Principal, Security Engineering and Operations

ntrs; Limerick; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust is seeking a Principal, Security Engineer to lead security platform engineering and drive enterprise-wide risk controls. You will shape architecture, mentor engineers and guide cross-functional teams in a regulated financial setting.

The role demands deep expertise in SSE/SASE, ZTNA, IPS and cloud security, with strong communication to senior stakeholders and audit readiness.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in IT, cybersecurity, cloud, or platform engineering with enterprise-scale security experience.
• Proven ability to lead as a senior technical authority and mentor engineers.
• Hands-on with SSE/SASE platforms including ZTNA and policy design.
• Strong IPS/next-gen firewall knowledge and networking fundamentals.
• Experience integrating security tools with ServiceNow and SIEM.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for security platform engineering decisions and operational governance.
• Design, engineer and operate security tools spanning zero-trust, SASE/SSE, network, vulnerability & exposure management, AI guardrails, and SaaS.
• Define engineering patterns, implementation standards and runbooks for cross-business adoption.
• Develop maturity models and metrics for assurance and compliance.
• Coordinate cross-functional security initiatives across engineering, infrastructure and application teams.
• Own outcomes for platform health, upgrades, capacity, resilience, lifecycle management and vendor escalations.

Skills

Security leadership

SSE/SASE experience

ZTNA

Vulnerability management

Python scripting

REST/JSON

ServiceNow integration

Communication with stakeholders

Regulatory compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Next-gen firewalls

ServiceNow

SIEM platforms

Azure / AWS

Zero Trust / SASE platforms

Job description

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world's most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

The Principal, Security Engineer is a senior individual contributor and technical lead responsible for shaping, engineering and operationalizing enterprise security platforms across Northern Trust. This role goes beyond hands-on administration: it sets technical direction, defines durable engineering patterns, mentors engineers, influences cross-functional partners and ensures security platforms operate with the reliability, evidence quality and control discipline expected in a regulated financial institution. The role suits an engineer who can move comfortably between executive-level risk discussions, architecture decisions and deep technical troubleshooting.

What You'll Do

Technical Lead Across Security Platform Domains

• Serve as the technical authority for security platform engineering decisions and operational governance.
• Design, engineer and operate security tools spanning zero-trust, SASE/SSE, network, vulnerability & exposure management, AI guardrails, and SaaS.
• Define engineering patterns, implementation standards and operational runbooks that enable consistent adoption across business units and technology teams.
• Develop maturity models and metrics to measure assurance and compliance.
• Coordinate cross-functional security initiatives across engineering, infrastructure, and application teams.

Key Deliverables

• Design, Engineer, Coordinate and Operate: Intrusion prevention(IPS) across next-gen firewalls
• Vulnerability scanning platforms and unified vulnerability management(UVM) layer
• Enterprise SASE / SSE security platforms
• Secure web gateway, CASB, and cloud access protection
• SaaS application protection and monitoring
• Secure remote access and internet traffic inspection
• Browser isolation and modern web threat prevention
• AI gateway controls that govern how users and applications consume LLMs and AI services
• ServiceNow integrations (Vulnerability Response, ITSM, CMDB)
• Own technical outcomes for platform health, upgrades, capacity, resilience, lifecycle management and vendor escalations across the stack.
• Define and publish metrics on coverage, control effectiveness, SLA adherence, tool health, control performance and measurable risk reduction.
• Support audits and regulatory exams (PCI-DSS, SOX, GLBA, OCC/FFIEC) by ensuring controls are designed for evidence quality, traceability and repeatable operation.
• Author runbooks and executive-ready documentation that can be used by engineering, operations, risk and audit stakeholders.
• Lead evaluation of new capabilities, proofs of concept and tool rationalization efforts, with clear recommendations based on risk reduction, operational fit, cost and control outcomes.

What You'll Bring

• Typically 15+ years of experience in information technology, cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, network security or platform engineering, with demonstrated ownership of enterprise-scale security platforms.
• Proven ability to operate as a senior technical leader: setting direction, influencing without direct authority, mentoring engineers and making sound tradeoffs across security, reliability, usability and compliance.
• Deep hands-on experience with at least one SSE/SASE platform, including ZTNA, secure web gateway policy, segmentation, connector architecture and operating model design.
• Working knowledge of IPS/next-gen firewall platforms and signature tuning.
• Strong networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, routing, DNS, TLS/PKI, proxies and tunneling (IPsec/GRE), and segmentation.
• Experience with vulnerability management tooling.
• Familiarity with identity integration: SAML/OIDC, Entra ID, conditional access.
• Scripting and API skills (Python, PowerShell, REST/JSON).
• Experience integrating security tools with ServiceNow, SIEM platforms and enterprise reporting workflows.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to brief senior stakeholders, document technical decisions, support audit inquiries and drive alignment across teams you do not directly manage.
• Experience working in a regulated environment with control evidence, operational resilience, risk acceptance, issue management and audit/regulatory response expectations.

Nice to Have

• Exposure to AI/LLM security controls: AI gateways Prompt-injection defenses OWASP Top 10 for