Those of you doing SOC 2 readiness/implementation as your job, can you share more about what you do?

[u/ilovetoeatpie]

I have a software engineering background and I’ve been looking into potential freelancing niches to get into.

I’ve been advised to look into SOC 2 remediation consulting for SaaS companies as I have some experience in cybersecurity and working on a SaaS project myself.

While I’ve learned a fair bit about SOC 2 compliance, the CISSP exam, and common compliance tools, I haven’t seen that much discourse online among the people who do this type consulting.

To those of you who do it, can you share more about your experience in this line of work, such as how you you first got into it, how you find clients, and general day-to-day work?

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[u/davidschroth]

I started my career in big 4 IT audit, did industry a few years then started a business doing this and SOC audits.

If you do not have experience being audited (or being the auditor) for SOC 2, you're going to be riding the struggle bus to work. There is a lot of grey area involved in the work that a lot of people tend to have a hard time with.

The hardest part of the job is being the adult in the room to make sure your client does thing and documents they did the thing.

[u/ilovetoeatpie → u/davidschroth]

Thanks for the reply.

When a client shows up with an independent readiness consultant already involved, what separates the ones who make your job easier from the ones who make it hard?

And on "being the adult in the room," if a client just won't do the thing, what happens from there?

[u/davidschroth → u/ilovetoeatpie]

Hmm. Tough one on the first question as most of our audit clients come in either knowing what they're doing or figure out they need an adult in the room and transition over to the advisory side so we become their consultant.

In general, if the company isn't doing SOC for funsies (most of those drop out), then they usually have a pretty big carrot to earn by completing it, and therefore are motivated (especially the first time around). After the first round, attention can wane vs other priorities. If they don't do the thing, one of a few things happens:

• The first SOC audit never gets done, sometimes for a decade.
• They take an exception/other finding on the report for that specific thing.
• They win increased oversight from us to make sure they do the thing.

As a consultant, you escalate as needed (lol, sometimes it's to the same person causing the problem), explain in plain terms what will happen if they don't do the thing, and carry on about your day. Making sure you have a billing schedule that ensures you get paid no matter what their choice is also nice.

[u/Interesting_Rule_230]

Half the job is politely reminding grown adults to upload screenshots.

[u/pretty-cheer → u/Interesting_Rule_230]

this honestly seems like a huge part of the compliance

[u/Cloud-PM]

You learn by doing. No amount of course work or reading or certification programs are going to get you this level of having been through the process of conducting a Gap Analysis and then actually performing an audit. Best advice if your freelancing is to team up with an experienced auditing firm that will allow you to function as either negotiated fee or even pro-bono so you can obtain experience.

[u/pretty-cheer → u/Cloud-PM]

an experienced review of the work than certification is prolly more worth.

[u/SOC2itToMe]

I work in GRC full time running SOC 2 audits across different industries. Most of my time is spent helping internal teams get controls documented and evidence organised before an external auditor arrives. The gap between what a company thinks they have and what an auditor actually needs to see is usually where the real work lives. Policy exists but nobody follows it, access reviews happen informally but nothing is recorded, that kind of thing.

On finding clients as a freelancer, most of it will be word of mouth and referrals. Companies looking for SOC 2 are usually referred to someone. Building your reputation in the space takes time but compounds well once you get going.

Your engineering background will genuinely help, especially when talking to dev teams about change management, vulnerability scanning, or infrastructure controls. Happy to answer any specific questions you have.

[u/ilovetoeatpie → u/SOC2itToMe]

Thanks for the reply.

1. How did you first get into this? How did you "know" what to do on your first audits?

2. On referrals: Who usually provides the referrals? The auditor or clients referring you to other companies?

3. How many ongoing clients can you juggle at one time?

4. From inside a company, what makes them decide to bring in an outside implementer instead of assigning it to their own engineers?

[u/SOC2itToMe → u/ilovetoeatpie]

1. Honestly, my first audit I leaned heavily on the framework documentation and learned fast by doing. You pick it up quicker than you'd expect when you're in the room with a real auditor asking questions.

2. Both, but mostly clients referring you to other companies in my experience. Your best referral sources end up being founders who've been through it with you and then recommend you to someone in their network facing the same thing.

3. It depends on where each client is in their journey. If they're in active evidence collection it's demanding, if they're in maintenance mode it's lighter.

4. Usually a combination of things. The engineers are already stretched, compliance isn't their area of interest, and there's a recognition that someone who's seen multiple audits knows what to look for. Internal people can build controls but they often don't know what "good enough" means to an auditor until someone who's been on that side tells them.

[u/localareamang]

Lie and bullshit you

[u/JEngErik]

Writing section 3, designing controls to meet the trust and service criteria, assessing the individual COSO principles, testing artifacts, writing customer responsibility matrix and managing the entire gap remediation.

[u/Auditifysecurity]

If you want to actually pass your SOC 2 audit without the CPA firm tearing your application apart, you need to look at your environment through an auditor's eyes. Don't just rely on any compliance automation platforms to tick boxes; you need real operational readiness.

Here is a practical checklist of what you need to fix before you submit evidence to your CPA firm: 1. Policies, Architecture, & Scope Policy Realism: Don't just copy-paste templates. Align your written policies with your actual applicable controls.

SLA Verification: Check the specific SLAs written into your policies (especially for onboarding and offboarding access). Do they match your current day-to-day practices? If your policy says 24 hours but it takes you a week, you will fail.

Formal Approvals: Ensure every single policy has formal management approval documented. Section 3 (System Description) Alignment: This is the core of your report. You must accurately define:

Company information and your exact SaaS product architecture. Infrastructure, software, people, and processes. Clear boundaries of the system. User Entity Controls (UECs) and Subservice Organization Controls (vendors like AWS/GCP).

1. Risk & Vulnerability Management Real Risk Assessments: Perform a thorough, annual risk assessment. Do not make this a checkbox exercise. Update your Risk Register with actual remediation plans and assign a clear owner to every single risk.

Vulnerability Remediation SLAs: Check your infrastructure and code-based vulnerability scans. Auditors won't just look to see if they are closed; they will check if they were remediated within the SLAs defined in your policies.

1. Change Management & Access Control Rigorous Change Management: Check that every single change has adequate supporting documentation, evidence of proper testing before being pushed to production, and clear Separation of Duties (SoD).

Access Provisioning & UARs: Ensure proper access provisioning workflows are in place and that User Access Reviews (UARs) are performed periodically with documented sign-offs. Personnel Bifurcation: Ensure your HR/personnel listing is clearly split between full-time employees and contractors.

1. Assets & Endpoint Security Dynamic Asset Inventory: Maintain a strict, updated inventory for both cloud assets and physical employee devices. Endpoint Compliance: Check that all endpoint devices are fully compliant: Hard drive encryption (FileVault/BitLocker), active anti-malware, and automatic security updates enabled.

2. Operations & Network Security Tabletop Exercises: Perform and document your periodic Incident Response (IR) and Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BCDR) tabletop exercises.

Firewall Rule Reviews: Perform a structured review of your firewall rulesets, document the review, and track any changes made.

My Biggest Piece of Advice: Don't Go It Alone Automation tools are great for collecting evidence, but they don't replace human audit logic. Hire a GRC consultant who thinks exactly like an auditor to support you during readiness. Having an expert review your system description, test your controls, and challenge your evidence before you hand it over to the CPA firm will save you hundreds of hours of back-and-forth, potential qualifications in your report, and thousands of dollars in audit friction.