Head of Security Engineering

Guardian Life Insurance Company•Pittsfield, NY

About The Position

The Head of Security Engineering is responsible for leading the design, build, and continuous improvement of the organization’s security engineering capabilities. This role focuses on developing and operating scalable, resilient security platforms that protect applications, infrastructure, cloud platforms, and identity services while enabling secure business innovation in a regulated financial services environment. The position reports to the Head of Enterprise Technology and manages a team of approximately 25 U.S. based security engineers with a dotted line to an additional 20 in India.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, or a related field.
10+ years of experience in cybersecurity, with deep expertise in security engineering and control implementation.
Strong knowledge of cloud security, identity security, security tooling, and automation.
Strong communication and stakeholder‑management skills.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in regulated financial services environments is a plus.
Relevant certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM, CCSP, or equivalent) preferred.
Proven experience leading large‑scale security engineering or transformation initiatives.
Strong familiarity with DevSecOps, CI/CD integration, and infrastructure‑as‑code.
Experience with industry leading security platforms: MS Defender, Cisco, OKTA, Sailpoint, Entra, etc.
Hands‑on technical leadership style with the ability to translate strategy into executable engineering outcomes.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a security engineering strategy that delivers modern, scalable, and automated security platforms aligned with business and regulatory requirements.
Partner with infrastructure, cloud, and application engineering teams to embed security engineering capabilities directly into platforms and delivery pipelines.
Drive the delivery of security engineering initiatives across the enterprise.
Lead the engineering and implementation of preventative and detective security controls across cloud, on‑premise, and hybrid environments.
Own security tooling and platforms, including vulnerability management, endpoint and workload protection, secure configuration, and security automation.
Design and implement security controls that support DevSecOps and modern infrastructure practices.
Lead the engineering and operation of Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities, including authentication, authorization, and privileged access controls.
Partner with application and platform teams to integrate identity security services consistently across the enterprise.
Collaborate with CISO organization, Security Operations/Incident Response and second‑line risk teams to ensure security engineering solutions effectively support monitoring and detection.
Continuously improve security control effectiveness through automation, metrics, and engineering‑driven remediation.
Ensure security engineering solutions align with enterprise security standards, architectures, and regulatory expectations.
Provide regular reporting on security engineering posture, capability maturity, and control effectiveness.
Lead and develop a high‑performing security engineering organization with strong technical depth.
Foster a culture of engineering excellence, automation, and continuous improvement.