For organizations that need a Chief Compliance Officer's expertise and authority, but not the cost or commitment of a full-time executive. Named senior practitioner. Executive accountability. Strategic ownership of your compliance program.
A Chief Compliance Officer or senior cybersecurity executive runs $250K to $400K fully loaded, before benefits, equity, or the recruiting cost to find one. For most defense contractors, manufacturers, and DIB firms, the math doesn't work. The role is justified by the work it would oversee, not by the hours required to do it.
So the work goes undone. Compliance reports up through IT or legal. Strategy lives in nobody's job description. The CMMC certification gets achieved and then drifts. Audit cycles arrive as fire drills. The next regulatory framework lands with no one accountable for the response.
Strategic Advisory exists for exactly that gap. Stehrling provides senior compliance leadership on a fractional basis: a named senior practitioner with the authority, judgment, and accountability of a full-time executive, delivered at a fraction of the cost. Monthly cadence. Defined scope. Direct reporting to your CEO or executive team.
This is not coaching. This is not consulting hours. This is executive ownership of your compliance program by someone who has done the work for decades.
Most engagements share one of four characteristics. If your situation looks like any of these, this is likely the right fit.
You're CMMC certified. Now what? Quarterly reviews, POA&M management, evolving CUI flows, and the eventual recertification all need ownership. A senior practitioner provides the leadership your compliance program needs between assessments.
You're too small to justify a full-time compliance executive but too complex to operate without one. Multiple frameworks in play, contracts requiring sophisticated security posture, executive teams asking questions no one internally can answer with authority.
Acquiring a DIB target requires diligence on CMMC posture, CUI handling, and compliance liabilities. Being acquired requires presenting a credible compliance story. Either way, senior compliance leadership during the transaction is non-negotiable.
NIST 800-171 Rev 3. CMMC reciprocity with other frameworks. ITAR. NAVFAC requirements. When a new compliance obligation lands and your team needs senior judgment on how to respond, this is when senior advisory pays for itself.
Strategic Advisory engagements are scoped, named, and accountable. The practitioner assigned is the one doing the work, not a junior consultant operating under a senior banner.
A specific Stehrling executive assigned to your engagement, with the credentials and experience to operate at the executive level. Not a rotating team. Not a brand name on a slide.
Standing engagement with clear deliverables. Weekly or biweekly working sessions, monthly executive readouts, and ad hoc availability for the issues that don't wait for a scheduled call.
A multi-quarter view of where your compliance program is going. Framework coverage, audit cycles, organizational readiness, and the investments required to stay ahead of regulatory change.
Quarterly board-ready materials translating compliance posture into business language. Risk, exposure, investment priorities, and the strategic value of the program in terms your executive team and board can act on.
Senior representation during CMMC recertifications, customer audits, and regulatory reviews. We don't perform assessments, but we lead your team through them with the judgment that comes from having been on the assessor's side.
The compliance stack rarely has one owner. Strategic Advisory owns the relationships across your MSP, GRC platform, audit firm, legal counsel, and technology vendors, ensuring compliance is delivered as a coherent program rather than disconnected services.
Strategic Advisory engagements typically follow a consistent arc. The first 90 days establish the foundation. Months 3 through 12 deliver the strategic work. After year one, the engagement becomes the executive operating rhythm of your compliance program.
Deep assessment of your current compliance posture, framework exposure, vendor stack, and organizational maturity. Strategic roadmap developed and approved with your executive team. Working cadence established.
The strategic roadmap moves into delivery. Monthly executive readouts. Quarterly board reporting. Continuous oversight of audit cycles, framework changes, and program governance. Working sessions with your internal teams to build durable capability.
The engagement becomes the operating rhythm of your compliance program. New frameworks get assessed and integrated. Recertifications are managed proactively. Your executive team gets senior compliance judgment as a standing capability, not a project to commission each time.
Most firms can't credibly deliver senior fractional leadership. They offer mid-level consultants under an executive title, or they offer executive time but only the executive's name on the engagement, with the actual work done by a junior team.
Stehrling's leadership team has the depth this engagement requires. Decades of work inside the Defense Industrial Base. Direct CMMC assessor experience. Federal compliance leadership across NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, and adjacent frameworks. Executive operating experience at boutique and global firms. And critically, hands-on practitioners who still do the work, not just executives who oversee it.
The practitioner assigned to your engagement is one of our executives. The work they do is the work that gets delivered. The judgment they bring is the judgment that shapes your program. That's the entire point of fractional executive leadership, and it's what most firms miss.
"You get an executive's expertise and accountability. Not a consultant doing executive-themed work."
This engagement is precisely scoped. It works because of what it includes, and it works because of what it doesn't try to be.
Talk to a Stehrling executive directly. We'll understand your situation, tell you honestly whether Strategic Advisory fits, and if it does, scope an engagement that works for your organization. No sales pitch, response within 24 hours.
Talk to an Executive →
An independent firm focused exclusively on CMMC compliance for defense contractors and the DIB.