Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Director of Cyber Security

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Cyber Security leads the enterprise security program end-to-end, defining strategy, building resilient security architecture, directing incident response and threat management, and aligning security initiatives with business goals. This role owns risk reduction, regulatory and standards compliance (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2), vendor and cloud security posture, identity and access management, and the development of a high-performing security operations and engineering organization.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Security Manager or Head of Information Security
Principal Security Architect or Security Engineering Lead
Senior Incident Response / SOC Manager

Advancement To:

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
VP of Information Security or Global Head of Security
Chief Risk Officer (with broader risk remit)

Lateral Moves:

Director, Cloud Security
Director, Identity & Access Management (IAM)
Director, Risk & Compliance

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, own and execute a multi-year enterprise cyber security strategy that reduces business risk, supports growth, and aligns security investments with corporate objectives and budget cycles.
Lead and mature the Security Operations Center (SOC) and incident response capabilities, establishing playbooks, runbooks, war-room procedures, and post-incident forensics to minimize impact and time-to-resolution.
Design and enforce a comprehensive vulnerability management and patching program that prioritizes critical assets, automates scanning, and tracks remediation metrics across cloud and on-premise environments.
Build and maintain a robust identity and access management (IAM) program—covering SSO, MFA, privileged access management (PAM), role-based access control, and lifecycle automation—to reduce identity-related risk.
Own threat detection and threat intelligence ingestion pipelines; define monitoring, detection engineering, and enrichment processes to improve mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR).
Define, implement, and iterate on a Zero Trust security model and segmentation strategy for networks, applications, and cloud workloads to isolate critical systems and limit lateral movement.
Establish security architecture principles and review processes to embed security into application development, cloud adoption, network design, and third-party integrations from the outset.
Drive cloud security strategy (AWS, Azure, GCP) including secure landing zones, cloud workload protection, IaC scanning, CSPM/CWPP tooling, and cloud incident playbooks.
Manage information security risk assessments and risk-treatment plans for new products, acquisitions, vendor relationships, and major technology projects; present findings to the executive leadership team and Board.
Lead compliance and audit programs (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA as applicable), coordinate external audits, remediate findings, and maintain evidence and policies to satisfy regulators and customers.
Oversee third-party and supply chain security risk management, including security reviews, contractual controls, continuous monitoring, and remediation requirements for critical vendors.
Create and maintain policies, standards, and procedures for data protection, encryption, data classification, privacy-by-design and secure handling of sensitive information across the enterprise.
Set measurable security KPIs and dashboards (risk posture, incidents, coverage, remediation SLAs, training completion) and report program status and trends to C-level leadership and Board committees.
Recruit, mentor, and scale a high-performing security team including security engineers, architects, threat hunters, incident responders, compliance analysts, and security program managers.
Lead secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) initiatives including developer security training, code scanning, SCA/DAST integration, and secure design reviews in CI/CD pipelines.
Oversee the security budget: prioritize investments in tooling, staffing, assessments, and managed services to maximize risk reduction and operational efficiency.
Drive cross-functional security awareness and training programs (phishing simulations, role-specific training) to cultivate a security-first culture and reduce human risk vectors.
Coordinate enterprise-wide disaster recovery and business continuity planning related to cyber incidents; ensure tabletop exercises and continuity plans remain current and actionable.
Champion data privacy and regulatory alignment with Data Protection Officers and legal teams; support GDPR, CCPA, and region-specific privacy initiatives as required.
Evaluate, select, and manage critical security vendors and MSSP partnerships; negotiate SLAs and ensure vendor performance against security objectives and incident response expectations.
Conduct tabletop exercises, red-team/blue-team engagements, and adversary emulation to validate controls, expose gaps, and drive prioritized remediation roadmaps.
Advocate for secure product design and customer trust by participating in product planning, customer assurance requests, and security declarations during sales and contract negotiations.

Secondary Functions

Develop and maintain technical security standards, checklists, and templates used by engineering teams for secure deployment and configuration.
Operate as an escalation point for complex security incidents, working cross-functionally to coordinate legal, communications, and executive-level responses.
Facilitate cross-department workshops to translate business initiatives into security requirements and ensure early security involvement in projects.
Maintain relationships with external stakeholders including regulatory bodies, insurers, law enforcement, and industry ISACs for threat sharing and incident coordination.
Manage internal security governance forums to review high-risk issues, accept residual risk, and authorize exceptions with business stakeholders.
Partner with procurement and legal to embed security SLAs, breach notification clauses, and audit rights in vendor contracts.
Oversee secure decommissioning processes for legacy systems and data retention policies to reduce exposure from abandoned assets.
Drive continuous improvement through post-incident reviews, root-cause analysis, and lessons-learned action plans integrated into the security roadmap.
Support executive communications and customer-facing security questionnaires, RFP security sections, and due-diligence efforts during M&A.
Coordinate forensic readiness planning and evidence preservation in support of potential legal, regulatory, or criminal investigations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Strategic security program leadership, governance, and roadmap development.
Incident response leadership, forensics, IR playbook creation, and tabletop facilitation.
Threat intelligence, detection engineering, SIEM (e.g., Splunk, Sentinel) and EDR/XDR platforms.
Vulnerability management, penetration testing oversight, and remediation tracking.
Cloud security architecture for AWS/Azure/GCP, including CSPM, CWPP, and IAM in cloud.
Identity and Access Management (SSO, SAML/OAuth, MFA, PAM) and directory services.
Secure architecture and network segmentation, firewalls, microsegmentation, and VPNs.
Security compliance frameworks and audit management (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA).
Secure SDLC practices, SCA/DAST/DAST tools, infrastructure-as-code security scanning.
Data protection and encryption technologies, key management, DLP, and tokenization.
Supply chain and third-party risk assessment methodologies and vendor security reviews.
Policy writing, risk assessment methodologies, and quantitative risk scoring.
Experience with security automation, SOAR platforms, and scripting for orchestration.
Knowledge of privacy frameworks and data residency regulations (GDPR, CCPA).

Soft Skills

Executive presence with the ability to clearly explain technical risk to non-technical stakeholders and Board members.
Strategic thinker who balances security imperatives with business enablement and time-to-market.
Strong leadership and people management skills: hiring, mentoring, performance management, and building culture.
Excellent communication and presentation skills for cross-functional alignment and customer assurance.
Decisive under pressure with demonstrated crisis management and calm incident leadership.
Collaborative mindset with experience influencing engineering, product, legal, and finance teams.
Analytical problem-solver who uses metrics to drive decisions and continuous improvement.
Ethical judgement and a commitment to confidentiality and professional integrity.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Security, Computer Science, Business Administration (MBA), or related advanced degree.
Advanced professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, or cloud security certifications (CCSP, AWS/GCP/Azure security certs).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Information Security / Cybersecurity
Information Systems / IT Management
Risk Management / Business Continuity

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 10–15+ years in information security, with at least 5–7 years in leadership or director-level roles.

Preferred:

Proven experience building and scaling security programs across cloud and hybrid environments.
Track record of managing incident response at enterprise scale and leading audits (SOC 2, ISO, PCI).
Experience with security vendor selection and managing MSSP/MDR relationships.
Demonstrated success working with executive leadership and articulating security value to customers and Boards.
Prior experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, SaaS, critical infrastructure) is highly desirable.