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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Lead Information Security Engineer

💰 $ - $

Information SecurityCybersecurityEngineeringLeadership

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a seasoned Lead Information Security Engineer to architect, implement, and lead enterprise-wide security controls and programs. This role combines deep technical expertise in cloud, network, and application security with leadership in risk management, incident response, and compliance. The ideal candidate will drive security strategy, mentor engineers, influence product and platform teams, and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems and data.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Information Security Engineer / Principal Security Engineer
  • Security Architect with hands-on engineering experience
  • Incident Response Team Lead or SOC Senior Analyst

Advancement To:

  • Head of Information Security / Director of Security Engineering
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
  • Senior Security Architect / VP of Security

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Security Lead
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM) Director
  • Application Security (AppSec) Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of enterprise information security controls across cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), on-premises, and hybrid environments to reduce business risk and meet regulatory requirements.
  • Develop, own, and continuously improve the organization’s security architecture, security reference designs, and secure-by-design patterns for infrastructure, platforms, and applications.
  • Drive the vulnerability management program end-to-end: coordinate scanning, triage, prioritization, remediation deadlines, and reporting to executives and engineering stakeholders.
  • Operate as the technical lead for incident response and digital forensics investigations, including leading containment, eradication, recovery, post-mortem analysis, and process improvements.
  • Establish and enforce identity and access management (IAM) strategy and controls, including role-based access control (RBAC), privileged access management (PAM), single sign-on (SSO), and least privilege principles.
  • Architect and operationalize Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) use cases, log aggregation, detection engineering, and automated alerting to reduce mean time to detection (MTTD) and response (MTTR).
  • Partner with DevOps and engineering teams to embed security into CI/CD pipelines and implement DevSecOps practices such as static and dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST), dependency scanning, and secret detection.
  • Lead threat modeling workshops with product and engineering teams, translating business threats into technical mitigation plans, security requirements, and acceptance criteria.
  • Define, measure, and report security KPIs and metrics (e.g., patching cadence, vulnerability trends, detection coverage) to senior leadership and the board.
  • Manage third-party risk assessment and vendor security reviews, including contract language, SOC 2/ISO 27001 reviews, penetration test results, and continuous monitoring.
  • Design and run red team / purple team exercises and coordinate external penetration tests, ensuring remediation and verification of findings.
  • Create, maintain, and operationalize security policies, standards, and procedures aligned to NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS Controls, and applicable regulatory frameworks (SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA where relevant).
  • Evaluate, select, and manage security tooling and platforms (EDR/XDR, WAF, CASB, DLP, secrets management, vulnerability scanners) to meet operational and strategic security goals.
  • Mentor and grow a team of security engineers by establishing career paths, conducting performance reviews, and providing technical guidance and training.
  • Lead secure configuration and hardening standards for operating systems, containers, orchestration platforms (Kubernetes), and network devices.
  • Collaborate closely with product management and engineering leadership to define secure product requirements and perform risk assessments on new product features or platform changes.
  • Drive encryption strategy and key management practices for data at rest and in transit, including TLS management, certificate lifecycle, and HSM use where applicable.
  • Implement and maintain business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident escalation playbooks in coordination with Site Reliability Engineering and business stakeholders.
  • Champion the adoption of Zero Trust principles across the environment, including micro-segmentation, continuous authentication, and enhanced network controls.
  • Lead cross-functional security projects such as GDPR/SOC2/ISO readiness, cloud migration security assessments, and infrastructure modernization security reviews.
  • Serve as the primary escalation point for complex security incidents, coordinating legal, communications, and compliance teams as needed.
  • Continuously assess the security landscape, researching emerging threats and technologies, and presenting recommendations for technology investments and process improvements.
  • Advocate security awareness across the company by designing and delivering training programs, phishing simulations, and executive briefings to create a strong security culture.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc security data requests and exploratory analysis to inform risk decisions and executive reporting.
  • Contribute to the organization’s long-term security strategy, roadmap, and budget planning.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate compliance and security needs into engineering and product requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning, architecture reviews, and agile ceremonies to ensure security is integrated into development cycles.
  • Provide on-call support rotation for critical incident response and high-severity security events.
  • Work with legal and privacy teams to interpret regulatory obligations and ensure technical controls meet compliance requirements.
  • Help manage security vendor relationships including onboarding, SLAs, and integration with internal toolchains.
  • Support mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activities by conducting security diligence, integration planning, and remediation oversight.
  • Produce executive-level dashboards and board-ready risk reports to communicate program status and strategic recommendations.
  • Develop playbooks and runbooks for repeatable operational security tasks and investigations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Information security architecture and design for cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid environments.
  • Incident response, digital forensics, and leading tabletop exercises and post-incident reviews.
  • Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) design, detection engineering, and log analytics (Splunk, Elastic, Sentinel).
  • Vulnerability management and remediation processes, container and host vulnerability scanning (Nessus, Qualys, Trivy).
  • Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools and best practices (Okta, Azure AD, IAM roles).
  • Application security practices: SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, secure SDLC, and threat modeling.
  • Cloud-native security controls (KMS, IAM policies, VPC, security groups) and cloud security posture management (CSPM).
  • Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) and eXtended Detection & Response (XDR) platforms.
  • Network security controls, firewalls, WAFs, VPNs, micro-segmentation, and secure network architecture.
  • Cryptography fundamentals, TLS, key management, and HSM integration.
  • Automation and scripting for security orchestration (Python, Bash, Terraform, CloudFormation, IaC security scanning).
  • Container security, orchestration security (Kubernetes), and secure configuration management.
  • Familiarity with compliance frameworks and standards: NIST CSF, CIS Controls, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, GDPR.
  • Penetration testing coordination and remediation verification; knowledge of offensive security techniques and red teaming.
  • Security tooling evaluation, vendor selection, and integration into engineering workflows.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management skills with proven experience mentoring and growing engineering teams.
  • Excellent communicator able to translate technical risk to non-technical stakeholders and executives.
  • Strategic thinker with the ability to define security roadmaps and align them to business objectives.
  • Collaborative approach: experience influencing cross-functional teams without direct authority.
  • Problem-solver under pressure: calm, decisive, and methodical during incidents.
  • Strong project management and prioritization skills, managing multiple high-priority initiatives concurrently.
  • Teaching and coaching aptitude to raise security awareness across engineering and product teams.
  • High ethical standards, discretion, and experience handling sensitive information.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Computer Science, or an MBA with a technical focus.
  • Advanced certifications such as CISSP, CISM, OSCP, GIAC (GSEC/GCIH/GWAPT), or cloud certifications (AWS/Azure/GCP Security).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Cybersecurity / Information Security
  • Information Systems / Engineering
  • Network Engineering
  • Data Science (for log/alert analytics)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 7–12+ years of progressive experience in information security, including 2–5+ years in a senior or lead engineering role.

Preferred:

  • 8–12+ years of hands-on security engineering, architecture, and incident response experience.
  • Proven track record leading security programs, managing security engineering teams, and driving security outcomes across product and platform organizations.
  • Demonstrated experience with cloud-first environments, DevSecOps practices, and modern security tooling stacks.
  • Experience preparing for and passing external audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001) and implementing compliance remediations.
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