First Student is a leading transportation company committed to safely transporting students and passengers. They are seeking a Data Protection & Security Engineer to own data protection capabilities and provide security engineering support across various domains, collaborating with IT, Legal, and Data teams to ensure effective security controls.

Responsibilities:

Own enterprise data protection risk assessments, classification standards, and control effectiveness evaluations
Identify data exposure risk across cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments
Contribute to vulnerability assessments and architecture reviews within the Cybersecurity function
Design and define data protection control requirements and standards for DLP, encryption, key management, and data governance across cloud and on-premises environments
Work with I&O and Data teams to ensure controls are implemented to Cybersecurity specifications; validate implementation outcomes
Provide security engineering expertise across cloud infrastructure and endpoint security domains
Monitor for data misuse, exfiltration, and policy violations
Integrate DLP detection capabilities with SOC workflows
Support SIEM log source expansion and alert quality improvements in coordination with the Security Operations function
Lead Cybersecurity response activities for data exposure incidents, including investigation direction, containment guidance to I&O, remediation oversight, and lessons learned
Develop and maintain data protection policies aligned with FERPA, CCPA, Canadian provincial privacy laws, and enterprise risk objectives
Own the data classification framework and drive operationalization across key data stores and workflows
Contribute to management reporting, risk acceptance documentation, and work tracking
Provide technical oversight of cybersecurity analysts
Review work product and deliverables for quality, accuracy, and alignment with standards
Serve as a technical escalation point within the team for data protection and cybersecurity questions

Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent experience
7+ years of cybersecurity experience with at least 4 years in data protection, cloud security, or cybersecurity engineering
Proficiency with Python or PowerShell for automation, reporting, and control validation
Familiarity with NIST CSF, CIS Controls, and how to translate regulatory requirements into technical controls
Experience working across organizational boundaries, such as defining requirements for teams that own implementation and validating outcomes without direct execution authority
Prior experience providing technical oversight or mentorship to others
Operates independently and takes clear ownership of outcomes
Comfortable defining requirements and holding other teams accountable for implementation without direct control over execution
Comfortable holding multiple technical domains simultaneously (data protection and security engineering) and prioritizing across them without daily direction
Effective at working across organizational boundaries by communicating requirements clearly, escalating when standards are not met, and building productive working relationships
Strong communication skills; able to translate technical data risk into terms meaningful to Legal, and management and executive stakeholders
High integrity and ownership mindset
Proactive approach to risk reduction
Industry certifications such as SANS/GIAC (for example, GDSA, GDAT, or equivalent), CISSP, CISM preferred
Hands-on experience configuring and operating DLP platforms (M365 Purview strongly preferred; CrowdStrike Falcon Data Protection preferred; equivalent experience acceptable)
Experience implementing data classification frameworks in enterprise environments with regulated data (FERPA, COPPA, CCPA, or Canadian privacy law familiarity preferred)
Strong understanding of AWS security services and cloud-native data protection controls (S3 bucket policies, KMS, Macie, CloudTrail)
Security engineering experience: familiarity with SIEM log sources, endpoint security platforms (CrowdStrike Falcon preferred), and vulnerability management tooling (Rapid7 preferred)

Sr. Data Engineer (AI + AWS)

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