About the Role:The Senior Specialist, Configuration Management (known externally as Senior Configuration Management Specialist) serves as the organization's subject matter expert and functional owner for configuration management practices, governance, and compliance. This role is responsible for establishing, governing, and continuously enhancing configuration management processes that ensure the integrity, security, consistency, traceability, and control of software, infrastructure, systems, environments, and associated technical documentation throughout the system development lifecycle.
Working closely with DevSecOps, Engineering, Information Security, Quality Assurance, Operations, and other technology stakeholders, this role leads enterprise configuration management governance, establishes organizational standards and controls, identifies and mitigates configuration-related risk, and drives compliance with internal policies and external regulatory requirements.
The Senior Specialist is accountable for the organization's configuration management control domain supporting CMMC, NIST 800-171, and related cybersecurity frameworks. This includes ownership of configuration management practices, supporting documentation, evidence management, audit readiness activities, remediation efforts, and ongoing compliance necessary to achieve and sustain regulatory and cybersecurity requirements.
This role serves as a trusted advisor to technology leadership and governance teams, ensuring configuration management capabilities effectively support secure software delivery, operational resilience, audit readiness, and organizational cybersecurity objectives.
Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.
How You Contribute:- Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
- Lead the organization's configuration management program and strategy, ensuring configuration management practices effectively support software development, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, operational resilience, and compliance objectives.
- Serve as the organizational owner and primary subject matter expert for configuration management controls supporting CMMC, NIST 800-171, and related cybersecurity frameworks, accountable for establishing, maintaining, and continuously improving configuration management practices necessary to achieve and sustain compliance.
- Lead assessment readiness, audit preparation, evidence management, remediation planning, control implementation, and ongoing compliance activities associated with configuration management requirements.
- Develop, implement, govern, and continuously enhance enterprise configuration management standards, policies, procedures, governance processes, and control frameworks across software, infrastructure, systems, environments, and technical documentation.
- Establish and maintain enterprise configuration baselines and governance processes to ensure configuration items remain secure, controlled, traceable, and aligned with organizational and regulatory requirements.
- Evaluate existing configuration management practices, identify strategic risks, control weaknesses, process gaps, and compliance concerns, and lead cross-functional remediation efforts to strengthen control effectiveness and ensure ongoing compliance.
- Lead configuration audits, assessments, and compliance reviews to validate baseline integrity, control effectiveness, audit readiness, and adherence to established standards and requirements.
- Provide expert consultation and guidance to DevSecOps, Engineering, Information Security, Quality Assurance, Operations, and project teams regarding configuration management requirements, governance, risk management, and best practices.
- Lead configuration governance activities, including participation in and support of Change Advisory Boards (CABs), Configuration Control Boards (CCBs), and other technical governance forums.
- Develop and maintain configuration management plans, repositories, status accounting records, dashboards, metrics, reporting, and supporting documentation that provide visibility into compliance, control effectiveness, and overall program maturity.
- Establish, monitor, and report configuration management compliance metrics, audit findings, remediation progress, and control effectiveness measures to technology leadership and governance stakeholders.
- Analyze proposed changes to systems, applications, infrastructure, and environments to identify configuration-related risks and ensure impacts are appropriately assessed prior to implementation.
- Partner with organizational leadership to establish long-term configuration management objectives, roadmaps, and improvement initiatives that strengthen cybersecurity posture, operational stability, and regulatory compliance.
- Maintain ongoing audit readiness and compliance following assessments by proactively monitoring configuration management controls, documentation, baselines, evidence repositories, and corrective actions.
- Mentor technical teams and stakeholders on configuration management principles, governance requirements, compliance expectations, and industry best practices.
Position may be required to perform other duties as required.
These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.
What You Bring to the Table:- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
- 6 years of of direct and progressively responsible experience in configuration management, software configuration management, DevSecOps, systems engineering, software development lifecycle governance, infrastructure management, release management, information security, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience leading or administering enterprise configuration management programs, governance frameworks, or control environments.
- Experience establishing and maintaining configuration baselines, change controls, configuration records, and compliance documentation across complex technology environments.
- Experience supporting cybersecurity audits, regulatory assessments, compliance programs, or technology control frameworks.
- Experience working within Agile, DevSecOps, cloud, or modern software delivery environments.
- Experience leading, administering, or serving as the primary resource for configuration management controls within CMMC, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, SOC, or similar cybersecurity compliance frameworks, including assessment preparation, audit readiness, remediation activities, control implementation, and evidence management.
- Advanced knowledge of configuration management principles, methodologies, governance practices, and industry standards.
- Advanced knowledge of software development lifecycle, DevSecOps, release management, infrastructure management, and technology governance practices.
- Strong knowledge of cybersecurity compliance frameworks, including configuration management requirements associated with CMMC, NIST 800-171, and related standards.
- Ability to lead enterprise-wide configuration management initiatives and drive cross-functional process improvements.
- Ability to identify, assess, prioritize, and mitigate configuration management risks affecting security, compliance, operational stability, and system integrity.
- Ability to develop configuration management strategies, standards, policies, governance processes, and control frameworks.
- Ability to independently analyze complex technical and compliance issues and develop practical solutions.
- Ability to influence stakeholders and drive alignment across technical teams, governance bodies, and leadership groups without direct supervisory authority.
- Ability to establish accountability, coordinate remediation efforts, and drive adoption of configuration management controls across multiple functional areas.
- Ability to lead audits and assessments through preparation of documentation, configuration evidence, control validation, and traceability records.
- Strong analytical, organizational, problem-solving, and project leadership skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate technical, governance, and compliance concepts to diverse audiences.
- Ability to mentor and guide technical teams on configuration management best practices and compliance expectations.
- Demonstrates the Clearinghouse's core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic.
- Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers/human-resource-policies/, for more details.
- Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We do not intend to sponsor external applicants for work visas, and may consider sponsorship only if no qualified candidates can be found who are authorized to work without sponsorship.
- Must be at least 18 years old.
Additional Desired Qualifications - Experience leading or serving as the primary configuration management resource for CMMC, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, SOC, or similar cybersecurity and compliance programs.
- Experience supporting an organization through a successful CMMC, NIST, FedRAMP, SOC, or comparable cybersecurity assessment, including control implementation, remediation activities, audit support, and evidence management.
- Experience developing or governing enterprise configuration management standards, policies, procedures, and control frameworks.
- Experience supporting or leading Configuration Control Boards (CCBs), Change Advisory Boards (CABs), or other technical governance and change-control processes.
- Experience with GitLab, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Jira, ServiceNow, Confluence, or similar engineering and service-management platforms.
- Experience working with CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), cloud platforms, containerized environments, and automated software delivery practices.
- Experience developing compliance reporting, governance dashboards, configuration metrics, and executive reporting.
- Experience conducting configuration audits, baseline reviews, control assessments, or risk evaluations within regulated environments.
- ITIL Foundation, Security+, CISSP, CISM, CGRC, CCMP, Certified Scrum Master (CSM), or other relevant technology, governance, security, or service-management certifications.
Physical Demands:- Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
- Use of a telephone and/or copy machine.
- Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day.
- Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
- Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
- Must be flexible to do out-of-town assignments and travel via car, train, and/or airplane when needed (up to 10%).
- Must be flexible to work after business hours and on weekends when necessary.
Benefits and Related InformationThe National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees who are enrolled with their spouse and/or dependents, voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage, and infertility coverage are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays, up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period , and up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year . Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per yea
