Director, Ecosystem Product Security

Stellar Development Foundation • San Francisco, CA

3d • $225,000 - $335,000

About The Position

Interested in working on cutting-edge blockchain technology and creating equitable access to the global financial system? Since 2014, the mission-driven team at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has helped fuel the tremendous growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform that operates at high-scale today. Developers and companies around the world build on it, and the SDF team is expanding to support the rapidly growing and changing Stellar ecosystem.
We're hiring a Senior Director, Ecosystem & Product Security to lead security strategy across the Stellar ecosystem and directly own security outcomes for Foundation-developed systems, Foundation-operated infrastructure, and treasury-related security responsibilities. This role is focused on raising the practical security baseline across a decentralized financial ecosystem that includes wallets, infrastructure providers, custodians, issuers, validators, and other critical participants. Success means reducing real-world security risk and financial loss through clear standards, effective coordination, and practical improvements that are adopted in production.
The role is both strategic and hands-on. It requires deep technical judgment across decentralized systems, product security, and operational risk, along with the ability to work across teams and influence independent ecosystem participants without direct authority. This is a highly cross-functional and externally visible leadership role. The right candidate will combine technical credibility, sound judgment, and strong execution to help make security a durable strength of both the Foundation and the broader Stellar network.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in security, including significant experience in senior leadership roles
• 5+ years leading security programs, teams, or functions with meaningful scope
• A track record of owning security outcomes for complex, high-consequence systems in production
• Deep experience in product and application security, with hands-on judgment in real-world environments
• Strong familiarity with blockchain and decentralized system security
• The ability to assess and prioritize risk across areas such as protocol design, smart contracts, wallets, validators, dependencies, and governance mechanisms
• Experience driving security improvements across multiple teams, organizations, or ecosystem participants, including in environments where you do not have direct authority
• Strong incident judgment, including experience handling high-severity incidents and disclosure processes
• A pragmatic approach to security, with the ability to make tradeoffs that reduce real-world risk rather than optimize for theoretical completeness
• Experience building, leading, and developing high-performing security teams
• The ability to set strategy, translate it into execution, and deliver measurable outcomes
• Clear communication skills and the credibility to work effectively with engineers, executives, and external ecosystem participants
• Experience operating in environments where security failures could lead to financial loss, operational disruption, or loss of trust

Nice To Haves

• Experience with secure development frameworks such as NIST SSDF
• Familiarity with Web3 security frameworks such as OWASP SCSVS or SEAL
• Experience in financial infrastructure, payments, custody, or tokenized finance
• Experience with large-scale platform or ecosystem security architecture
• Experience in identity, trust, encryption, or internet-scale systems

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the Foundation’s security strategy across both the Stellar ecosystem and Foundation-owned systems
• Raise the practical security baseline for key ecosystem participants, including wallets, infrastructure providers, custodians, issuers, and validators
• Publish actionable guidance, reference patterns, and security expectations that drive real adoption across the ecosystem
• Build coordination mechanisms for shared risks, incident response, and cross-ecosystem security improvement
• Own security outcomes for Foundation-developed software, Foundation-operated infrastructure, and treasury / custody-related responsibilities
• Partner with Engineering, Finance, Legal, IT, and Corporate Security to drive implementation of security controls and secure operating practices
• Lead secure development efforts across architecture, threat modeling, vulnerability management, bug bounty programs, and product incident response
• Build and lead a high-performing security team, while translating strategy into execution plans and measurable outcomes
• Represent the Foundation externally as a credible technical leader and convener on ecosystem security

Benefits

• Competitive health, dental & vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee + any dependents
• Flexible time off + 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break
• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for both non-birthing and birthing parents, as well as up to 14 weeks of paid pregnancy leave for birthing parents
• Gym reimbursement ($80 per month)
• Life & ADD (up to $50K)
• Short & Long term disability
• 401K with 4% match
• Health & Dependent Care FSA Accounts
• Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution
• Family building benefits through Kindbody
• Wellbeing benefits (One Medical, Rightway, Headspace)
• L&D budget of $1,500/year
• Daily lunch and snacks in office
• Company retreats

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed