Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume example
Summary
Chief information security officer with 19 years in security, including 6 as security executive for a publicly traded insurer. Leads a 45-person security organization and $18M budget, and raised the company's NIST CSF maturity from 2.1 to 3.6. Brings board-level risk communication, regulatory command of NYDFS and SEC disclosure rules, and calm incident leadership.
Experience
Chief Information Security Officer, Commonwealth Shield Insurance (Richmond, VA)
May 2020 – Present
Lead a 45-person security organization and $18M budget protecting 7,000 employees and 4M policyholders
Raised NIST CSF maturity from 2.1 to 3.6 through a 3-year roadmap funded by the board
Report quarterly to the board risk committee and own SEC cybersecurity disclosure and NYDFS Part 500 certification
Director of Information Security, James River Financial (Richmond, VA)
Jan 2014 – Apr 2020
Built the security operations center and threat intelligence functions from scratch
Led PCI DSS and SOX IT controls programs with clean audit opinions for 5 years
Information Security Engineer, Old Dominion Federal Systems (McLean, VA)
Jun 2007 – Dec 2013
Secured federal systems under FISMA and NIST 800-53
Education
M.S. Information Systems, Virginia Commonwealth University (Aug 2009 – May 2011)
B.S. Information Systems, James Madison University (Aug 2003 – May 2007)
How to write a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume
A strong Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume shows the systems you built, the scale they run at, and the measurable effect on speed, reliability or cost. Show the organization you ran (team size, budget, revenue) and the business results you are accountable for.
Sections, in order
Summary
Experience
Projects
Skills
Education
Length: Two pages are common for leadership roles; keep the first page strong enough to stand alone.
Summary: Lead with your leadership scope and the business outcomes you are known for.
Skills to feature
Programming languages
System design
Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
CI/CD
Testing and code review
Databases and SQL
Observability
Security fundamentals
APIs and integrations
Technical documentation
Example bullet points
Rebuilt the checkout service in Go, cutting p95 latency from 900 ms to 180 ms for 2M monthly users
Introduced contract tests and staged rollouts, reducing production incidents by 45% in two quarters
Migrated 30 services to Kubernetes with Terraform, lowering cloud spend by $250k a year
Tips from recruiters
Group skills by category (for example "Languages: Go, TypeScript") so recruiters and ATS parsers find them quickly.
Link to a repository, demo or write-up for at least one project you can talk about in depth.
Name the stack inside each bullet; keyword matching happens at the bullet level, not only in the skills list.
Recommended templates
Classic (ATS-friendly): Jake's-style LaTeX classic: small caps and hairline rules
Tech (ATS-friendly): Developer style: mono headings and tags, sans body
Modern (ATS-friendly): Clean single column with accent headings and rules
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume FAQ
What should a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume include?
A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume should show the systems you built, the scale they run at, and the measurable effect on speed, reliability or cost. Use these sections in this order: Summary, Experience, Projects, Skills and Education. Show the organization you ran (team size, budget, revenue) and the business results you are accountable for.
What is the best resume template for a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)?
Classic, Tech and Modern work well for Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles. They are single-column with standard headings, so applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse them reliably.
How long should a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume be?
Two pages are common for leadership roles; keep the first page strong enough to stand alone.
Which skills should a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) put on a resume?
Prioritize the skills named in the job posting. Common ones for Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles are Programming languages, System design, Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), CI/CD, Testing and code review and Databases and SQL.
How do I write strong Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) resume bullet points?
Start with an action verb, say what you did, and end with a measurable result such as latency, uptime and deploy frequency. For example: "Rebuilt the checkout service in Go, cutting p95 latency from 900 ms to 180 ms for 2M monthly users."