VP, Staff Security Engineer

Role Summary/Purpose:

We are seeking a highly experienced Staff Security Engineer to help lead highly technical projects to improve our Security Engineering function. This individual will be instrumental in designing and building solutions that provide security enablement for critical initiatives such as AI Security or Enterprise Cloud Migration, while providing technical leadership across diverse teams.

The ideal candidate will possess hands-on and conceptual experience across multiple technology and security domains, such as AI Security, DevOps, Cloud Engineering, Data Protection, Perimeter Defense, and Cryptography. The ability to think strategically, influence, and foster cross-functional collaboration is essential to becoming successful in this role.

This role will play a critical part in advancing our security initiatives in the public cloud and will have significant remit to influence implementation of core security solutions.  

Essential Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with security and technology leadership, serving as a trusted advisor, and significantly influence the organization’s security strategy. 
• Drive complex security initiatives across teams, proactively identifying and leading high-impact projects to success and with efficiency. 
• Drives security technology innovation, challenge the status quo, and provide thought leadership. 
• Contribute to the development of cutting-edge security practices and technologies. 
• Provide strategic guidance and direction to security leadership that is adopted into the organization’s overall security strategy. 
• Fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration across the Security Engineering organization. 
• Design and implement scalable and automated security solutions that bridge on-prem security technologies with cloud environments. 
• Serve as a senior hands-on resource and subject matter expert, working closely with security architects and engineers, while guiding the adoption of best practices across the organization. 
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to assess, prioritize, and mitigate security risks throughout the development lifecycle. 
• Develop nuanced technical plans, document analyses, create visual diagrams, and communicate technical projects with associated trade-offs.  
• Develop, maintain, and update security policies, standards, and procedures aligned with industry regulations and organizational goals. 
• Help to evaluate and integrate new security technologies, tools, and processes to improve the organization’s security posture while documenting requirements. 
• Lead efforts to ensure AWS cloud services and technologies are built and engineered with security best practices in mind. 
• Advise and strengthen technical implementation of core services like data protection controls and network security segmentation, for example.  
• Act as a liaison between security teams and engineering teams to ensure security is embedded within all stages of infrastructure and application development. 
• Represent the security function in technical discussions, architecture reviews, and governance processes. 

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 5 years of experience in Information Security, Engineering, Application Development, or related field OR in lieu of a degree, a High School Diploma/GED and minimum 9 years equivalent work experience.  
• Demonstrable working knowledge of regulatory compliance and information security management frameworks (e.g., PCI-DSS, NIST 800-53, etc.)  
• Proven experience in driving and building (including coding) wide-impacting Security initiatives, from ideation to proof-of-concept to launch 
• Outstanding interpersonal and collaboration skills, specifically the ability to drive consensus and manage the non-technical aspects of Engineering initiatives 
• Ability to think critically and make informed, data-driven decisions 
• Experience interfacing with senior management and providing information in a manner that can be consumed by multiple levels of management 
• Recognized for their ability to teach, mentor, grow, and provide advice to other domain experts and individual contributors 
• Strong ability to adapt to evolving circumstances, technologies, and strategic priorities, while leading complex initiatives 
• Demonstrate strong conflict management abilities within high-impact initiatives 
• Must be able to self-organize, prioritize, and thrives when able to operate with autonomy
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Desired Characteristics:

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA), and/or Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)  
• Certified AWS Certified Security – Specialty and AWS Solutions Architect/Professional 
• Experience developing applications or workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS) 
• Working proficiency of Artificial Intelligence (AI) related services on Amazon, such as Bedrock or AgentCore 
• Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of emerging business and end-user technologies have on information security requirements and architecture  
• Demonstrate an understanding of business needs and commitment to delivering high-quality, prompt, and efficient service to the business  
• Proven strong decision-making capabilities, with a proven track record of weighing the relative costs and benefits of potential actions and identifying the most appropriate one  
• Demonstrated technical expertise in existing security and IT systems and an ability to keep pace with changing security and IT technologies  
• Demonstrated experience communicating complex and technical issues to diverse audiences, verbally and in writing, in an easily understood, and actionable manner  

Grade/Level: 12

The salary range for this position is 135,000.00 - 230,000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon work experience, skill level or knowledge.

Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle

Our Way of Working:

We’re proud to offer you flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. You will be required to commute to your nearest Hub (either virtual or physical) for in-person engagement activities such as regular business or team meetings, training and culture events. 

*Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based upon partner obligations or preferences.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be 18 years or older
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles.  Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles.  Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post.  All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.  We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. 

Our Commitment:

When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all. 

Reasonable Accommodation Notice:

• Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
• If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-866-301-5627.   Representatives are available from 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday, Central Standard Time

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