Director of Engineering, Security Operations

Discord•San Francisco, CA

2d•$400,000 - $450,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Discord is used by over 200 million people every month for many different reasons, but there’s one thing that nearly everyone does on our platform: play video games. Over 90% of our users play games, spending a combined 1.5 billion hours playing thousands of unique titles on Discord each month. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to talk and hang out before, during, and after playing games. Discord is looking for an experienced, technical, and mission-driven Director of Security Operations to lead our Detection & Response, Enterprise Security, Identity & Access Management, and Cyber Threat Intelligence teams. You will report directly to the Head of Security and will be instrumental in defining and executing our security operations strategy while building world-class teams that protect Discord and our users. This role owns four security domains and requires a leader who can operate with minimal direction, drive long-term strategy, and deliver results across complex, high-stakes environments. As a senior member of the Security leadership team, you'll serve as a key succession candidate for greater organizational responsibility. This is a technical leadership role. Security at Discord is an engineering discipline, and we expect leaders at all levels to stay close to the work. You won't be writing production code daily, but you should be comfortable reading code, writing scripts, and digging into technical details when the situation demands it.

Requirements

You have 10+ years of experience in security, with 5+ years in leadership roles managing multiple teams or managers across different security disciplines
You are technical: you can read and write code (Python is ideal), review technical designs, and engage with engineers on implementation details
You have experience maturing a security function: taking something informal or early-stage and building it into a structured, repeatable program
You consistently reach the right decision and bring people along with you; you act decisively in critical situations, even when making unpopular calls
You communicate with clarity and conviction to any audience—from engineers to executives—and you understand the weight your title carries in debates
You thrive with autonomy, operate with minimal editing from your manager, and proactively drive alignment across the organization
You have led through significant security incidents and understand how to balance speed, thoroughness, and communication under pressure
You have aspirations for broader leadership responsibility and see this role as a path toward greater organizational impact
You have deep experience with identity and access management at scale—particularly in cloud-native environments (GCP, AWS)
Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties).

Nice To Haves

Hands on experience integrating AI systems and tools into Security workflows
Background in gaming, social platforms, or consumer technology
Familiarity with trust & safety operations and their intersection with security
Experience building organizations across multiple locations or time zones
Understanding of threat actors relevant to gaming or social platforms (financially motivated fraud, account takeover, community-targeted harassment campaigns, etc.)

Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision Define and own the unified security operations strategy spanning Detection & Response, IT Security, Identity & Access Management, and Cyber Threat Intelligence—ensuring alignment across domains while respecting their distinct missions
Formalize and expand Discord's Cyber Threat Intelligence function: mature existing capabilities into a structured program, build the team, establish collection and production processes, and integrate intelligence into security operations and business decision-making
Own the identity and access management strategy across Discord—covering corporate systems, cloud infrastructure environments, and the policies and controls that govern access to both
Collaborate with Security, Engineering, IT, Legal, Trust & Safety, and executive leadership to align security operations priorities with company goals
Own accountability for security operations outcomes across all four domains, ensuring success criteria are effectively measured and achieved
Technical Leadership Maintain enough technical depth across your domains to effectively evaluate proposals, challenge assumptions, and hold teams accountable for sound technical decisions
Get hands-on when needed: review detection logic, dig into incident forensics, audit IAM configurations, or prototype solutions when it accelerates the team
Drive engineering excellence across security operations—ensuring teams build reliable, automated, and scalable solutions rather than manual processes that don't scale
Organizational Leadership Build, lead, and scale a high-performing organization of security professionals across four functions with varying maturity levels, each requiring different leadership approaches
Design a healthy organization structure that balances operational excellence, innovation, and speed
Drive the full talent lifecycle: hiring, culture-building, growth, performance management, and retention
Grow and develop managers who can effectively own their domains with increasing autonomy; maintain a clear succession plan and build bench strength across the organization
Establish operational rhythms, cross-team rituals, and shared practices that create cohesion while preserving domain expertise
Cross-Functional Partnership Partner with Security Engineering leadership to ensure detection, response, IAM, and threat intelligence capabilities are informed by and integrated with product and infrastructure security efforts
Drive alignment between IT Security, IAM, and enterprise technology decisions—ensuring security is embedded in how Discord operates, not bolted on
Ensure threat intelligence is actionable: inform detection engineering priorities, support incident investigations, and provide strategic context to Security and company leadership
Executive Communication & Crisis Leadership Serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on security operations risks, incidents, threat landscape, and program health
Provide executive-level visibility into security operations posture, investment needs, and key risks
Translate threat intelligence into business-relevant context for leadership and cross-functional partners
Act as an escalation point and decision-maker during significant security incidents; ensure appropriate crisis communication to leadership
Represent Discord's security operations externally when appropriate, and build the organization's reputation through knowledge sharing