Senior Director, Rapid Innovation Team - Cyber Security

Merck & Co.-posted 5 days ago
Full-time • Director
Remote • Rahway, NJ
5,001-10,000 employees
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Sr. Director - Rapid Innovation Engineering Overview The Sr. Director of Rapid Innovation Engineering is a senior technical leader responsible for accelerating the adoption of new cybersecurity technologies across the enterprise. This role serves as the front line for evaluating, prototyping, and integrating new platforms and vendor solutions, ensuring innovations are validated quickly and matured into production-ready capabilities. The successful candidate brings a rare combination of technical breadth, integration expertise, and business acumen — able to prototype rapidly, assess value objectively, and deliver enterprise-scale outcomes. This role requires both hands-on engineering skills and the strategic perspective to influence platform adoption, guide enterprise integration, and communicate with executive stakeholders. The director of the Rapid Innovation Engineering team will help shape the future of automation, AI-driven defense, and platform interoperability within the Cyber Defense organization.

  • Technology & Vendor Evaluation Lead the technical assessment of emerging cybersecurity tools, platforms, and vendors for enterprise adoption.
  • Conduct in-depth due diligence on APIs, SDKs, telemetry, and integration to align with security posture.
  • Translate vendor claims into validated technical capabilities and enterprise-relevant outcomes.
  • Provide structured recommendations on the adoption strategy, verify enterprise fit, and determine long-term value.
  • Prototyping & Proof-of-Concept Development Rapidly design and build proofs-of-concept to demonstrate integration feasibility and business impact.
  • Develop automation workflows, data pipelines, and cross-platform integrations using Python, REST APIs, SDKs, and orchestration frameworks.
  • Document outcomes, risks, and scaling considerations, ensuring prototypes can transition into enterprise engineering efforts.
  • Establish repeatable evaluation patterns so new technologies can be assessed quickly and consistently.
  • Enterprise Integration & Architecture Define integration approaches that connect new platforms to enterprise control planes such as Microsoft Defender XDR, Sentinel, Entra ID, Zscaler, Wiz, ServiceNow, and CrowdStrike.
  • Architect secure and scalable designs that account for logging, monitoring, resiliency, failover, and governance requirements.
  • Collaborate with platform engineering and automation teams to mature successful prototypes into production-grade solutions.
  • Ensure all integrations align with enterprise frameworks, including Zero Trust, Protect the Enterprise, and Defend model initiatives.
  • Innovation Leadership & Enablement Act as a trusted advisor to domain owners (IAM, Endpoint, Cloud, AppSec) on where and how new technologies enable value.
  • Interface with vendors, procurement, and enterprise platform owners to accelerate onboarding and adoption.
  • Provide technical leadership during cross-domain initiatives, ensuring innovations connect seamlessly into the broader security ecosystem.
  • Champion the use of automation and AI to reduce manual effort, accelerate response times, and improve enterprise resilience.
  • Stakeholder & Program Alignment Partner with senior leadership to prioritize innovation initiatives that “move the needle” for CIO, CISO, and Compliance stakeholders.
  • Communicate technical findings and business value clearly across audiences, from engineering and IT teams to executive leadership.
  • Represent the Cyber Defense Automation & AI Engineering team in vendor discussions, enterprise working groups, and cross-functional projects.
  • Ensure all innovations meet regulatory compliance, risk management, and enterprise operational standards.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (Master's degree preferred).
  • 10+ years of progressive experience in cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, or platform engineering.
  • Broad experience across multiple security domains, including identity, endpoint, cloud, automation, data protection, and threat detection.
  • Strong background in cloud services to include AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
  • Demonstrated ability to evaluate, onboard, and integrate new vendor technologies into large-scale enterprise environments.
  • Strong programming and automation skills (Python, APIs, SDKs, cloud automation frameworks, Infrastructure as Code, Terraform, CI/CD).
  • Proven success in leading proofs-of-concept and scaling prototypes into production-ready designs.
  • Experience with Microsoft Defender Suite XDR, Sentinel, Zscaler, Wiz, Entra ID, ServiceNow, and/or comparable platforms.
  • Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels and communicate complex technical topics clearly.
  • Ability to thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where speed, precision, and impact are equally critical.
  • In a cover letter (no more than 2-3 pages) with their submitted resume, applicants should describe an instance how they successfully resolved conflict and improved collaboration between a product owner and their product team members, and the subsequent impact and value added.
  • Accountability
  • Asset Management
  • Benefits Management
  • Computer Engineering
  • Cyber Defense
  • Cybersecurity
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • Enterprise Systems Integration
  • Integration Architecture
  • Leadership
  • Management System Development
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Platform Engineering
  • Product Management
  • Regulatory Compliance
  • Report Writing
  • Requirements Management
  • Stakeholder Relationship Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • System Designs
  • Technical Leadership
  • Threat Detection
  • The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.
  • We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.
  • More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits
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