Director, Forward Deployed Security Architecture

AstraZeneca•Gaithersburg, MD

5d•$169,320 - $222,233•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Forward-Deployed Security Architecture & DevEx is a technical leader responsible for establishing and leading a team within cybersecurity architecture focused on engineering enablement, developer experience, AI adoption, and security architecture advisory. The role partners directly with software, platform, cloud, data, AI, and operational technology teams to help them adopt secure engineering practices at scale. It is not a traditional governance or review-board role; the leader combines cybersecurity architecture expertise, software-development credibility, AI experience, product thinking, and a focus on improving the developer and engineer experience. The role will initially be hands-on and will build a multidisciplinary team as the capability matures. The mission is to make secure engineering practices consumable, measurable, and scalable. The role drives adoption of Secure by Design cybersecurity products; provides forward-deployed security architecture support; improves cybersecurity-related developer experience; operates cybersecurity-specific decision and exception services; enables secure AI and agentic engineering; and uses product intelligence and consumer feedback to continuously improve the secure path. The position is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Candidates must live within commuting distance or be willing to relocate. The organization’s working approach involves engaging face-to-face in offices three days a week to support collaboration and teamwork.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information technology, cybersecurity, or a comparable discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Significant experience in cybersecurity architecture, secure software development, platform engineering, developer experience, or related technical disciplines.
Strong understanding of modern software delivery, version control, CI/CD, APIs, cloud-native architectures, containers, infrastructure as code, and policy as code.
Experience with threat modeling, application security, cloud security, identity, Zero Trust, supply-chain security, and runtime controls.
Practical experience with generative AI, AI-assisted development, or agentic systems and their security implications.
Ability to engage credibly with engineering teams on code, architecture, automation, and developer workflows.
Demonstrated experience leading complex technical programs, services, or architecture functions.
Experience establishing or scaling a new technical capability and building high-performing teams.
Proven ability to influence senior engineering, architecture, product, cybersecurity, and risk stakeholders in a matrixed global organization.
Experience applying product thinking to internal technology or cybersecurity capabilities, including roadmaps, adoption measures, consumer feedback, and product intelligence.
Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and organizational-change skills.
Ability to balance cybersecurity outcomes with engineering velocity, operational resilience, safety, and consumer experience.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with OT/ICS security and regulated or safety-sensitive environments.
Experience in pharmaceuticals, life sciences, healthcare, critical infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, or another regulated industry.

Responsibilities

Lead adoption of secure engineering practices, reusable security solutions, and cybersecurity architecture products.
Partner directly with engineering teams to reduce security-related friction, improve usability, and increase self-service consumption of cybersecurity capabilities.
Help teams address application, cloud, platform, AI, data, and OT security challenges, including secure adoption of AI-enabled applications, agentic systems, and AI-assisted software development.
Use adoption measures and engineering feedback to identify friction and improve cybersecurity architecture products.
Serve as a trusted cybersecurity architecture advisor and provide guidance for complex, high-impact initiatives, helping teams apply requirements to real-world delivery challenges.
Turn recurring security architecture questions into reusable solutions and guidance.
Define and improve the developer experience associated with cybersecurity requirements and controls; reduce friction in secure development workflows and ensure feedback is actionable, contextual, and developer-friendly.
Partner with engineering-platform teams to improve delivery of cybersecurity capabilities.
Lead cybersecurity architecture decision and exception processes, coordinate reviews of complex or non-standard scenarios, and oversee workflows, documentation, tracking, and reporting.
Identify recurring exceptions and use exception trends and service measures to drive long-term solutions, improve the off-road process, and expand reusable paved-road solutions.
Operate decision and exception services without assuming enterprise architecture approval authority or business risk acceptance.
Establish security champion programs and communities of practice; promote secure engineering culture across software, cloud, AI, platform, data, and OT teams.
Develop enablement content, learning paths, and engagement programs, and create sustainable ways to scale cybersecurity expertise.
Establish the function’s vision, operating model, and roadmap; recruit and develop a high-performing multidisciplinary team and build a scalable capability spanning cybersecurity architecture, secure engineering enablement, AI security, adoption insight, and developer experience.
Build partnerships across cybersecurity, architecture, engineering, platform, AI, data, OT, and risk organizations.