Director, Cyber Security Development & Automation

001 The Northern Trust Company; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 165,000 - 288,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Equity component

Retirement benefits

Health and welfare benefits

Job summary

Northern Trust is seeking a Director of Cyber Security Development & Automation in Chicago to lead a team delivering full‑stack security applications and automation capabilities. You will translate cyber risk priorities into a practical roadmap and guide architecture, delivery, and talent development at enterprise scale.

Ideal candidates bring 15+ years in cybersecurity/engineering with 5+ years in leadership, strong Python automation, and experience with AI-enabled security patterns and secure

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience across cybersecurity and related tech disciplines.
• 5+ years in meaningful leadership running large development teams.
• Strong governance, risk, and audit‑ready delivery mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead security development and automation strategy across enterprise.
• Set vision, roadmap, and priorities for AI-enabled security applications and automation patterns.
• Provide technical leadership ensuring secure, observable, scalable solutions.
• Collaborate with security architecture, platform engineering, cloud security and risk teams.
• Drive delivery with emphasis on risk reduction, control maturity and measurable outcomes.
• Recruit and mentor senior technical talent.

Skills

Cybersecurity

Software engineering

Security automation

Cloud engineering

Platform engineering

Infrastructure automation

Leadership experience

Python-based automation

LLM-enabled patterns

Tools

ServiceNow workflows

Azure AI Foundry

Azure Functions

GitHub Actions

Terraform

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 Director, Cyber Security Development & Automation leads a team of developers and automation engineers responsible for delivering full-stack security applications and automation capabilities that protect Northern Trust’s clients, data, applications, infrastructure and emerging AI workloads. This role sets the strategic direction for security development and automation, translates cyber risk priorities into an executable roadmap, and ensures the team builds scalable, secure, resilient and audit‑ready solutions. The Director partners across security, technology, risk, audit and business teams to prioritize high-value automation and development opportunities, guide architecture and delivery, manage stakeholder expectations, and develop technical talent capable of advancing Northern Trust’s cyber defense capabilities at enterprise scale.

What You’ll Do

Lead Security Development and Automation Strategy Lead a team of developers and automation engineers responsible for building security capabilities that reduce cyber risk, improve operational consistency and strengthen control execution. Set the vision, roadmap and delivery priorities for development of AI‑enabled applications, agents, API integrations, and reusable automation patterns. Translate enterprise security needs into a balanced portfolio of development initiatives that improve threat response, vulnerability management, evidence collection, control validation and operational resilience. Provide technical leadership and management oversight to ensure solutions are secure, reliable, supportable, observable, scalable and aligned to enterprise architecture and risk expectations. Partner with security architecture, platform engineering, cloud security, IAM, threat, governance and operations teams to establish standards, guardrails, handoffs and adoption plans for automation capabilities. Own and manage the delivery portfolio for development and automation capabilities that help Northern Trust protect critical services and data, including: Security workflow automation programs that accelerate discovery, response, remediation and control validation Reusable integration patterns that connect security platforms, enterprise data sources and operational systems of record AI‑enabled applications and agentic workflows that improve security decision support while respecting enterprise controls, approvals and data protection requirements LLM‑based vulnerability scanning, remediation support and secure coding capabilities delivered with appropriate governance and measurable outcomes Establish responsible AI engineering practices for security use cases, including approved platforms, model governance, prompt and retrieval standards, testing, evaluation, observability and exception handling. Manage prioritization, capacity, delivery commitments and stakeholder communications across multiple concurrent automation initiatives. Ensure production automation solutions include strong authentication, authorization, secrets handling, logging, exception management, change control, auditability and operational support models. Drive documentation, architecture reviews, runbooks, decision logic, reusable patterns and operational handoffs so capabilities can be governed, supported and improved over time. Influence platform roadmaps, vendor integrations and automation investments based on risk reduction, control effectiveness, resiliency, stability, reuse and total cost of ownership. Recruit, coach, mentor and develop senior technical talent, creating clear expectations for engineering excellence, collaboration, accountability and measurable delivery outcomes.

What You’ll Bring

15+ years of experience across cybersecurity, software engineering, security automation, cloud engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure automation or related technology disciplines, including 5+ years of meaningful leadership experience running large development teams. Proven ability to shape engineering culture and deliver complex capabilities through influence, accountability and clear prioritization. Strong understanding of how development and automation can be used to protect enterprise environments, improve control execution, reduce operational risk and create measurable security outcomes. Ability to set technical direction, evaluate architecture, challenge design decisions, manage delivery tradeoffs and communicate effectively with both engineering teams and senior stakeholders. Working knowledge of modern development practices, Python‑based automation, API integrations, CI/CD, cloud‑native services, workflow orchestration and operational supportability. Experience with LLM‑enabled solution patterns, AI agent workflows, retrieval‑augmented generation, prompt engineering, model evaluation, AI guardrails and secure use of enterprise AI platforms. Demonstrated ability to deliver in a regulated environment with strong attention to audit‑ready evidence, access controls, change management, testability, resiliency and production support.

Nice to Have Prior experience leading innovation teams in financial services or another highly regulated industry. Experience managing globally distributed technical teams, building engineering operating models, establishing delivery metrics and aligning work to risk reduction, control maturity and business outcomes. Familiarity with ServiceNow workflows, Vulnerability Response, SecOps, CMDB, ITSM integrations or similar enterprise workflow platforms. Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure Functions, Logic Apps, GitHub Actions, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines or cloud‑native automation patterns. Experience building or leading automation programs for vulnerability management, exposure management, threat response, identity security, network security or cloud security operations.

Salary Range

Salary Range: $164,600 - 288,000 USD Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay.

Benefits

Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well‑being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment‑based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H‑1B, L‑1, TN, O‑1, E‑3, H‑1B1, F‑1, J‑1, OPT, CPT or any other employment‑based visa).

Reasonable Accommodation

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [e-mail], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.

Why Join Us

Looking for greater? You found it. A global financial leader with more than 22,000 employees in 23 locations worldwide, Northern Trust empowers our employees to achieve more than just business goals. Our focus on work‑life balance, career mobility and unique opportunities are just a few of the reasons we’ve been named one of the world’s most admired companies.

APAC/INDIA EEO STATEMENT It is the policy and practice of Northern Trust to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. Northern Trust does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion or belief, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or age. All employment decisions will be made in a non‑discriminatory manner in accordance with our obligations under the law and codes of practice. This includes human resources’ decisions relating to recruitment, terms and conditions of employment, transfers, promotions and access to learning and development.

Canada EEO STATEMENT Northern Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Hiring and other employment decisions at Northern Trust are made without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, ethnic origin, age, disability, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, record of offences, marital status, family status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, provincial or local law, regulation, or ordinance.

EMEA EEO STATEMENT It is the policy and practice of Northern Trust to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. Northern Trust does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion or belief, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or age. All employment decisions will be made in a non‑discriminatory manner in accordance with our obligations under the law and codes of practice. This includes human resources’ decisions relating to recruitment, terms and conditions of employment, transfers, promotions and access to learning and development.

USA EEO STATEMENT It is the policy of The Northern Trust Company to afford equal opportunity in all phases of employment without regard to an individual's age, race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic tests and information, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected status.