Summary:

The Principal Architect, Security Architecture is a senior individual-contributor and enterprise technical leadership role responsible for defining, governing, and advancing cybersecurity architecture across the enterprise in collaboration with other Principal Architects, Cybersecurity Architects, & Cybersecurity and domain engineering teams.

The Principal Architect translates business strategy, technology direction, cyber risk, regulatory obligations, and emerging threats into practical security architectures, principles, patterns, standards, and technology decisions that enable the business while measurably reducing risk.

This role operates beyond individual cybersecurity products or domains. The Principal Architect - Cybersecurity works horizontally across the functional technology domains and the related security practices for Cloud, Infrastructure, Endpoint, Network, Storage; while also collaborating and representing core cybersecurity practices such as Identity & Access Management, Application Security, Data Security, AI Security, Cyber Defense, SaaS Security, OT/IoT, and emerging technologies, ensuring that security capabilities function as an integrated enterprise architecture rather than independent controls.

The successful candidate must combine the depth of a senior security technologist with the influence, judgment, and communication capabilities of an enterprise architect. This position is expected to challenge legacy assumptions, resolve difficult cross-domain architecture decisions, simplify security complexity, and establish clear technical direction where ownership or requirements are ambiguous.

This is not primarily a documentation, compliance, or architecture-review role. The Principal Architect - Cybersecurity is expected to shape technology and cybersecurity platform strategy and materially influence what the enterprise builds, buys, integrates, modernizes, and retires.

Key Responsibilities:

Enterprise Cybersecurity Architecture

• Define and evolve the enterprise cybersecurity architecture aligned with business strategy, enterprise architecture, technology modernization, regulatory obligations, and the organization’s risk appetite.

• Establish cybersecurity architecture principles, reference architectures, reusable patterns, technical standards, and design requirements.

• Maintain or support a multi-year cybersecurity architecture roadmap connecting strategic security objectives with technology investments and engineering execution.

• Translate Zero Trust principles into practical architecture across identity, applications, workloads, networks, endpoints, data, cloud, SaaS, OT/IoT, and third-party connectivity.

• Identify architectural fragmentation, redundant controls, security gaps, and opportunities to simplify the security technology ecosystem.

• Establish clear target-state architectures and pragmatic transition architectures for complex legacy environments.

Architecture Governance & Decision Authority

• Serve as a senior cybersecurity architecture authority for significant technology initiatives and high-risk architecture decisions.

• Lead or materially influence security architecture reviews for strategic platforms, cloud environments, applications, infrastructure, acquisitions, SaaS platforms, data environments, and emerging technologies.

• Determine when enterprise security requirements require standardization versus when risk-based exceptions or domain-specific patterns are appropriate.

• Document significant architectural decisions, alternatives, assumptions, dependencies, and residual risks.

• Establish escalation mechanisms for architecture decisions that cannot be resolved within individual engineering or security domains.

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture to ensure cybersecurity architecture is embedded within enterprise technology strategy rather than operating as a downstream approval function.

Will Lead or Collaborate to Deliver Cloud & Platform Security Architecture

• Define security architecture across public cloud, private cloud, hybrid infrastructure, SaaS, containers, Kubernetes, serverless, APIs, and platform engineering environments.

• Establish cloud security patterns covering identity, workload protection, network segmentation, encryption, secrets, logging, configuration, exposure management, and security automation.

• Guide adoption of cloud-native security capabilities and determine where enterprise security platforms provide greater consistency or risk reduction.

• Drive security architecture aligned with hyperscaler well-architected principles while maintaining consistent enterprise control objectives.

• Partner with cloud, platform engineering, and all other applicable cybersecurity engineering team to embed security into landing zones, infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, developer platforms, and automated provisioning.

Will Lead or Collaborate to Deliver Data & AI Security

• Establish architecture principles and patterns protecting enterprise data throughout its lifecycle.

• Define security architectures addressing classification, encryption, tokenization, key management, secrets, DLP, data access, privacy, lineage, and data movement.

• Provide architecture leadership for generative AI, machine learning, AI agents, RAG architectures, model integration, AI platforms, and third-party AI services.

• Establish patterns addressing AI-specific threats including sensitive-data disclosure, prompt injection, insecure tool use, excessive agency, model supply-chain risk, identity, authorization, and AI application monitoring.

• Partner with AI, Data, Privacy, Legal, Risk, and business teams to enable responsible enterprise adoption of emerging AI capabilities.

Will Lead or Collaborate to Deliver Application & API Security Architecture

• Integrate cybersecurity architecture into application modernization and secure software development practices.

• Establish reusable security patterns for APIs, microservices, authentication, authorization, secrets, service-to-service communications, software supply chains, and cloud-native applications.

• Partner with AppSec and development organizations to move security requirements earlier into architecture and engineering.

• Promote security capabilities that can be consumed through standardized platforms, APIs, pipelines, and reusable engineering components rather than manual security reviews.

Will Lead or Collaborate to Deliver Identity & Zero Trust

• Partner with IAM architecture and engineering to establish enterprise identity security patterns.

• Ensure workforce, privileged, machine, service, workload, API, and customer identities are incorporated into enterprise security architecture.

• Advance policy-based and identity-aware access models that reduce dependence on network location as the primary trust mechanism.

• Integrate identity, device posture, workload identity, data sensitivity, threat signals, and contextual risk into access-control architecture.

Will Lead or Collaborate to Deliver Cyber Defense & Resilience

• Ensure architecture decisions incorporate detection, telemetry, investigation, containment, recovery, and operational resilience requirements.

• Partner with Cyber Defense, SOC, Incident Response, Threat Intelligence, Threat Hunting, Vulnerability Management, and Red Team functions.

• Translate threat intelligence, attack patterns, incidents, vulnerabilities, and control failures into architecture improvements.

• Ensure major platforms produce appropriate security telemetry and support enterprise detection and response capabilities.

• Apply threat modeling and attack-path analysis to major architecture decisions.

Will Collaborate with Key Stakeholders to Deliver M&A, Divestitures & Third-Party Integration

• Define cybersecurity architecture patterns supporting acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, strategic partners, and third-party connectivity.

• Establish secure approaches for tenant-to-tenant, network, identity, application, data, cloud, and SaaS integration.

• Define transitional security architectures that reduce risk while enabling rapid business integration.

• Identify technical-security debt introduced through acquisitions and establish target-state remediation strategies.

Architecture-to-Engineering Execution

• The Principal Architect - Cybersecurity is accountable not merely for producing architecture but for ensuring that architecture can be implemented.

• Partner directly with cybersecurity and technology engineering teams to convert architecture into executable capabilities.

• Define minimum viable security patterns that teams can consume without extensive security consultation.

• Validate that reference architectures are technically achievable, scalable, supportable, and economically reasonable.

• Participate in proofs of concept, technology evaluations, design workshops, and major implementation decisions.

• Ensure lessons learned during engineering and operations continuously improve architecture standards and patterns.

Technology Strategy & Innovation

• Continuously assess emerging security technologies, architectural approaches, attack techniques, and industry practices.

• Provide independent technical recommendations regarding cybersecurity technology investments.

• Influence build-versus-buy decisions and strategic vendor selections.

• Identify capabilities that should be consolidated, modernized, automated, replaced, or retired.

• Reduce unnecessary security-tool proliferation and architectural complexity.

• Evaluate emerging technologies based on measurable security value rather than vendor positioning.

• Maintain awareness of developments in cloud, AI, identity, data, cryptography, software engineering, security automation, and cyber defense.

Required Qualifications:

• 12+ years of progressive experience including 8+ within cybersecurity architecture, security engineering, infrastructure architecture, cloud security, application security, or related technology disciplines.

• Significant experience designing security solutions within large, complex enterprise environments.

• Demonstrated ability to architect across multiple security domains rather than specializing exclusively within one technology.

• Deep understanding of cloud and modern enterprise architecture.

• Strong knowledge of Azure and practical experience with AWS and/or GCP.

• Strong understanding of identity, network security, endpoint security, data protection, application security, APIs, cloud-native architecture, and cyber defense.

• Experience with Zero Trust architecture and identity-centric security.

• Experience integrating security into cloud engineering, DevSecOps, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and platform engineering.

• Experience evaluating enterprise security technologies and translating requirements into architecture and engineering decisions.

• Strong understanding of threat modeling, attack paths, vulnerabilities, security controls, and defense-in-depth.

• Ability to communicate complex technical subjects to engineers, architects, executives, risk professionals, and business leaders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience within a large global or highly regulated enterprise, particularly healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial services, critical infrastructure, or similarly complex industries.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology or any other related discipline or equivalent related experience

• Experience with regulatory and security frameworks such as:

  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework

  • NIST SP 800-53

  • NIST Zero Trust Architecture

  • ISO/IEC 27001

  • HITRUST

  • CIS Controls

  • OWASP

  • Cloud Security Alliance

  • AWS Well-Architected Framework

  • Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework

  • Google Cloud Architecture Framework

• Experience with M&A integration, divestitures, multi-tenant environments, hybrid infrastructure, and large-scale technology modernization is strongly preferred.

• Relevant certifications may include Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP), SABSA, cloud architecture/security certifications, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.

What Cencora offers

We provide compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture and support our team members’ ability to live with purpose every day. In addition to traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care, we also provide a comprehensive suite of benefits that focus on the physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects of wellness. This encompasses support for working families, which may include backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, family building support, behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave. To encourage your personal growth, we also offer a variety of training programs, professional development resources, and opportunities to participate in mentorship programs, employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and much more. For details, visit https://www.virtualfairhub.com/cencora

*This Salary Range reflects a National Average for this job. The actual range may vary based on your locale. Ranges in Colorado/California/Washington/New York/Hawaii/Vermont/Minnesota/Massachusetts/Illinois State-specific locations may be up to 10% lower than the minimum salary range, and 12% higher than the maximum salary range.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law.

The company’s continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory.

Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email [email protected]. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned

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