Cloud Application Governance and Transition Consultant

Cloud Application Governance and Transition Consultant

Location: Jackson, MS

Contract Duration: 12 months extendable

Work Location: Hybrid

Position type: Contract

Position Summary

The Agency is seeking an experienced Cloud, Application Governance, and Transition Consultant to support the secure transition of a mission-critical application from the outgoing development vendor to Agency-controlled operations and to the incoming support vendor. This role will be responsible for re-establishing Agency oversight of all technical assets, access controls, infrastructure environments, and documentation associated with the application.

The Consultant will work closely with Agency leadership, IT security personnel, business stakeholders, and external vendors to ensure that the application’s operational continuity, security posture, and governance structure align with Agency policies and long-term strategic needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Transition and Access Reclamation
• Lead the coordinated transfer of administrative access, accounts, credentials, repositories, infrastructure, and related technical assets from the outgoing vendor to Agency control.
• Conduct a comprehensive audit of current access privileges, role assignments, authentication mechanisms, service accounts, and administrative controls.
• Ensure all critical environments—including cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, source code repositories, and operational consoles—are configured so that the Agency holds ultimate administrative authority.
• Governance and Control Framework Establishment
• Develop and implement standardized procedures for access management, version control, release management, and operational governance.
• Establish role-based access controls (RBAC) that comply with Agency security and compliance requirements.
• Create and document processes for onboarding/offboarding vendor personnel, including access requests, approval workflows, and periodic access reviews.
• Vendor Transition Oversight
• Serve as the Agency’s technical liaison during the transition to the incoming application support vendor.
• Validate that the incoming vendor receives appropriate—but not excessive—access consistent with the Agency’s security policies.
• Monitor and verify the outgoing vendor’s deprovisioning from all systems and environments.
• Risk Mitigation and Security Assurance
• Identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and operational risks resulting from legacy vendor-controlled practices.
• Recommend and help implement remediation measures, such as rotating long-lived credentials, enforcing MFA, establishing logging and auditing practices, and improving environment segmentation.
• Ensure that all changes align with Agency cybersecurity standards and best practices.
• Documentation and Knowledge Restoration
• Reconstruct, update, and produce technical and operational documentation to re-establish institutional knowledge.
• Document architecture, workflows, administrative procedures, and application lifecycle processes to support continuity and future oversight.
• Provide briefings, reports, and knowledge transfer sessions to Agency IT and leadership as required.
  
  

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience managing or supporting transitions of complex, mission-critical applications between vendors or organizational units.
• Proven background in application governance, access control management, cloud infrastructure administration (AWS preferred), and secure DevOps/DevSecOps practices.
• Experience working within or supporting public-sector agencies or regulated environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise security frameworks, least-privilege principles, and operational risk management.
• Ability to coordinate across multiple stakeholders, including technical teams, IT security, business owners, and vendor personnel.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to prepare clear documentation, reports, and status updates suitable for executive audiences.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with the MSD Employment Security Agency’s mission, organizational structure, and operational workflows relevant to the supported application.
• Prior experience working with or supporting the ReEmployMS program area for which the application was developed.
• Knowledge of the historical development, scope, and functional requirements of the application and its stakeholder community
• Experience ensuring appropriate balance between vendor access and Agency oversight.
  
  

Additional Expectations

• Uphold strict confidentiality and security protocols.
• Provide objective, Agency-first recommendations throughout the transition effort.
• Ensure that all governance structures implemented are sustainable and can be maintained by Agency staff after contract completion.