Head of Secure Development & App Security

General Motors; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a strategic leader to head Secure Development & Application Security, embedding preventative and detective security controls into engineering workflows. You’ll drive cross-functional collaboration with engineering, platform, product, and security teams to improve risk reduction, coverage, and delivery velocity across modern software ecosystems.

You will translate strategy into direction for multiple teams, own operational performance with clear metrics, and shape

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in cybersecurity, application security, software engineering security, or secure software development.
• 3+ years of experience leading people, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and team development.
• 3+ years of experience leading or scaling one or more application security domains such as static testing, dynamic testing, API security, AI security, threat modeling, or runtime protection.
• Experience partnering with engineering and product organizations to embed security controls into software delivery workflows, developer tools, and release processes.
• Experience owning operational goals, metrics, or KPIs and using them to drive prioritization, execution, and continuous improvement.
• Working knowledge of modern software architectures and delivery environments, including cloud-native applications, APIs, containers, CI/CD pipelines, and developer tooling.
• Ability to make independent decisions, influence across functions, and lead teams through change in a complex enterprise environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Secure Development & Application Security function, including team direction, operating model, workforce planning, and delivery against business priorities.
• Define and drive the roadmap for security controls embedded in engineering workflows, including static testing, dynamic testing, API security, AI security, and runtime resilience.
• Own functional performance through key metrics and service outcomes, using data to prioritize investments, improve coverage, and reduce application risk at scale.
• Partner with engineering and platform teams to integrate security controls into development pipelines and release processes in ways that are effective, reliable, and usable.
• Guide leaders and team members through complex technical and operational decisions, removing roadblocks and enabling consistent execution across multiple teams.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships to align policy, tooling, detection, remediation, and governance across the software development lifecycle.
• Develop talent, strengthen succession pipelines, and lead organizational change that improves team capability, accountability, and impact.

Skills

Security leadership

Application security

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud-native architectures

API security

Threat modeling

Developer tooling

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Cybersecurity/IT/Engineering

Master’s degree (preferred)

Job description

General Motors is seeking a strategic leader to head Secure Development & Application Security, embedding preventative and detective security controls into engineering workflows. You’ll drive cross-functional collaboration with engineering, platform, product, and security teams to improve risk reduction, coverage, and delivery velocity across modern software ecosystems.

You will translate strategy into direction for multiple teams, own operational performance with clear metrics, and shape