Principal Cybersecurity Architect Cybersecurity Strategist
Job Summary
McKesson is an impact-driven Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights products and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here we focus on the health happiness and well-being of you and those we serve we care.
What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow make an impact and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients our communities and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrows health today we want to hear from you.
Principal Cybersecurity Architect / Cybersecurity Strategist
Job Level: Principal Architect (P6) Reports To: Sr. Director Strategy Architecture & Data Services Type: Full-time
Role Summary
The Principal Cybersecurity Architect is a senior high-impact individual contributor responsible for defining shaping and driving McKessons enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy and architectural direction. This role sets the long-term (3- 5- and 10 year) cybersecurity vision across all business units technologies and security domains ensuring a resilient modern and future-ready security posture.
Operating at enterprise and executive level the Principal Architect partners closely with senior technology and business leaders to assess current maturity identify technical debt and modernization opportunities and define the target state architecture. This role brings deep external perspective into McKesson translating industry trends emerging threats and vendor innovation into pragmatic enterprise-scale strategy.
The successful candidate will act as McKessons strategic cybersecurity authority influencing internal architecture and operations as well as external technology providers while representing the organization as a trusted voice within the global cybersecurity community.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Enterprise Architecture Leadership
Define and govern the enterprise cybersecurity strategy architecture vision principles standards patterns and reference architectures (e.g. Zero Trust cloud-native identity-centric data-centric security).
Lead assessment of current cybersecurity maturity and define multi-year roadmaps to move the organization from good to great.
Identify enterprise-wide risk technical debt architectural gaps and opportunities for simplification and modernization.
Drive consistency and alignment across all cybersecurity domains including IAM network endpoint cloud application data security threat management resilience and emerging technologies.
Executive Partnership & Strategic Influence
Partner closely with executive leadership (CISO CIO/CTO Enterprise Architecture Risk Legal Data & AI leadership) to align cybersecurity strategy with business objectives and technology roadmaps.
Influence architecture engineering operations PMO and delivery teams to ensure enterprise adoption of strategic security direction.
Translate complex security and architectural concepts into clear executive-level narratives tied to risk reduction resilience and business value.
Market Vendor & Industry Leadership
Actively track evolving threat landscapes industry trends and emerging security technologies.
Influence and shape strategic technology provider roadmaps (e.g. cloud identity network platform security vendors) to meet McKessons enterprise needs.
Represent McKesson externally through conferences forums white papers panels and industry initiatives; contribute thought leadership back into the cybersecurity community.
Maintain strong peer networks across enterprise cybersecurity leaders and practitioners.
Technology Foresight & Threat-Informed Strategy
Anticipate disruptive technologies and future security challenges (e.g. Zero Trust evolution AI security SASE confidential computing post-quantum cryptography).
Embed threat-informed and forward-looking security thinking into architecture and long-term planning.
Ensure strategies remain adaptable as adversary capabilities technology platforms and regulatory requirements evolve.
Information Protection Ethics & Governance
Guide enterprise approaches to information protection privacy and ethical use of data including classification encryption DLP and privacy-by-design.
Embed security-by-design principles into platforms products and data initiatives including responsible and secure AI adoption.
Strengthen security governance models decision forums architecture reviews and exception handling to support enterprise-scale consistency.
Enablement & Advisory Leadership
Provide strategic architectural guidance for critical initiatives acquisitions modernization programs and complex enterprise decisions.
Serve as a trusted advisor to architects security leaders and engineers across the organization.
Build and sustain a strong architecture community through mentorship reusable patterns and shared standards.
Required Skills
12 years broad technology and security experience spanning legacy platforms through modern and emerging architectures.
Proven experience defining and driving enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy within large complex multinational or Fortune-100-scale environments.
Demonstrated ability to influence architecture and technology direction across diverse business units without formal authority.
Strong background across multiple cybersecurity domains including IAM Zero Trust cloud network application data security risk and compliance.
Experience modernizing environments reducing technical debt and guiding large-scale architectural change.
Executive-level communication skills with the ability to simplify complex topics and build trusted senior relationships.
Recognised external industry presence (e.g. conference speaker author contributor or well-known practitioner).
Ability to translate industry trends threat intelligence and vendor capabilities into actionable enterprise strategy.
Preferred Skills
Enterprise architecture credentials (TOGAF or equivalent such as SABSA or Zachman).
Experience influencing or partnering directly with major technology providers and hyperscalers.
Background in healthcare regulated industries or large-scale global operations.
Experience supporting M&A joint ventures or major enterprise transformations.
Recognition at a Technical Fellow / Distinguished Architect or Engineer level within the industry.
At McKesson we care about the well-being of the patients and communities we serve and that starts with caring for our people. Thats why we have a Total Rewards package that includes comprehensive benefits to supportphysical mental and financial well-being. Our Total Rewards offerings serve the different needs of our diverse employee population and ensure they are the healthiest versions of themselves.
As part of Total Rewards we are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson. This is determined by several factors including performance experience and skills equity regular job market evaluations and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKessons pay philosophy and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay other compensation such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered.
Our Base Pay Range for this position
101300 - 168800McKesson has become aware of online recruiting-related scams in which individuals who are not affiliated with or authorized by McKesson are using McKessons (or affiliated entities like CoverMyMeds or RxCrossroads) name in fraudulent emails job postings or social media light of these scams please bear the following in mind:
McKesson Talent Advisors will never solicit money or credit card information in connection with a McKesson job application.
McKesson Talent Advisors do not communicate with candidates via online chatrooms or using email accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail. Note that McKesson does rely on a virtual assistant (Gia) for certain recruiting-related communications with candidates.
McKesson job postings are posted on our career site: .
Required Experience:
Staff IC
About Company
McKesson is the leading healthcare company for wholesale medical supplies & equipment, pharmaceutical distribution, and healthcare technology solutions. McKesson is the central nervous system of health care. At any given moment, in any given minute, we simultaneously execute thousands ... View more