Senior Security Risk Management Analyst - Contract

Senior Security Risk Management Analyst
Location : Palo Alto, CA 94304
Duration : 6 Months

Description:
Client is seeking an experienced professional to join our Third-Party/ Vendor Risk Assessment team. This team focuses on analyzing and managing risks associated with our vendors, service providers, and other third parties, ensuring our organization upholds the highest standards of compliance, security, and business resilience. While your primary responsibility will be Third-Party Risk Management, you will also collaborate on other cybersecurity risk management initiatives. Building strong cross-functional relationships across the company is a key component of this role. To excel, you must showcase exceptional leadership, communication, and decision-making skills, and have a proven track record in managing third-party risk, vendor governance, or related domains.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and conduct comprehensive risk assessments of new and existing third-party vendors and service providers, focusing on cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance.
• Evaluate third-party security questionnaires, audit reports (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001), and risk documentation.
• Coordinate with vendors to request and verify security controls, remediation plans, and ongoing compliance.
• Oversee facilitation of risk remediation efforts agreed upon with suppliers, ensuring timely resolution.
• Collaborate during supplier contract development, reviewing deviations from security requirements and offering subject matter expertise on risk remediation.
• Classify vendors according to risk tiers and maintain a comprehensive database of vendor risk profiles.
• Participate in continuous security monitoring of existing suppliers to track changing risk profiles.
• Partner with Procurement, Legal, Privacy, and InfoSec teams to improve supplier security management processes.
• Identify opportunities to automate parts of the assessment process, thereby reducing manual work and enhancing efficiency.
• Keep abreast of emerging risks, industry standards, and regulatory requirements affecting third-party vendors.
• Contribute to broader cybersecurity risk management initiatives, including identifying, assessing, and tracking information security risks beyond the third-party domain.
• Provide guidance and knowledge transfer to team members, supporting a collaborative team environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, or a related field.
• 6-8 years of professional experience in third-party risk assessment within cybersecurity or information risk management.
• Understanding of relevant information security frameworks, including related regulatory compliance requirements, such as ISO 27001/2 (including ISO 27017 & 18), FedRAMP, SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria, PCI DSS, NIST CSF.
• Solid understanding of risk assessment methodologies and best practices.
• Ability to synthesize and communicate complex risk findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Detail-oriented, process-driven, and capable of managing multiple vendor assessments concurrently.
• Experience with tools such as Coupa, OneTrust, JIRA and Coverbase is a plus.
• Professional certifications in Information Security or Risk Management (e.g. CISA, CISM, CISSP, CRISC) is a plus.