Director of Security Engineering

At Sysdig, we believe cloud security isn't a compromise - it's a promise. From the start, our mission has been clear: to help organizations secure innovation in the cloud, the right way. We created Falco, the open standard for cloud threat detection, and continue to lead the cloud security market with runtime insights, open innovation, and agentic Al. Creators of technology trusted by over 60% of the Fortune 500, Sysdig gives teams the real-time clarity to move fast and defend what matters most. Culture matters here. We believe diversity fuels stronger ideas, and open dialogue drives sharper decisions. Recognized as a Best Place to Work and one of Deloitte's fastest-growing companies for the past 5 years, we're here to raise the standard for what cloud security and workplace culture should be. If you have the passion to dig deeper, the desire to challenge convention, and the curiosity to build something better, Sysdig is the right place for you.

What you will do Own security engineering, end to end. You build security engineering for Sysdig across the full code-to-cloud lifecycle. This is a senior leadership role on the Trust & Security team, reporting to the CISO. You'll own the security-engineering roadmap, standards, and budget, and act as the final decision-maker on tooling and practices for the function. Build and grow the team. You'll lead a small, high-leverage team of senior and staff security engineers, setting their technical direction and growing the team through hiring and the development of senior talent. Set functional strategy. Partner with the CISO and senior leadership to set functional strategy, translate it into operational plans and policy, and cascade it across the function. Bring an AI-first mindset to security delivery. Use AI to deliver security capabilities that help engineering build better systems and write better code — this isn't a bolt-on initiative, it's how the function operates. Secure the AI frontier. Make AI-assisted and agent-driven development safe across the org, use AI agents to scale security work itself, and defend the AI agents and workloads we run in production as first-class attack surface — work where the problems aren't clearly defined and established principles don't fully apply. Be a true product partner. Go beyond feedback: bring thoughtful, hands-on guidance to the product roadmap, using new capabilities internally first, then helping mature both our core cloud defense platform and our new AI workload protection. Engage internally and externally on security matters. Align senior leadership internally on security direction and trade-offs, and represent security directly with major customers on matters of significance — reconciling diverse stakeholder views to drive outcomes as a key leader within Trust & Security. Turn compliance into assurance. We maintain ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and SOC 2 Type II — but that's the floor. Your aim is continuous assurance of controls that not only meet the needs of the auditor but, more importantly, protect the trust of the customer. Model how we lead. Champion Sysdig's values, Trust in the Team, Love our Customers, Dig Deeper, and act as a change catalyst who builds a culture of trust, ownership, and continuous improvement.

What you will bring with you Have 8+ years in security or software engineering, including 4+ years leading and developing engineers, with real ownership of a team's roadmap, outcomes, and budget Have genuine depth in at least two of the four pillars, with working knowledge of all four — we'd rather have real expertise in product and offensive security than a survey of everything Have shipped security as code: Terraform or OpenTofu, controls enforced in pipelines, cloud and Kubernetes security at the architectural level rather than the dashboard level Have run detection and response for real, as the person on the escalation path rather than above it Are already building with agentic tooling and have opinions about where it fails Would rather make the secure path the easiest path than enforce it through policy — most of the impact here comes through partnership with Engineering and Product, not mandate Are credible with a customer's CISO and with your own engineers, without changing register much between them Are energized rather than unsettled by problems where established principles don't fully apply

What we look for Built a security function that didn't exist before, at a company where much of it was theirs to define Experience with capable adversaries — APT actors or other sophisticated cyberoffensive groups Built or run agent-driven offensive tooling, or automated vulnerability discovery and remediation at scale Worked on AI governance frameworks — ISO 42001, the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF — as an engineering problem rather than a documentation exercise A track record of conference speaking, published research, or open-source contribution

When you join Sysdig, you can expect Extra days off to prioritize your well-being 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with a 3% company match Maternity and Parental Leave Mental health support for you and your family through the Modern Health app Full health benefits package for you and your family

The U.S. annual salary range for this full-time position is between 186,000 and 256,000 USD/year. Actual offers may be higher or lower than this range based on a variety of factors, including your work location, job-related experience and education. We would love for you to join us! Please reach out even if your experience doesn't perfectly match the job description. We can always explore other options after starting the conversation. Your background and passion will set you apart, especially if your career path is different. Sysdig values a diverse workplace and encourages women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. Sysdig is an equal-opportunity employer. Sysdig does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected status. #LI-FP1 #LI-Remote