Director, Cybersecurity Operations

Celanese•Irving, TX

About The Position

The Director, Cybersecurity Operations leads and evolves the company's cybersecurity operations capabilities to protect enterprise assets, information, and business operations. The role provides strategic and operational leadership across security monitoring and incident response, exposure management, business continuity and disaster recovery, security awareness, and managed security service providers. It ensures cyber risks are identified, managed, and remediated, and partners with executive leadership, IT, business stakeholders, and external partners to strengthen cyber resilience and deliver a security operations program aligned with business objectives and risk tolerance. The position is based in Irving, Texas. The Director governs managed security service providers and enterprise threat detection and response, including incident response readiness, detection engineering, threat hunting, response orchestration, and executive reporting. The role also oversees cybersecurity alignment with business continuity and disaster recovery planning, enterprise vulnerability and application security programs, and security awareness and human risk management. Working with cybersecurity leadership, the Director shapes the operational strategy and roadmap, drives continuous improvement and operational efficiency, and leads internal staff and service providers. The position serves as a liaison among cybersecurity, IT, business units, executive leadership, and external partners.

Requirements

10 or more years of cybersecurity experience, with a significant focus on security operations and incident response.
Proven leadership experience managing global cybersecurity operations teams and/or managed security service providers.
Demonstrated experience across multiple domains, including SOC, incident response, vulnerability management, and security awareness.
Experience developing and executing cybersecurity operational strategies aligned with enterprise risk and compliance requirements.
Strong understanding of threat detection technologies, including SIEM, EDR/XDR, and SOAR, and of incident response methodologies.
Expertise in vulnerability management, application security, and exposure management practices.
Familiarity with business continuity and disaster recovery frameworks and their integration with cybersecurity.
Working knowledge of threat intelligence, attack frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK, and adversary tactics.
Experience aligning cybersecurity operations with frameworks such as NIST CSF, ISO 27001, NIS2, or similar.
Strong understanding of operational metrics, SLAs, KPIs, and audit or regulatory expectations.
Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills.
Ability to translate technical risk into business impact and actionable insights.
Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing without direct authority.
Proven ability to drive change, operational maturity, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.
Industry certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, or equivalent preferred.

Responsibilities

Govern managed security service provider performance, delivery, and continuous improvement across services such as MDR, SOC, and vulnerability management.
Define and enforce service-level agreements, key performance indicators, and outcome-driven metrics aligned with business risk.
Ensure escalation, incident handling, and reporting processes are effective.
Oversee enterprise threat detection, monitoring, and incident response capabilities, including SIEM, EDR, and threat intelligence integration.
Ensure incident response readiness and effectiveness, coordinating with crisis management and external partners.
Advance detection engineering, threat hunting, and response orchestration to reduce dwell time and improve outcomes.
Provide executive reporting on the threat landscape, incident trends, and response effectiveness.
Govern cybersecurity alignment with enterprise business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
Integrate cyber incident scenarios into BC/DR plans and ensure plans are regularly tested through exercises.
Coordinate with IT and business stakeholders to validate recovery capabilities and resilience objectives.
Lead the enterprise exposure management program, including vulnerability identification, prioritization, and remediation governance.
Oversee application security practices, including secure SDLC integration and application risk assessments.
Partner with infrastructure and application owners to ensure timely remediation of identified risks.
Drive adoption of continuous threat exposure management principles.
Oversee the enterprise security awareness program, including phishing simulations and targeted training.
Measure and report on human risk reduction metrics and program effectiveness, and foster a security-aware culture.
Partner with cybersecurity leadership to define and execute the strategic roadmap for cybersecurity operations.
Identify opportunities to improve automation, AI-driven detection and response, and operational efficiency.
Drive continuous improvement across people, processes, and technology.
Act as a liaison among cybersecurity, IT, business units, and external partners.
Brief executive leadership on operational risk, program maturity, and performance.
Build and lead a high-performing team of internal staff and service providers.