Head of Detection and Response

Plaid•Seattle, WA

8d•$216,000 - $329,400

About The Position

We are hiring for a leader for the newly forming Detection and Response team at Plaid. Our mission is to protect Plaid's financial infrastructure by detecting and responding to suspicious activity across the company. We are responsible for the entire lifecycle of detection and response, including detection infrastructure, AI triage and response, investigation tooling, Red Teaming, and Fraud Operations. Security is foundational to the trust thousands of businesses and millions of consumers place in Plaid, and we work directly to reduce risks and enable our business to move faster and safer. As the Head of Detection and Response, you will be the founding leader responsible for standing up and evaluating Plaid's detection and response team. You will lead a specialized technical team of analysts and engineers, gain deep experience partnering with the CISO and cross-functional engineering leaders, and build critical security infrastructure at scale. This is a unique leadership opportunity to manage a team that encompasses traditional security operations alongside Red Teaming and Fraud Operations, directly impacting Plaid's security posture and long-term stability.

Requirements

8-14 years of overall detection and response or security engineering experience.
Strong technical background in security or detection engineering, with the ability to guide work on SIEMs, EDR, and SOC operations.
Experience managing a team of security analysts and engineers in an operational, platform, or infrastructure context.
Ability to build cross-functional relationships and drive security maturity through influence rather than authority.
High-empathy communication skills with the ability to represent technical work to Staff-level leadership.
Strong AI-first skillset applicable to security operations.

Nice To Haves

Experience at a fintech or high-technology organization adjacent to payments/finance.
Background in fraud investigation or software engineering.

Responsibilities

Form and set up Plaid’s Detection and Response team from scratch, defining its culture and operational standards.
Lead the day-to-day operations for incident response and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the detection and response program.
Manage and mentor a technical team responsible for detection infrastructure, AI-driven triage, and investigation tooling.
Oversee Fraud Operations and Red Team activities to ensure a proactive and comprehensive security posture.
Partner with senior leadership (CISO, CTO, COO) to communicate security risks and maturity gains achieved through influence and cross-functional collaboration.
Define and track metrics to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the D&R program