The posting
Who We Are
Join a team that puts its People First! Since 1889, First American (NYSE: FAF) has held an unwavering belief in its people. They are passionate about what they do, and we are equally passionate about fostering an environment where all feel welcome, supported, and empowered to be innovative and reach their full potential. Our inclusive, people-first culture has earned our company numerous accolades, including being named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list for eleven consecutive years. We have also earned awards as a best place to work for women, diversity and LGBTQ+ employees, and have been included on more than 50 regional best places to work lists. First American will always strive to be a great place to work, for all. For more information, please visit www.careers.firstam.com.
What We Do
Leads day-to-day planning and fieldwork for assigned technology and cybersecurity audits within Manager-approved objectives and scope. Coordinates audit procedures, guides Staff auditors, reviews testing and workpapers, and develops clear, evidence-based conclusions for Manager review.
Essential Functions
- Lead day-to-day planning and fieldwork for assigned audits, including walkthroughs, risk and control mapping, test procedures, sampling, work allocation, milestones, and status reporting.
- Work with the Manager to refine objectives and scope. Identify dependencies, system boundaries, shared services, relevant regulations, and program components that could leave material risks unaddressed; raise proposed scope changes promptly.
- Coordinate day-to-day discussions with control owners, technical SMEs, and project stakeholders. Run walkthroughs, clarify evidence requests, resolve routine questions, and elevate sensitive or executive-level matters to the Manager.
- Guide Staff auditors in completing test procedures, collecting and validating evidence, documenting results, and following up on exceptions. Review workpapers for accuracy, traceability, and alignment with the approved test approach.
- Perform assigned audit procedures, including process walkthroughs, control assessment, population validation, sample selection, evidence inspection, reperformance, and follow-up testing.
- Test controls in one or more technology programs, such as threat intelligence, security operations, incident response, endpoint and network security, data protection, penetration testing, application security, vulnerability and patch management, IAM, cloud, IT operations, change management, Secure SDLC, or business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Inspect security-technology configurations and supporting evidence. Compare sampled settings and rules to approved baselines and requirements; assess logging, monitoring, access, changes, encryption, certificates, and documented exceptions as applicable.
- Assess whether evidence is relevant, reliable, complete, and consistent with the control objective. Identify gaps, contradictory information, or scope limitations and discuss them promptly with the Lead.
- Document procedures performed, evidence reviewed, sample details, results, exceptions, and conclusions in clear, traceable workpapers that meet Internal Audit quality standards.
- Participate in walkthroughs and client discussions; explain evidence needs and testing questions professionally and follow up on outstanding items.
- Analyze exceptions to understand their cause, impact, extent, and possible compensating controls. Support development of observations and practical recommendations.
- Use data analysis, scripts, and audit tools where appropriate to validate populations, identify anomalies, and improve testing coverage.
- Help prepare status updates, report content, issue validation, and examination support materials; incorporate review comments and maintain organized audit files.
- Maintain project status, risks, issues, dependencies, and deliverables. Keep work on schedule and raise resource or access constraints early.
- Draft audit findings, recommendations, management responses, and report sections. Support issue validation and prepare organized, traceable documentation for quality review and examiner requests.
- Independently lead configuration-focused testing in the assigned specialty, including CyberArk/PAM, Active Directory architecture, firewalls, network security, and segmentation; or cloud security architecture/WAF, SIEM/XDR/SOAR, DLP, encryption/key management, or vulnerability evidence.
Required qualifications
- At least 5 years of relevant IT audit, cybersecurity audit, technology risk, or related control experience, including experience coordinating audit fieldwork and guiding other auditors. Experience must include IT or cybersecurity operational audit work; general ITGC testing alone is not sufficient.
- Demonstrated ability to independently lead configuration-focused audit testing in at least one of these areas: (1) CyberArk/PAM, Active Directory architecture, firewalls, segmentation, or network security; or (2) cloud security architecture/WAF, SIEM/XDR/SOAR, DLP, encryption/key management, or vulnerability management. Experience with comparable tools is acceptable.
- Familiarity with official security guidance for Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, including Azure network security best practices, the AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar, and Google Cloud Well-Architected security guidance. Able to locate and apply relevant guidance during audit planning and configuration testing.
- Strong working knowledge of audit methodology, risk and control assessment, sampling, evidence evaluation, workpaper documentation, and issue development.
- Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills; able to manage assigned testing with limited day-to-day direction
Preferred experience
- Prior experience testing controls in audits of Network Security, Security Operations, Data Security, Data Protection, Data Privacy, Offensive Security, or Vulnerability Management is strongly preferred. Banking or financial-services experience and exposure to GLBA, Interagency Guidelines, SWIFT CSP, PCI DSS, OWASP, CIS Benchmarks, NIST CSF, or NIST SP 800-series guidance are also valued. Relevant IT or cybersecurity coursework, professional training, or hands-on experience is valued. Exposure to CTI, cloud service management (AWS, Azure, or GCP), or PKI and certificate management is a plus. Familiarity with AuditBoard, Power BI, ServiceNow, Jira, or SailPoint is helpful.
Pay Range: $97,700.00 - $130,300.00 Annually
This hiring range is a reasonable estimate of the base pay range for this position at the time of posting. Pay is based on a number of factors which may include job-related knowledge, skills, experience, business requirements and geographic location.
** Note that the following statements only apply to candidates who will be working from an unincorporated area within Los Angeles County. **
First American will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws (e.g., the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act).
First American intends to conduct a review of an applicant’s criminal history in connection with a conditional offer. First American reasonably believes that a criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following material job duties for this position potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment: handling of confidential, proprietary or trade secret information belonging to First American or its customers, administrating or facilitating financial transactions, and the ability to meet customer-imposed criminal history requirements.
What We Offer
By choice, we don’t simply accept individuality – we embrace it, we support it, and we thrive on it! Our People First culture is inclusive for all employees - not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the key to our success. We are proud to foster an authentic and inclusive workplace For All. You are free and encouraged to bring your entire, unique self to work. First American is an equal opportunity employer in every sense of the term.
Based on eligibility, First American offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401k, PTO/paid sick leave and other great benefits like an employee stock purchase plan.
