Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead, Federal

Peregrine Technologies

$158K — $184K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in GRC, cybersecurity risk management, or security assurance
  • Expertise in FedRAMP program management and federal Risk Management Framework implementation
  • Working knowledge of NIST SP 800-53, FedRAMP, and federal assessment practices
  • Technical understanding of cloud security architecture, especially with AWS or Kubernetes
  • Experience designing sustainable compliance operations, including evidence management and continuous monitoring
  • Active U.S. government security clearance required.

Responsibilities

  • Own and manage Peregrine's FedRAMP High authorization program
  • Translate federal and agency requirements into operational controls
  • Lead agency-specific system authorizations from start to finish
  • Partner with Security and Infrastructure Engineering to assess security controls
  • Lead development of authorization artifacts and continuous monitoring deliverables
  • Drive closure of assessment findings and establish compliance practices
  • Advise Federal and customer-facing teams during security reviews and procurements.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work environment with 4 days in the D.C. office
  • Work in a supportive, security-oriented culture
  • Opportunities for professional development and certifications
  • Collaborative team environment focused on compliance and risk management.
  • Engagement with high-level stakeholders in federal security programs.
Full Job Description
The Role

We are looking for a senior Governance, Risk, and Compliance leader to own Peregrine's FedRAMP High program and establish the security and compliance foundation required to support Department of War (DoW) deployments at DoD Impact Level (IL) 4, IL5, and IL6, ICD 503 accreditation for Top Secret environments, and agency-specific system authorizations.

This is not a generalist compliance or audit-support role. You will translate federal and defense requirements into implementable technical and operational controls and work across Security, Engineering, Product, Legal, Federal Deployment, and GTM to guide those controls through assessment, authorization, and continuous operation as Peregrine's federal business evolves.

Clearance and eligibility. You currently hold, or are able to obtain, an active U.S. security clearance (required), and are based in Washington, D.C.

Our Washington, D.C. office is located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, and this role is expected to be hybrid, with 4 in-office days per week.
What You'll Do
  • Own Peregrine's FedRAMP High authorization program - sustaining and expanding our existing ATO through continuous monitoring, remediation, and reauthorization, including Peregrine's transition from FedRAMP Rev. 5 toward applicable FedRAMP 20x requirements.
  • Translate FedRAMP, NIST, federal agency, DoW and Intelligence Community requirements into technical and operational controls and establish the control architecture necessary to support IL4, IL5, and ultimately IL6 deployments alongside ICD 503 environments.
  • Lead agency-specific system authorizations, from initial engagement through ATO issuance and ongoing sponsorship.
  • Partner with Security and Infrastructure Engineering to evaluate system boundaries, Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM), network security, encryption and key management, logging, vulnerability and configuration management, hardening, supply-chain security, and incident response against federal and DoW requirements.
  • Lead authorization artifacts, control implementation statements, evidence, assessment responses, and continuous-monitoring deliverables while ensuring documented controls are supported by architecture, configuration, automation, procedures, and operating evidence.
  • Drive assessment findings and control gaps to closure and develop scalable control ownership, evidence collection, monitoring, and compliance-automation practices that improve the efficiency and quality of Peregrine's assurance program.
  • Ensure external security representations accurately reflect implemented controls and evidence, and advise Peregrine's Federal and customer-facing teams during procurements, technical evaluations, security reviews, and customer engagements.
About You
  • You are comfortable operating as a senior individual contributor with broad organizational influence and can drive programs across engineering, security, product, legal, operations, and customer-facing teams.
  • You approach compliance as an engineering and risk-management discipline and are willing to challenge weak implementations, unsupported assertions, and inadequate evidence.
  • You can turn complex or evolving requirements into defensible implementation strategies and communicate technical security issues clearly to engineers, executives, assessors, customers, and government security officials.
Preferred Certifications
  • 10+ years of experience in information security, GRC, security assurance, or cybersecurity risk management, including personally leading significant portions of obtaining and maintaining FedRAMP High authorization for a cloud service provider (CSP) with one or more cloud service offerings (CSOs).
  • Expertise in FedRAMP program management and federal Risk Management Framework (RMF) implementation through assessment, authorization, and remediation, plus at least two years of continuous monitoring - including 3PAO or government assessor engagement, authorization-package development, POA&M and accepted-weakness remediation, and agency or Authorizing Official engagement.
  • Working knowledge of NIST SP 800-53 and SP 800-37, FedRAMP, the DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide, DoD cybersecurity risk management (RMF and the successor Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct), DISA SRGs/STIGs, applicable FIPS requirements, control overlays, and federal assessment and authorization practices.
  • Technical understanding of cloud security architecture, including hands-on experience with AWS or AWS GovCloud, Kubernetes or containerized environments, Infrastructure as Code, and modern CI/CD.
  • Experience designing sustainable compliance operations, including control ownership, evidence and weakness management, continuous monitoring, change management, and machine-readable assurance evidence such as OSCAL.
  • Experience advising customer-facing teams through federal procurements, technical evaluations, and customer security reviews.
  • An active or recently active U.S. government security clearance and U.S. citizenship.
Bonus Points
  • Direct experience establishing and maintaining DoD IL4, IL5, or IL6 environments.
  • Experience with ICD 503 accreditation and the authorization of National Security Systems, classified systems, or cross-domain solutions.
  • Experience supporting federal or defense customers in environments involving CUI or other sensitive government information.
  • CISSP, CISA, CGRC, CISM, CCSP, or comparable security certifications.


Salary Range: $158,000 - 184,000, Annually + Benefits + Equity (if applicable) + Bonus (if applicable)

Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors, including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific work location. Information on the benefits offered is here.

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