Director, Security Defense Platforms

Google; San Francisco, New York (CA, NY); On-site; USD 307,000 - 427,000; Full time

Job summary

Google LLC in San Francisco is seeking a Share Director, Security Defense Platforms to lead the global software engineering organization responsible for foundational software, streaming pipelines, telemetry architectures, and AI-driven automated containment that powers Google’s detection and response operations.

You will bridge software engineering with cyber defense, partnering with Detection and Response domain leads and enterprise platform teams to elevate Google's security posture from

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cyber security, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of software engineering and technical leadership experience, including 6 years of experience managing managers and leading multi-site engineering organizations.
• Experience partnering with security operations, threat intelligence, or incident response teams to build developer and detection platforms.
• Experience using modern AI/ML applications in cyber security including automated reasoning, LLM-based agent evaluation, anomaly detection, and synthetic threat injection/watermarking.

Responsibilities

• Lead the global software engineering organization responsible for foundational software, streaming pipelines, telemetry architectures, and AI-driven automated containment infrastructure.
• Bridge software engineering with cyber defense partnering with Detection and Response domain leads and enterprise platform teams to transform Google's security posture from Detect and Respond to Infer and Interrupt.
• Mentor and grow a globally distributed organization of Software Engineering Managers, Tech Leads, and Software Engineers across multiple global sites.
• Own the long-term architectural road map for Detection and Response core infrastructure and lead deployment of automated threat containment.

Skills

Software eng leadership

Security operations collaboration

AI/ML in cyber security

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/Cybersecurity or equivalent

Tools

SOAR

SIEM

EDR data fabrics

Job description

Share Director, Security Defense Platforms

corporate_fare Google place San Francisco, CA, USA ; New York, NY, USA bar_chart Director+

X Applicants in San Francisco: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: San Francisco, CA, USA; New York, NY, USA.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cyber security, or equivalent practical experience
• 15 years of software engineering and technical leadership experience, including 6 years of experience managing managers and leading multi-site engineering organizations
• Experience partnering with security operations, threat intelligence, or incident response teams to build developer and detection platforms
• Experience using modern AI/ML applications in cyber security including automated reasoning, LLM-based agent evaluation, anomaly detection, and synthetic threat injection/watermarking

Preferred qualifications:

• 20 years of experience in software engineering, distributed systems, or enterprise platform infrastructure, with experience in cyber security or threat defense domains
• Experience architecting Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), SIEM, EDR data fabrics, or real-time event correlation engines
• Experience designing, building, and operating distributed streaming pipelines, query engines, and high-throughput data processing systems operating at enterprise/hyper-scale
• Experience with cross-functional leadership and executive presence to translate deep architectural challenges into clear business and security risk decisions for VP/SVP stakeholders
• Expertise in infrastructure cost optimization, data lifecycle/retention governance, and high-availability streaming SLO management

About the job

As the Director of Security Defense Platforms, you will lead the global software engineering organization responsible for the foundational software, streaming pipelines, telemetry architectures, and AI-driven automated containment infrastructure that powers all of Alphabet's detection and response operations.

In this role, you will be an executive engineering leader with experience building massive-scale distributed data systems, driving high-reliability platform engineering, and advocating advanced security automation and agentic defense. You will bridge software engineering with cyber defense partnering closely with Detection and Response domain leads, and enterprise platform teams to transform Google's security posture from reactive "Detect and Respond" to proactive "Infer and Interrupt".

Additionally, you will manage, grow, and mentor a globally distributed organization of Software Engineering Managers, Tech Leads, and Software Engineers across multiple global sites. You will own the long-term architectural road map for the Detection and Response teams core infrastructure. You will lead the engineering and deployment of automated threat containment (e.g., automated mitigation pipelines, and dynamic endpoint mitigation) to disrupt high-risk access abuse, workspace DLP, and intrusion attempts in real-time. You will drive the integration of AI models and agentic reasoning into operational workflows, automating alert triage, incident summaries, and investigative workflows. You will ensure platform reliability, multi-region resilience, and SLO compliance, reducing operational toil and on-call burden to established target of engineering bandwidth.

The Core team builds the technical foundation behind Google's flagship products. We are owners and advocates for the underlying design elements, developer platforms, product components, and infrastructure at Google. These are the essential building blocks for excellent, safe, and coherent experiences for our users and drive the pace of innovation for every developer. We look across Google's products to build central solutions, break down technical barriers and strengthen existing systems. As the Core team, we have a mandate and a unique opportunity to impact important technical decisions across the company.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $307000 - $427000 (USD) + 30% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google .

• Foster a high-performance engineering culture emphasizing technical aptitude, operational excellence, and continuous architectural innovation.
• Deliver large-scale resource optimization initiatives, drastically reducing global data storage and compute footprints while maintaining strict end-to-end detection latencies.
• Institutionalize configuration-based detection frameworks that cut authoring and productionization cycles down to industry-leading velocity.
• Advocate for novel defense mechanisms for autonomous third-party agent security, data leakage mitigation, and federated access auditing.
• Deliver against executive and board-level cyber security risk reduction commitments.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of the users we serve, creating a culture of belonging, and providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), expecting or parents-to-be, criminal histories consistent with legal requirements, or any other basis protected by law. See also Google's EEO Policy , Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal , Belonging at Google , and How we hire .

Google is a global company and, in order to facilitate efficient collaboration and communication globally, English proficiency is a requirement for all roles unless stated otherwise in the job posting.

To all recruitment agencies: Google does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Google employees, or any other organization location. Google is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Equity is granted exclusively and discretionarily by Alphabet Inc. on the basis of an agreement concluded between you and Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is your sole contractual partner with respect to equity grants. GSU grants are not guaranteed, are discretionary, is subject to approval by the Alphabet Inc. board of directors or its delegate, the terms of the relevant Alphabet Inc. stock plan, and your grant agreement. They have no impact on statutory payments. Current or past grants do not confer an acquired right.