Chief Security Advisor

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Date posted

Sep 23, 2025

Job number

1876139

Work site

2 days / week in-office

Travel

0-25%

Role type

Individual Contributor

Profession

Technology Sales

Discipline

Solution Engineering

Employment type

Full-Time

The Microsoft Security Commercial Solutions Area (CSA) empowers businesses, large and small, to confidently move to the cloud and modernize their platforms by delivering security solutions, expertise and services needed to keep their data and applications safe. We are looking for a passionate, experienced, and credible security leader for the role of Chief Security Advisor - Field CISO for our top customers across Enterprise and SMC segments. As a trusted advisor to customer CIO, CISO and board, you will be the face of our company's security initiatives and solutions, responsible for cultivating strong relationships primarily with customer CISOs. Your primary role involves understating their short- and long-term security needs and providing expert guidance to enhance their security posture. Landing Microsoft as a leader in cybersecurity, ensuring our solutions meet their business objectives. The CSA will be part of the Corporate Vice President's extended leadership team and provide advice on the security business while also ensuring senior leader enablement. They will play an active role in building out the account strategy, building trust with CIOs, CISOs and other customer stakeholders to drive successful strategic pursuits. They will actively engage in industry forums, providing deep insights on security, privacy and regulatory requirements and positioning Microsoft as the Security leader.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of Industry experience, with 3-5 years as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) / Chief Security Advisor, with direct responsibility for developing security strategies for global companies and/or governments and overseeing the implementation and execution of said strategies. A career profile that will enable the candidate to be a credible and compelling security executive and trusted advisor to C-level executives with proven ability to build and sustain relationships with external stakeholders in a strategic manner.
• Broad information security competency, covering Identity and Access Management, Security Operations (SOC), network security, SDL, cryptography, key management, hardware security modules, security architecture and design, operations security, legal/risk/compliance, and physical security.
• Deep and broad knowledge of security issues & trends, able to articulate the high-level Microsoft security strategy to both technical & non-technical audiences with a detailed understanding of Microsoft 365 and Azure security frameworks, all service-level security capabilities (including details of defense-in-depth implementation – data encryption, data isolation, lock box, customer key, datacenter security, etc.), and all customer controls (identity & access management, RMS, encryption, etc.)
• In-depth knowledge of security principles, compliance standards and ability to apply them in diverse business contexts., with detailed understanding of current compliance status for industry standard security & audit frameworks (such as ISO27001, HIPAA, SSAE16, FISMA, NIST2, etc.), and compliance features.
• Experienced & credible communicator who can cast security in the language of the business, discussing Microsoft's security strategy with CISO & other C-level executives and senior government representatives and comfortable navigating in complex and high-pressure sales scenarios.
• Demonstrate strong ability to influence without authority to drive change with both our strategic customers as well as internal stakeholders.
• In alignment with Microsoft's key priorities, establish customers' security strategy and ensure execution of said strategy with key C-suite customer stakeholders.
• Lead Security presentations, demonstrations, and workshops in Industry forums to provide thought leadership on Microsoft's Security portfolio.

Professional

• Develop and maintain industry expertise: The Customer Security Officer must stay up to date with the latest developments and advancements in security including new tech, competitors, and internal product and services offerings.
• Growth Mindset: Experience and passion for learning; implementing practices from others; trying, failing, and learning from both successes and failures; sharing practices and knowledge for others' benefit.
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to think creatively and develop innovative solutions to technical challenges.

The purpose of this role

The Chief Security Advisor - Field CISO will also be the strongest advocate and voice of their customers in the Go to Market teams and influence the product road-map and strategic investment in new product areas based on both customer feedback as well as changing industry trends.

The Chief Security Advisor role involves working as part of a global team, and although regionally based, the person hired will also support colleagues in other geographies. It will involve up to 25% travel, with some global travel required occasionally. Successful candidates will work closely cross-functionally with our customer account teams, the service delivery teams, public sector and industry teams, legal and corporate affairs, product engineering, Microsoft Security Partners, and the Digital Crimes Unit to deliver on key business priorities, goals, and objectives.

Responsibilities include.

• Partner with area sales leadership and account teams in developing long term strategic plans for key must win accounts in your area.
• Engage with customer CISO and other C-suite executives, to understand their strategic objectives. Develop and nurture trusted advisor relationships helping CISO mature their security program by establishing the foundation for best of breed as well best of platform security program architecture leveraging industry frameworks and standards.
• Develop strategic, operational, and tactical recommendations tailored to each customer with the intent of improving customer security posture and compliance position, aligned with their business goals and risk tolerance.
• Monitor and analyze emerging security trends, share insights with customers as well as our area leadership and guiding them through the potential impacts on their industry.
• Be the trusted Security partner between Microsoft and our strategic customers in developing, implementing, and executing on their security priorities, driving customer intent to buy and post sales deployment.
• Advise, coach, and train the area leadership on MS security solution value prop and positioning. Be the SME supporting area senior leaders on security conversations in executive forums as CISO round-tables, etc.
• In alignment with Microsoft's key priorities, establish customers' security strategy and ensure execution of said strategy with key C-suite customer stakeholders.
• Lead Security presentations, demonstrations, and workshops in Industry forums to provide thought leadership on Microsoft's Security portfolio.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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Industry leading healthcare

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Educational resources

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Discounts on products and services

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Savings and investments

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Maternity and paternity leave

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Generous time away

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Giving programs

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Opportunities to network and connect

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.