Chief Information Security Officer

Facilities and Business Operations:

Facilities and Business Operations at UCF is dedicated to fostering a conducive educational environment for our faculty, staff, students, and the broader community. We are committed to excellence, providing unparalleled expertise, and maintaining a world-class standard in service.

Please visit us at: https://fs.ucf.edu/ or Facebook and Instagram: UCF Facilities

The Opportunity:

The UCF IT department within Facilities and Business Operations is seeking to hire a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This role is responsible for leading, developing, and managing the organization’s comprehensive information security program.

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) plays a pivotal role in the organization and is responsible for leading, developing, and managing the organization's comprehensive information security program. This position will oversee incident response, forensic investigations, risk management, compliance, and security awareness initiatives. The CISO establishes and enforces standards, policies, and governance frameworks to safeguard the organization's information technology assets and ensure alignment with regulatory requirements and industry best practices.

UCF has retained Storbeck Executive Search, a national executive search firm, to assist in this search. For best consideration, applicants should submit a cover letter and resume directly to:

Steve Leo, Managing Director

Vicki Henderson, Senior Associate

UCFCIO@storbecksearch.com

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership and Planning

• Develop, implement, and oversee the university’s enterprise-wide information security strategy, policies, and procedures.

• Align security initiatives with institutional goals such as digital transformation, research excellence, and compliance with FERPA, HIPAA, NIST, GLBA, and Florida state laws.

• Introduce modern security tools and capabilities, and cultivate a skilled workforce to stay ahead of emerging threats from nation-state and criminal actors.

Risk Management and Compliance

• Conduct regular risk and vulnerability assessments and audits to identify and mitigate threats.

• Partner with the Board of Trustees’ VP for Compliance and Risk, and Chief Audit Executive to ensure audit readiness.

• Oversee compliance with federal, state, and industry standards, as well as domain integrity, SSL certificate management, and posture management across cloud, on-premises, and federated systems.

Security Operations and Incident Response

• Direct daily security operations, including SIEM, CASB, DLP, MFA, endpoint protection, and threat intelligence.

• Lead incident detection, response, and remediation efforts for cybersecurity events.

• Develop and maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans tailored for a large R1 research institution.

Awareness and Training

• Design and deliver security awareness and training programs for faculty, staff, students, and researchers.

• Foster collaboration with distributed IT teams, academic departments, and research groups to embed security into operations.

Network Operations and Engineering

• Provide leadership for the university’s network operations and ongoing modernization efforts.

• Develop and track performance metrics to ensure optimal network performance, reliability, and security.

• Oversee real-time issue resolution and long-term capacity planning.

Stakeholder Engagement and Advisory

• Advise the CIO, President, Provost, and Board of Trustees on emerging threats, risks, and mitigation strategies.

• Build partnerships with federal agencies (FBI, DHS, DoD), vendors, and higher-education consortia to strengthen threat intelligence and response capabilities.

• Communicate technical risks in clear, actionable terms for non-technical audiences.

Team Leadership and Development

• Supervise and mentor cybersecurity professionals, including managers and analysts.

• Manage budgets, staffing, and vendor relationships to maximize the impact of security investments.

Innovation in Research Security

• Safeguard research environments, including intellectual property, classified data, and collaborative platforms.

• Support secure high-performance computing, AI/ML initiatives, and grant compliance.

• Enhance protections that advance UCF’s R1 research status.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's or Master's degree and 12+ years of relevant experience with at least 5+ years of leadership experience. Or an equivalent combination of education and experience pursuant to Fla. Stat. 112.219(6). 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or Doctorate in Information Security, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related discipline.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in information security leadership, including enterprise-level strategic planning and operations.

• Professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, or equivalent.

• Experience working in higher education, research-intensive (R1) institutions, or large complex organizations.

• Expertise in securing research data, intellectual property, and compliance with grant and funding agency requirements.

• Familiarity with advanced technologies, including AI/ML, cloud platforms, and high-performance computing environments.

• Strong background in building partnerships with federal agencies (FBI, DHS, DoD) and higher-education security consortia.

• Demonstrated success leading network modernization and security integration projects at scale.

• Strong knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements such as FERPA, HIPAA, GLBA, NIST, and state/federal privacy laws.

• Demonstrated experience leading security operations, incident response, risk management, and governance programs.

• Proven ability to communicate complex technical risks and solutions to executives, governing boards, and non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience managing budgets, vendor contracts, and cross-functional teams.

• Effective leadership skills with experience supervising, mentoring, and developing security professionals.

Special Instructions to the Applicants:

UCF has retained Storbeck Executive Search, a national executive search firm, to assist in this search. For best consideration, applicants should submit a cover letter and resume directly to:

Steve Leo, Managing Director

Vicki Henderson, Senior Associate

UCFCIO@storbecksearch.com

Position requires a valid Class E driver’s license. The position may involve driving to various locations on and off campus to conduct University business.

If you are selected as the final candidate for an employment opportunity, both your position and salary will be significantly based upon the information that you have provided in your application for employment. We urge you to please take the time to complete the application in its entirety.

Classification Title: Chief Information Security Officer and Associate Vice President

Are you ready to unleash YOUR potential?

As a next-generation public research university and Forbes-ranked top employer in Florida, we are a community of thinkers, doers, creators, innovators, healers, and leaders striving to create broader prosperity and help shape a better future. No matter what your role is, when you join Knight Nation, you’ll play an integral role at one of the most impactful universities in the country. You’ll be met with opportunities to connect and collaborate with talented faculty, staff, and students across 13 colleges and multiple campuses, engaging in impactful work that makes a positive difference. Your time at UCF will provide you with many meaningful opportunities to grow, you’ll work alongside talented colleagues on complex projects that will challenge you and help you gain new skills, and you’ll have countless rewarding experiences that go well beyond a paycheck.

Working at UCF has its perks!  UCF offers:

• Benefit packages, including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Flexible Spending, and Employee Assistance Program 

• Paid time off, including annual and sick time off, and paid holidays

• Retirement savings options 

• Employee discounts, including tickets to many Orlando attractions 

• Education assistance 

• And more…For more benefits information, view the UCF Employee Benefits Guide.

Dive into our Total Rewards Calculator to discover the diverse selection available to you, giving you a glimpse into the benefits that together shape your comprehensive rewards package at UCF.

Unless explicitly stated on the job posting, it is UCF’s expectation that an employee of UCF will reside in Florida as of the date the employment begins.

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As a Florida public university, the University of Central Florida makes all application materials and selection procedures available to the public upon request.  

UCF is proud to be a smoke-free campus and an E-Verify employer. 

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call 407-823-1336 or email onac@ucf.edu.

For general application or posting questions, please email talent@ucf.edu.