Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Director of Security

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Security is a senior leadership role responsible for defining and executing the enterprise security strategy across people, process, and technology. This role leads cross-functional security programs including cybersecurity, physical security, identity and access management, threat detection and response, vulnerability management, third-party risk, and compliance. The Director of Security partners with executive leadership and business stakeholders to balance risk and enable secure business growth while ensuring regulatory compliance and resilience against evolving threats.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Security Manager
Head of Information Security / Information Security Manager
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer / Security Architect

Advancement To:

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
VP of Security Operations or Risk
Chief Risk Officer (with combined enterprise risk remit)

Lateral Moves:

Head of IT Risk & Compliance
Director of Identity and Access Management
Director of Cloud Security

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, communicate, and operationalize a multi-year enterprise security strategy and roadmap aligned to business objectives, ensuring scalability for cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of an enterprise-grade security program encompassing cybersecurity, physical security, application security, cloud security, and data protection.
Own governance, risk and compliance (GRC) activities: define security policies, standards, and procedures that align to NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA and other applicable regulatory frameworks.
Build and run a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) or partner with MSSPs; define detection use cases, tuning, playbooks, and escalation paths for incident response and threat hunting.
Lead incident response and crisis management: maintain an incident response plan, run tabletop exercises, coordinate cross-functional response, and report major incidents to executive leadership and regulators as required.
Direct vulnerability management and secure configuration programs across servers, endpoints, containers, cloud workloads, and network devices, including regular scanning, prioritization, patching cadence, and risk remediation follow-through.
Manage identity and access management (IAM) strategy including least-privilege access, role-based access control, privileged access management (PAM), SSO, MFA, and lifecycle automation to reduce risk and enable productivity.
Architect and enforce application security and DevSecOps practices; partner with engineering to integrate SAST/DAST, IaC scanning, container security, and security gates into CI/CD pipelines.
Oversee cloud security posture management for AWS, Azure, GCP: enforce secure architecture patterns, monitor cloud-native controls, and remediate misconfigurations and drift.
Implement and oversee endpoint protection, EDR/XDR, malware prevention, encryption, and data loss prevention (DLP) tools and processes to protect corporate assets and sensitive data.
Lead third-party and supply chain risk management programs; perform vendor risk assessments, contractual security reviews, continuous monitoring, and remediation of third-party vulnerabilities.
Establish and manage security metrics, KPIs, and dashboards for executive reporting and board-level briefings to demonstrate risk posture, program maturity, and ROI of security initiatives.
Own security budgeting and vendor selection: evaluate security technologies, negotiate contracts, manage license renewals, and measure vendor performance to optimize spend and capability.
Drive security awareness and culture across the organization by sponsoring training programs, phishing simulations, role-based security education, and executive briefings.
Design and lead secure architecture reviews and threat modeling for major initiatives, M&A activities, and strategic projects to reduce risk early in the development lifecycle.
Coordinate cross-functional governance with Legal, Compliance, Privacy, HR, Finance, and IT to ensure security controls support regulatory obligations and business continuity objectives.
Create and maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans from a security perspective, ensuring appropriate backup, encryption, and recovery processes are in place and tested.
Lead data protection and privacy security controls, including classification, encryption, access controls, and collaboration with Data Privacy Officers to meet GDPR, CCPA and similar requirements.
Manage and mentor a distributed security team: recruit, develop, set objectives, run performance reviews, and build a high-performing culture focused on collaboration and continuous improvement.
Lead threat intelligence efforts: ingest external feeds, translate intelligence into actionable detection and containment controls, and brief executives on relevant cyber threats and trends.
Ensure secure design and operationalization for emerging technologies (IoT, OT, edge, machine learning systems) by defining risk assessment processes and controls required to safely adopt new capabilities.
Maintain close relationships with industry peers, law enforcement, and regulators; represent the company on security forums, audits, and inspections to support transparent and trusted operations.
Drive continuous compliance readiness for audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, FedRAMP as applicable) by coordinating control implementations, remediation of audit findings, and evidence collection.

Secondary Functions

Provide subject-matter expertise to product, engineering, and sales teams during customer security reviews, RFPs, and security questionnaires to accelerate deals and maintain trust.
Support legal and privacy in managing breach notifications, regulatory filings, and contractual obligations in the event of incidents or data exposures.
Conduct security due diligence for M&A targets and integrations, including scoping of critical risks and remediation roadmaps.
Develop and publish security documentation for customers and partners, including whitepapers, security architecture guides, and compliance artifacts.
Mentor and sponsor internal security champions and cross-functional security working groups to embed secure practices across the organization.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Enterprise security strategy and program leadership (policy, standards, roadmaps).
Security frameworks and compliance: NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR compliance mapping.
Incident response, digital forensics, tabletop exercises, and crisis communication.
Security operations and monitoring: SIEM (Splunk, QRadar, Sumo Logic, etc.), EDR/XDR, threat hunting.
Vulnerability management and patch orchestration tools and processes.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (Okta, Ping, Azure AD, CyberArk).
Cloud security: AWS/Azure/GCP security best practices, CSPM, IAM, and container/Kubernetes security.
Application security and DevSecOps: SAST, DAST, SCA, IaC scanning, secure CI/CD integration.
Data protection technologies: DLP, encryption (KMIP, KMS), tokenization, and data classification.
Third-party risk management and vendor security assessment frameworks.
Network security design: segmentation, firewalls, ZTNA, VPNs, and secure remote access architectures.
Security architecture and threat modeling methodologies and tools.
Audit, control testing, and evidence collection for external audits and attestations.
Familiarity with privacy law and regulatory obligations (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA where applicable).

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership with ability to translate security vision into executable plans and measurable outcomes.
Strong executive presence and the ability to communicate risk and technical concepts clearly to boards and C-suite.
Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, legal, and business teams.
Judgment under pressure, decisive incident leadership, and calm crisis management.
Coaching and talent development to build resilient, accountable security teams.
Negotiation skills for vendor contracts, security SLAs, and inter-departmental prioritization.
Business acumen to align security investments with organizational risk tolerance and objectives.
Project management and program governance to deliver multi-year initiatives on time and on budget.
Continuous learner mentality to stay ahead of fast-evolving threat landscapes and emerging technologies.
Ethical judgment and discretion when handling sensitive data and security incidents.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree (MS, MBA) in Cybersecurity, Information Security, Business Administration, or related discipline.
Advanced executive education or certifications in leadership / management.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Information Security / Cybersecurity
Information Technology
Engineering
Business Administration / Risk Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 10–20+ years in information security, with at least 5–8 years in senior leadership roles managing security functions or teams.

Preferred:

Demonstrated experience designing and running enterprise security programs across cloud and hybrid environments.
Experience leading incident response to major cyber incidents and coordinating with regulators and executive leadership.
Hands-on background with security operations, cloud security, IAM, application security, and third-party risk programs.
Proven track record managing multi-million dollar budgets, vendor relationships, and security transformation programs.
Industry certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, or relevant cloud security certifications (CCSP, AWS Security Specialty) are strongly preferred.