant hands-on experience in cloud and infrastructure security engineering, at a senior or lead level.\n\nDemonstrable experience operating within a regulated or accredited environment - FedRAMP, GovRAMP, NIST SP 80053, ISO27001, or a comparable national scheme.\n\nStrong practical cloud security depth in Azure, GCP and AWS, including boundary design, network segmentation, hardening and identity.\n\nExperience defining and evidencing technical controls for external audit and engaging directly with assessors.\n\nWorking fluency in application security and secure SDLC - SAST/SCA/RASP tooling, vulnerability triage, and credible engagement with development teams.\n\nExperience with SIEM, logging and alerting platforms and their integration into a monitored boundary.\n\nAbility to script and automate (Python or comparable) to reduce manual control and evidence work.\n\nExcellent written and verbal communication; able to explain technical risk to nontechnical and executive audiences.\n\nDesirable Skills & Experience\nDirect experience preparing for or maintaining a FedRAMP or GovRAMP authorization.\n\nFamiliarity with additional sovereign regimes - UK Cyber Essentials Plus / NCSC, EU GDPR and NIS2, China MLPS/PIPL, Saudi NCA ECC, Australia ASD Essential Eight.\n\nExperience supporting government or public-sector customers under contractual security obligations.\n\nVulnerability management and posture management tooling at enterprise scale.\n\nExperience with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code in a regulated context.\n\nProfessional accreditation such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP or equivalent.\n\nPrior experience mentoring engineers or leading a small technical function.\n\nComfort operating in an agile environment with shifting priorities and multiple concurrent regulatory deadlines.\n\nCompensation at Pearson is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, and location.\nThe full-time salary range for this role is $80,000 - $125,000. This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. Information on benefits can be found here.\nApplications will be accepted through 2nd November 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.\nApply today and imagine the impact you can make.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6001,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["EdTech Platforms","Publishing","E-learning","Application Security"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-27T07:51:24Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":29,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":125000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/pearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/pearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T05:02:14Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7814,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-30T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":34029},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=34029"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/pearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpearson-advanced-specialist-security-engineer-2"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3320847}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"pearson.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3320847},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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