Job Title: Senior Third-Party Technical Resiliency Enterprise Architect
Duration: 6 months (Potential for extenson)
Work location:  Chicago, IL
Work model:  Hybrid – onsite 3 days per week
 
Position Summary:
We are seeking an experienced technical professional to oversee the resiliency and compliance posture of critical third-party technology providers.. The successful candidate will have deep experience in IT architecture, operational resiliency, incident response, and regulatory interactions within highly regulated industries.
 
Qualifications – Required:
· 8+ years in IT infrastructure, application architecture, or cybersecurity within a regulated industry.
· 5+ years overseeing critical third-party technology or SaaS vendors.
· Direct experience preparing for and participating in regulatory examinations (e.g., OCC, FFIEC, FCA, PRA, DORA, EBA).
· Strong knowledge of resiliency frameworks (ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, FFIEC Business Continuity Handbook).
· Proficiency in cloud, on-prem technologies, network architecture, and data protection strategies.
· Excellent communication skills for both technical and regulatory audiences.
Preferred
· Experience in both financial services and technology vendor environments.
· Familiarity with global regulatory bodies and cross-jurisdictional compliance challenges.
 
Desired Qualifications:
· Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or related field.
· Proven experience conducting SaaS or cloud risk/risk/resiliency assessments.
Regulatory Engagement & Compliance
· Monitor emerging regulatory requirements (e.g., DORA, FFIEC, OCC, FCA, MAS, OFSI, PRA, AUS) and ensure alignment across vendor relationships.
· Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Risk teams to interpret regulatory guidance into actionable technical controls.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
· Work with Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Business Continuity, DR, and Procurement teams to integrate third-party oversight into enterprise resiliency strategy.
 
Key Skills & Competencies:
· In-depth understanding of public cloud, private cloud, on-prem, and SaaS Well-Architected Frameworks, especially the resiliency and reliability pillars.
· Familiarity with SaaS architectures and the unique aspects of SaaS resilience and shared responsibility.
· Strong experience in vendor risk assessments, including SLA analysis, disaster recovery, business continuity, and operational reliability.
· Excellent analytical, documentation, and communication skills, with the ability to translate technical findings for business stakeholders.
· Ability to create architectural diagrams.
 
Key Competencies:
· Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
· Ability to influence without direct authority.
· Skilled at translating technical issues into regulatory-friendly language.
· Comfortable operating in high-pressure, high-visibility situations.
 
Key Responsibilities:
· Conduct detailed resiliency assessments for 3rd party vendor-hosted and SaaS solutions using principles from the Well-Architected Frameworks, focusing on reliability, operational excellence, security, cost optimization, and performance efficiency.
· Evaluate the architecture or develop the architectural diagrams of external SaaS workloads and confirm alignment with organizational resilience, disaster recovery, and business continuity requirements.
· Assess vendor readiness for high availability, failover, data integrity, and recoverability, including review of disaster recovery plans, backup procedures, SLA uptime guarantees, and testing/validation routines.
· Document findings and remediation recommendations, track remediation efforts, and provide regular reporting on vendor resilience posture, risk, and compliance status. 
 
At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws. This position’s starting pay is: $ 75.00/hr.