Deputy CISO

Fortinet•Sunnyvale, CA

3d•$350,000 - $380,000

About The Position

The Deputy CISO serves as an operational leader and strategic execution partner to the CISO, responsible for advancing the company’s cybersecurity priorities while enabling business growth, product innovation, and operational agility. This role partners closely with engineering, product, AI, cloud, IT, and executive teams to ensure security is integrated into the business in a practical, risk-based, and scalable way. The role balances strong security governance with business realities, helping the organization move quickly to achieve business objectives and enable innovation while appropriately managing enterprise risk. The Deputy CISO also serves as a credible executive representative of the security organization with customers, prospects, regulators, and strategic partners when needed.

Requirements

Business-minded and commercially aware
Pragmatic and solutions-oriented
Strong executive judgment and risk assessment capabilities
Comfortable making informed tradeoffs in fast-moving environments
Collaborative partner to engineering and product organizations
High bias for action and operational execution
Able to balance governance with innovation and speed
Believes security should enable the business, not constrain it

Responsibilities

Partner closely with the CISO and other Deputy CISOs to operationalize the enterprise cybersecurity strategy and drive execution across the organization.
Translate strategic security priorities into measurable operational plans, governance models, and execution roadmaps.
Establish accountability, execution rigor, and operational cadence across security initiatives.
Partner with engineering, product, AI, cloud, and infrastructure teams to enable innovation while appropriately managing enterprise risk.
Develop pragmatic, scalable security frameworks that support rapid product development and emerging technology adoption.
Drive a culture of “secure enablement” focused on helping teams move quickly and safely rather than creating unnecessary friction.
Help business and technology leaders make informed, risk-based decisions aligned with company priorities and customer expectations.
Ensure security controls are proportional, practical, and aligned to business impact.
Oversee execution of enterprise security programs across areas which may include: Cloud security, Identity and access management, Security operations and incident response, Vulnerability management, AI security governance, Third-party risk, Security architecture, Governance, risk, and compliance.
Continuously improve operational maturity, scalability, and effectiveness of the security organization.
Build strong partnerships across engineering, product, IT, legal, HR, compliance, and executive leadership teams.
Serve as a trusted advisor on operational resilience, cybersecurity risk, and emerging technologies.
Act as incident coordinator during major security incidents, operational escalations, or enterprise risk events.
Support strategic customer and prospect engagements requiring executive-level security credibility.
Participate in executive briefings, customer trust discussions, security reviews, and high-priority escalations.
Help articulate the company’s security strategy, operational maturity, and approach to emerging technologies such as AI.
Partner with Field CISOs and sales leadership on strategic accounts where internal operational expertise is valuable.
Help scale and mature the security organization, operating model, and leadership team.
Drive operational excellence, prioritization, and organizational effectiveness across security functions.
Mentor and develop future security leaders across the organization.