Principal C++ Security Systems Engineer - Enterprise Trust

Adobe•San Jose, CA

1d•$190,200 - $360,500

About The Position

The Creative Cloud Engineering organization is strengthening the security foundation for Photoshop and the broader Creative Cloud ecosystem. Photoshop is a large-scale, performance-critical C++ application with native code, third-party dependencies, plug-in surfaces, file-format parsers, cloud-connected workflows, and growing enterprise expectations around software transparency and product security. We are looking for a Principal C++ Security Systems Engineer to serve as the security champion for Photoshop. This role will define and drive the technical roadmap for memory safety, sandboxing, SBOM, dependency governance, secure build integrity, and enterprise security readiness. This is not a compliance-only role or a generic AppSec role. It is a hands-on Principal engineering role for someone who understands large C++ codebases, can reason about real product attack surfaces, and can partner deeply with engineering teams to make Photoshop more secure, resilient, and enterprise ready.

Requirements

15+ years of software engineering experience, including deep experience with large-scale, performance-sensitive C++ systems
Strong expertise in modern C++, native application architecture, debugging, performance, memory management, and legacy codebases
Experience securing complex desktop, client, platform, or systems software
Strong understanding of memory safety issues, C/C++ vulnerability classes, static analysis, fuzzing, sanitizers, compiler hardening, and secure coding practices
Experience with sandboxing, process isolation, privilege boundaries, secure IPC, or attack surface reduction
Experience with software supply chain security, dependency governance, SBOM generation, vulnerability management, secure build pipelines, artifact signing, or build provenance
Experience integrating security tooling into CI/CD, developer workflows, or release readiness processes
Strong threat-modeling skills and the ability to reason about realistic attacker capabilities
Ability to influence senior engineers and leaders without direct authority
Strong communication skills with both technical and executive audiences

Nice To Haves

Experience with large-scale desktop applications, creative tools, media applications, or native cross-platform software
Experience with Windows and macOS security models, sandboxing primitives, code signing, notarization, entitlements, permissions, and secure IPC
Experience with file-format parser security, fuzzing infrastructure, plug-in ecosystems, scripting engines, or untrusted content processing
Experience with SLSA, provenance, artifact signing, CycloneDX, SPDX, VEX, vulnerability disclosure, or secure supply chain frameworks
Experience introducing Rust or another memory-safe language into an existing C++ codebase
Familiarity with CISA Secure by Design, NIST SSDF, memory safety guidance, and EU Cyber Resilience Act expectations
Familiarity with AI/ML security considerations around agentic tools, model-driven workflows, data handling, and generated content pipelines

Responsibilities

Serve as the principal security systems engineer and security champion for Photoshop
Define the security roadmap across native C++ code, file handling, extensibility, cloud-connected workflows, AI-enabled capabilities, and enterprise deployment scenarios
Partner with product engineering, platform security, legal, compliance, release, build, and enterprise teams to turn security requirements into durable engineering capabilities
Lead security design reviews for high-risk areas including parsers, plug-ins, scripting, extensibility, IPC, AI-enabled workflows, and customer data handling
Establish secure-by-design patterns that teams can adopt without slowing product velocity
Drive a pragmatic memory safety roadmap for Photoshop’s large C++ codebase
Prioritize high-risk, attacker-reachable components such as image parsers, file-format decoders, font handling, color profiles, plug-in boundaries, native services, and IPC paths
Improve adoption of sanitizers, fuzzing, static analysis, compiler hardening, runtime mitigations, and safer C++ practices
Reduce vulnerability classes such as use-after-free, buffer overflows, type confusion, unsafe pointer usage, integer overflows, and unsafe deserialization
Evaluate when to use modern C++, Rust, process isolation, safer libraries, or targeted rewrites versus mitigation and containment
Build measurable security signals into CI/CD so regressions are caught earlier
Define sandboxing and isolation strategies for high-risk Photoshop execution surfaces
Improve security boundaries around file import/export, plug-ins, scripting, generative workflows, embedded services, and third-party integrations
Design privilege separation, process isolation, brokered access, secure IPC, and least-privilege boundaries
Partner across macOS, Windows, web, and cloud-connected surfaces to apply the right OS-level security controls
Reduce blast radius while balancing performance, compatibility, and professional workflow requirements
Own the technical strategy for Photoshop SBOM generation, validation, accuracy, and release integration
Build reliable SBOM pipelines across first-party code, third-party libraries, open-source dependencies, native packages, build outputs, installers, and shipped artifacts
Integrate SBOMs into vulnerability detection, dependency policy enforcement, release readiness, and enterprise reporting
Improve dependency governance across open-source intake, version tracking, vulnerability response, license metadata, and end-of-life dependency removal
Drive secure build provenance, artifact signing, release integrity, and traceability across Photoshop delivery pipelines
Partner with enterprise security, field, compliance, and product teams to support customer security requirements
Produce engineering-backed evidence for customer reviews, vendor assessments, procurement requirements, regulatory inquiries, and escalations
Improve Photoshop’s response to CVEs, zero-days, dependency disclosures, and customer-reported security concerns
Lead root-cause analysis and drive systemic fixes that reduce entire vulnerability classes
Turn enterprise security asks into reusable platform capabilities rather than one-off responses