VP, Security & Platform Services

DigitalOcean•Seattle, WA

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

DigitalOcean is seeking a VP, Security and Platform Services to lead one of its most strategically important business areas. This role is responsible for the products and services that ensure customer security and power the platform's core capabilities. It's a general-manager-style position overseeing the combined Security Product Management and Security Engineering organizations, with an extended scope across Customer Identity, Billing, Secrets Management, Security Observability, and other Core Platform Account Services. The VP will define the vision, own the roadmap, and manage the business outcomes for this portfolio, while developing product and engineering leaders and their teams. This role operates at the intersection of security, platform infrastructure, and core business systems, managing the full lifecycle from strategy to operational excellence. The individual will represent this business to the executive team and board, demonstrating comfort with multi-year strategy, executive negotiations, and deep engagement with engineering and product leaders. The ideal candidate is a self-starter with an analytical mindset, excellent executive communication skills, and a proven ability to build and scale high-performing product and engineering organizations.

Requirements

Proven experience as a general manager or senior business leader owning both product management and engineering functions for a significant product area, platform, or business unit.
A track record of building, scaling, and leading multi-team, multi-discipline organizations through directors and managers, in a fast-paced, high-growth technology environment.
Deep experience setting product and technical strategy, and translating that strategy into roadmaps that balance security, platform reliability, customer needs, and business outcomes.
Strong executive presence and the ability to influence peers and senior leadership, negotiate priorities across competing stakeholders, and communicate complex technical and business trade-offs clearly.
Experience owning P&L-style outcomes or equivalent business metrics for a product or platform area, including cost, revenue impact, and operational risk.
A strong point of view on cloud security, identity and access management, billing/monetization systems, or core platform services, along with the judgment to know when to build, buy, or partner.
Experience developing cross-disciplinary collaboration between engineering, product, operations, support, sales, and legal/compliance teams.
A demonstrated ability to make effective trade-offs across engineering and product requirements, balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health.
Experience with end-to-end quality, security, and compliance best practices and their implementation at scale.
A strong bench-building mindset: experience staffing, interviewing, developing, and retaining high-performing product and engineering leaders and teams.
Excellent skills in conveying complex ideas in written, verbal, and presentational formats to audiences ranging from engineers to the board.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field; advanced degree (including MBA) preferred.
15+ years of experience in product management, engineering, or other technical leadership roles, with significant time spent in senior/executive leadership positions owning both product and engineering functions.
Direct experience in security, identity, billing/monetization, or core platform services, ideally spanning more than one of these domains.
Deep understanding of cloud-based systems, cybersecurity principles, and the regulatory and compliance landscape relevant to identity, billing, and security data.
Experience operating in public-company or high-governance environments, including board-level and executive reporting.
Familiarity with cloud hosting and virtualization technologies.
Past success shaping highly scalable, secure products and platforms with an eye toward ease of use and customer trust.

Responsibilities

Own the vision, strategy, and business outcomes for Security Products, Security Engineering, Customer Identity, Billing, Secrets Management, Security Observability, and other Core Platform Account Services, acting as the general manager of this combined portfolio.
Build, lead, and grow a multi-disciplinary organization of product management and engineering directors, managers, and individual contributors; mentor leaders in growing their teams, their scope, and their careers.
Set and drive the build, buy, or partner strategy for security and platform capabilities, and own the end-to-end product lifecycle for each domain, from strategy and roadmap through execution, launch, and ongoing operation.
Translate company-level strategy into a coherent, prioritized roadmap across security and platform services, making explicit trade-offs between competing investments and communicating those trade-offs clearly to executive stakeholders.
Partner closely with peer leaders across Engineering, Product, Design, Sales, Finance, Legal, and Support to align investment, resourcing, and go-to-market plans, and to ensure security and platform capabilities are embedded natively into DigitalOcean's infrastructure and applications.
Define and own the KPIs and business metrics that matter for this portfolio (security product, platform reliability, billing accuracy and revenue integrity, identity and access assurance, customer trust), and drive continuous improvement against them.
Establish engineering and product excellence practices across the org: meaningful success metrics, proactive technical debt management, high-quality operational readiness, and a culture of continuous improvement, automation, and knowledge sharing.
Ensure every product and service in scope meets the highest standards for security, privacy, compliance, and regulatory requirements, given the sensitivity of identity, billing, and secrets data.
Act as the senior escalation point and executive sponsor for security incidents, billing integrity issues, and platform reliability events that affect customers or the business.
Represent this business unit to the executive team, board, and key customers and partners; communicate strategy, progress, and risk in a way that builds confidence and drives alignment.
Coordinate with support, training, sales, and marketing teams to ensure customers and internal stakeholders have the materials, documentation, and enablement they need.