Principal Cybersecurity Cloud Engineer

Dayforce is a global human capital management (HCM) company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, with operations across North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region. 

Our award-winning Cloud HCM platform offers a unified solution database and continuous calculation engine, driving efficiency, productivity and compliance for the global workforce.

Our brand promise - Makes Work Life Better™ - Reflects our commitment to employees, customers, partners and communities globally. 

About the role

The Cloud Security team is seeking a Principal Cloud Security Engineer to serve as a hands-on technical expert and trusted advisor across our cloud programs. Our team owns the security of multiple cloud environments—primarily Azure and AWS—and the implementation of security controls to meet regulatory requirements across geographies. Beyond identifying issues, we partner closely with product and platform teams to design and deliver secure cloud-based solutions.

You will lead CNAPP implementation, harden our Azure and AWS footprint, embed security into CI/CD and Terraform workflows, and support our path to FedRAMP, PBMM, and other public-sector compliance programs.

In this role, you will develop and drive the implementation of our Cloud Security Architecture and CNAPP architecture—defining secure-by-default reference patterns, guardrails, and scalable control implementations for Azure (primary) and AWS (in scope). You will partner with platform engineering, SRE, product, and compliance teams to translate architectural intent into actionable engineering work and measurable posture improvements.

You will map regulatory requirements (e.g., FedRAMP, NIST SP 800-53, PBMM, GC Cloud Guardrails, ITSG-33 or equivalent) to cloud security capabilities such as identity and access management, network segmentation, encryption and key management, logging/monitoring, vulnerability management, container/Kubernetes security, and continuous compliance. You will then engineer, implement, and operationalize these controls using cloud-native services and Wiz (policies, sensors, and workflows), integrated into Terraform and CI/CD pipelines with policy-as-code, drift detection, and automated evidence where feasible.

 You’ll thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, operate as a self-starter, work independently, and stay relentlessly results-oriented.

What You'll Do 

• Lead CNAPP implementation: Plan and execute end-to-end rollout of Wiz (and related CNAPP tooling) across Azure (and select AWS), including policy design, tuning, and alert-to-action workflows.
• Harden clouds at scale: Design and enforce guardrails (Azure Policy, Defender for Cloud plans, identity controls, network segmentation, logging/monitoring) and extend patterns to AWS where applicable.
• DevSecOps & IaC governance: Embed security into CI/CD and Terraform workflows (pre-merge checks, plan/policy gates, artifact signing, SBOMs/attestations) and establish reusable modules and policy-as-code patterns to prevent misconfigurations before deploying; enforce baselines at plan time.
• Compliance engineering: Translate FedRAMP, CIS, and other frameworks into technical controls, automated evidence, continuous monitoring, and remediation playbooks.
• Cloud security architecture & blueprint: Own and evolve the cloud security reference architecture (standardized landing zones, identity and access patterns, network segmentation, encryption standards, logging/monitoring baselines, and guardrails) for Azure (primary) and AWS (in scope); advise product and platform teams on secure designs, lead design reviews, and mentor engineers.
• Incident & posture improvement: Partner with SecOps and AppSec teams to triage findings, evaluate risks, recommend remediation steps, and drive measurable improvements across vulnerabilities, identities, data, and workloads.
• Executive advisory: Communicate risk, trade-offs, and roadmaps to senior leadership; influence prioritization through clear metrics and business outcomes.
• Build automated guardrails and drift detection/auto-remediation using Terraform (and/or Bicep/ARM where applicable), integrating controls into CI/CD to consistently enforce secure defaults.
• Kubernetes/AKS security: Partner with platform teams to harden AKS (RBAC, network policies, workload identity), implement admission controls, and operationalize Wiz Sensors and CNAPP findings into engineering workflows and secure runtime baselines.

What You Bring 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years in security engineering/architecture with significant cloud security experience (SaaS or technology companies preferred).
• Deep, hands-on expertise with:
• CNAPP (Wiz or equivalent) deployment at scale, policy design, tuning, automation; and Microsoft Defender for Cloud (policies, plans, recommendations, regulatory compliance, alerting).
• DevSecOps / CI/CD: integrating security tests and gates in GitHub Actions (or similar), artifact/image scanning, and automated compliance evidence; securing pipeline identities, secrets, and supply chain integrity.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): production-grade Terraform Enterprise/Terraform Cloud (modules, registries, workspaces), plan-time checks, and drift control.
• Policy engineering: designing and implementing cloud security policies (Azure Policy initiatives; OPA/Sentinel policy-as-code) and mapping to frameworks (NIST, CIS).
• Azure security (Entra ID/AAD, RBAC, networking, Key Vault, monitoring).
• Multi-cloud, hands-on experience with Azure and AWS services.
• Container and Kubernetes security: cluster hardening, workload identity/RBAC, network policies, admission controls, image signing/verification, runtime protection, and container registries (ACR/ECR, JFrog Artifactory).
• Security automation: scripting (e.g., Python/PowerShell) to build guardrails, detections, and tooling.
• Experience establishing and reporting KRIs/KPIs and improving cloud security posture at scale using data-driven metrics (e.g., NIST, CIS, STIG).
• Experience delivering cloud implementations in regulated environments, including U.S. Government / U.S. Public Sector requirements (FedRAMP, NIST SP 800-53) and Canadian Government / Public Sector requirements (PBMM, GC Cloud Guardrails, ITSG-33 or equivalent) — including control mapping, automation, and continuous monitoring.
• Excellent stakeholder skills—operate as a trusted advisor to product, platform, compliance, and executive teams.
• Self-starter who can work independently, communicate clearly, and drive cross-functional outcomes with a bias for automation and measurable posture improvement.
• Proven track record operating as a Cloud Security Architect across CNAPP, Wiz, Terraform, and CI/CD pipeline architectures—defining cloud policies, integrating cloud-native and CNAPP controls, and leveraging their control frameworks for continuous compliance.
• Hands-on experience securing Kubernetes (AKS) using Wiz Sensor tooling (deployment, operations, and integration with detection and remediation workflows).

Preferred Qualifications 

• Microsoft AZ-500, SC-100, SC-200 certifications strongly preferred.
• One of the security certifications, such as CISSP or CCSP.
• DevOps experience with infrastructure, cloud, and application pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with container and image scanning; SAST, DAST; and penetration testing tools.
• Knowledge of large language models (LLMs) and hands-on experience designing and building generative-AI–powered agents.
• Experience with Python, Java, .NET, C#, Rego, and YAML.