OPT Cybersecurity Consultant Jobs
Cybersecurity Consultant jobs are actively filled by employers who sponsor OPT, particularly in sectors like finance, defense contracting, and healthcare IT. Your degree in computer science, information security, or a related field is the foundation, and STEM OPT extension eligibility gives you up to 36 months of authorized work.
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About the Team
TikTok is seeking a GRC Cybersecurity Controls Analyst to join the TikTok USDS Joint Venture (JV) GRC Controls & Certifications team. This role will support the operation, testing, and continuous improvement of the controls framework and will help drive audit readiness across key security, compliance, privacy, and regulatory obligations. The candidate will work closely with control owners, product teams, security teams, privacy, legal, internal audit, external auditors, and GRC leadership to evaluate control design, implementation, and operating effectiveness.
About the Role
The role will support control testing, evidence review, audit response coordination, control narrative development, and issue identification across frameworks and obligations such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, PCI, control validation, and other certification or assessment activities. The candidate will also help mature the team’s approach to GRC automation and engineering. This includes improving how controls are mapped, tested, monitored, and reported through tooling, dashboards, structured data, workflow automation, evidence recommendations, and scalable testing. The ideal candidate is comfortable working at the intersection of GRC, security controls, audit readiness, and process automation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Support the maintenance and continuous improvement of the controls framework, including control descriptions, mappings, owners, evidence expectations, testing procedures, and control narratives.
- Perform control testing and validation activities, including design, implementation, and operating effectiveness testing.
- Review evidence submitted by control owners and product teams to determine whether it sufficiently demonstrates control performance and meets audit or assessment expectations.
- Coordinate with control owners, evidence owners, product teams, and GRC stakeholders to resolve evidence gaps, clarify control intent, and improve testing quality.
- Support internal and external audits, certifications, and assessments, including ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI, NIST CSF, and other GRC obligations.
- Support GRC automation initiatives by helping define requirements for workflow automation, control monitoring, and scalable control testing processes.
- Work with technical and engineering teams to understand security tools, data sources, system-generated evidence, and opportunities to automate or improve control validation.
- Contribute to a culture of high-quality documentation, defensible controls testing, and continuous improvement across the Controls & Certifications function.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Security, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Risk Management, Compliance, Engineering, Data Analytics, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- 3+ years of experience in GRC, IT risk, security controls, audit readiness, control testing, compliance, security assurance, or a related field. Experience performing or supporting control testing, including evaluating control design, implementation, and operating effectiveness.
- Experience gathering, reviewing, and assessing technical control evidence from stakeholders, systems, tools, dashboards, or documentation repositories. Working knowledge of security and compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, or similar control frameworks.
- Familiarity with security domains such as Identity and Access Management, Vulnerability Management, Incident Management, Asset Management, Logging and Monitoring, Data Security, SDLC, Third-Party Risk Management, Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery, or Privacy.
- Strong writing and documentation skills, with the ability to create clear control narratives, evidence and testing summaries, and status updates. Strong analytical skills and ability to assess whether evidence meets the intent of a control, requirement, or audit request.
- Experience working with control owners, technical teams, auditors, legal, privacy, compliance, or cross-functional stakeholders. Ability to manage multiple workstreams, follow up on open items, identify blockers, and communicate risks clearly. Demonstrated teamwork and collaboration skills, especially in fast-moving, cross-functional environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Professional certification such as CISA, CISSP, CISM, CRISC, CDPSE, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor / Lead Implementer, or equivalent.
- Experience supporting external audits, security certifications, or regulatory assessments such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, NIST CSF, or national security / data protection obligations.
- Experience with GRC automation, control monitoring, evidence automation, dashboarding, workflow design, or data-driven control testing. Experience working with engineering, security, infrastructure, product, or data teams to translate technical processes into control evidence and audit-ready narratives.
- Familiarity with automation, scripting, SQL, APIs, or data workflows used to improve GRC operations.
- Experience maintaining or improving a control library, control framework, control mapping, or integrated compliance framework. Experience identifying evidence quality issues, control design gaps, operating effectiveness concerns, or audit readiness risks.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy – a mission we work towards every day.
We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $98,800 - $196,000 annually. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
- Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
- Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
- Exercising sound judgment.
Responsibilities
About the Team
TikTok is seeking a GRC Cybersecurity Controls Analyst to join the TikTok USDS Joint Venture (JV) GRC Controls & Certifications team. This role will support the operation, testing, and continuous improvement of the controls framework and will help drive audit readiness across key security, compliance, privacy, and regulatory obligations. The candidate will work closely with control owners, product teams, security teams, privacy, legal, internal audit, external auditors, and GRC leadership to evaluate control design, implementation, and operating effectiveness.
About the Role
The role will support control testing, evidence review, audit response coordination, control narrative development, and issue identification across frameworks and obligations such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, PCI, control validation, and other certification or assessment activities. The candidate will also help mature the team’s approach to GRC automation and engineering. This includes improving how controls are mapped, tested, monitored, and reported through tooling, dashboards, structured data, workflow automation, evidence recommendations, and scalable testing. The ideal candidate is comfortable working at the intersection of GRC, security controls, audit readiness, and process automation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Support the maintenance and continuous improvement of the controls framework, including control descriptions, mappings, owners, evidence expectations, testing procedures, and control narratives.
- Perform control testing and validation activities, including design, implementation, and operating effectiveness testing.
- Review evidence submitted by control owners and product teams to determine whether it sufficiently demonstrates control performance and meets audit or assessment expectations.
- Coordinate with control owners, evidence owners, product teams, and GRC stakeholders to resolve evidence gaps, clarify control intent, and improve testing quality.
- Support internal and external audits, certifications, and assessments, including ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI, NIST CSF, and other GRC obligations.
- Support GRC automation initiatives by helping define requirements for workflow automation, control monitoring, and scalable control testing processes.
- Work with technical and engineering teams to understand security tools, data sources, system-generated evidence, and opportunities to automate or improve control validation.
- Contribute to a culture of high-quality documentation, defensible controls testing, and continuous improvement across the Controls & Certifications function.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Security, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Risk Management, Compliance, Engineering, Data Analytics, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- 3+ years of experience in GRC, IT risk, security controls, audit readiness, control testing, compliance, security assurance, or a related field. Experience performing or supporting control testing, including evaluating control design, implementation, and operating effectiveness.
- Experience gathering, reviewing, and assessing technical control evidence from stakeholders, systems, tools, dashboards, or documentation repositories. Working knowledge of security and compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, or similar control frameworks.
- Familiarity with security domains such as Identity and Access Management, Vulnerability Management, Incident Management, Asset Management, Logging and Monitoring, Data Security, SDLC, Third-Party Risk Management, Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery, or Privacy.
- Strong writing and documentation skills, with the ability to create clear control narratives, evidence and testing summaries, and status updates. Strong analytical skills and ability to assess whether evidence meets the intent of a control, requirement, or audit request.
- Experience working with control owners, technical teams, auditors, legal, privacy, compliance, or cross-functional stakeholders. Ability to manage multiple workstreams, follow up on open items, identify blockers, and communicate risks clearly. Demonstrated teamwork and collaboration skills, especially in fast-moving, cross-functional environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Professional certification such as CISA, CISSP, CISM, CRISC, CDPSE, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor / Lead Implementer, or equivalent.
- Experience supporting external audits, security certifications, or regulatory assessments such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, NIST CSF, or national security / data protection obligations.
- Experience with GRC automation, control monitoring, evidence automation, dashboarding, workflow design, or data-driven control testing. Experience working with engineering, security, infrastructure, product, or data teams to translate technical processes into control evidence and audit-ready narratives.
- Familiarity with automation, scripting, SQL, APIs, or data workflows used to improve GRC operations.
- Experience maintaining or improving a control library, control framework, control mapping, or integrated compliance framework. Experience identifying evidence quality issues, control design gaps, operating effectiveness concerns, or audit readiness risks.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy – a mission we work towards every day.
We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $98,800 - $196,000 annually. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
- Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
- Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
- Exercising sound judgment.
See all 276+ OPT Cybersecurity Consultant Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT Cybersecurity Consultant Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a Cybersecurity Consultant
Lead with your security credentials
Certifications like CompTIA Security+, CISSP, or CEH signal readiness to employers skeptical of OPT timelines. List them prominently on your resume. Credentialed candidates routinely move faster through hiring pipelines than those relying solely on degree qualifications.
Target STEM OPT-eligible roles from day one
Cybersecurity Consultant roles under CIP codes like Computer Science or Information Assurance qualify for the 36-month STEM OPT extension. Confirm your degree's CIP code with your DSO before applying so you can communicate your full authorized work window confidently.
Prioritize employers with existing security clearance processes
Federal contractors and financial institutions already navigate complex compliance frameworks. They're more familiar with OPT documentation than startups are. Research whether a company holds active government contracts, which signals infrastructure for handling work authorization questions systematically.
Address OPT directly in your cover letter
Briefly state your current OPT status, expiration timeline, and STEM extension eligibility in one or two sentences. Employers unfamiliar with OPT often assume it's more complicated than it is. A clear, confident explanation removes friction early in the process.
Network inside cybersecurity professional communities
Industry associations and local security meetups connect you with practitioners who understand the talent shortage in this field. Employers who've hired international candidates before are far less likely to hesitate over OPT. Warm referrals bypass the initial screening filters entirely.
Quantify your impact with specific security outcomes
Replace vague resume bullets with measurable results: vulnerabilities remediated, compliance frameworks implemented, or incidents responded to. Employers weighing OPT complexity against value need concrete evidence that hiring you is worth the administrative steps involved.
Cybersecurity Consultant OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work as a Cybersecurity Consultant on OPT without H-1B sponsorship?
Yes. OPT is work authorization tied to your F-1 status, not to a specific employer's sponsorship. You can work as a Cybersecurity Consultant for any employer willing to hire you during your OPT period. The employer doesn't petition USCIS on your behalf the way they would for an H-1B visa. You do need your employment to be directly related to your degree field, which information security, computer science, and related programs satisfy cleanly for this role.
Does a Cybersecurity Consultant role qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
It almost certainly does, provided your degree falls under a qualifying STEM field. Computer Science, Information Assurance, Cybersecurity, and Electrical Engineering are all on the STEM Designated Degree Program list. The role itself must also be a bona fide job with an E-Verify enrolled employer. Confirm your specific CIP code with your DSO before applying for the extension, since the qualifying determination is based on your degree program, not just the job title.
What types of employers sponsor OPT for Cybersecurity Consultant positions?
Federal contractors, financial institutions, healthcare systems, and large technology firms are the most consistent sponsors. These sectors face acute cybersecurity talent shortages and have existing HR processes for handling OPT documentation. Consulting firms like the major Big Four professional services organizations and mid-sized managed security service providers also hire OPT candidates regularly. Browse Migrate Mate to filter specifically for employers actively seeking candidates on OPT authorization in the cybersecurity space.
Can I work as a Cybersecurity Consultant contractor or on a project basis during OPT?
Yes, but with restrictions. USCIS allows self-employment and contract work during OPT, but your work must be directly related to your degree field and you must work at least 20 hours per week. Independent contracting is permitted, but you'll need documentation showing the engagement qualifies as legitimate employment in your field. Short-term gig arrangements that can't demonstrate a clear connection to your degree are higher risk and worth discussing with your DSO before accepting.
What happens to my Cybersecurity Consultant job if my OPT expires before I get an H-1B?
If your OPT expires and you haven't transitioned to another visa status, you lose work authorization and must stop working immediately. If you're on STEM OPT and your employer files an H-1B petition before the April 1 cap-subject deadline, you may be eligible for a cap-gap extension that bridges your status through September 30. Planning your job search and H-1B timing well in advance of your OPT end date is critical to avoiding gaps.