Principal, Security Engineering and Operations

Northern Trust Corp; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 137,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust is seeking a Principal, Security Engineer to shape and operationalize enterprise security platforms. You will set technical direction, mentor engineers, and supervise secure platform operation in a regulated financial environment.

The role requires senior leadership, hands-on expertise with SSE/SASE, and collaboration across engineering, infrastructure, and risk teams to ensure control adherence and measurable risk reduction.

Qualifications

• 15 years of IT/cybersecurity experience including enterprise-scale security platforms.
• Senior technical leader with ability to set direction and mentor engineers.
• Experience with SSE/SASE platforms (ZTNA, W gateway policy).
• Knowledge of IPS/next-gen firewall platforms and signature tuning.
• Familiarity with identity (SAML/OIDC) and conditional access.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering decisions and governance for security platform engineering.
• Design and operate security tools across zero-trust, SASE/SSE, network, and cloud security.
• Define patterns, standards, and runbooks for enterprise adoption.
• Develop maturity models and metrics for assurance and compliance.
• Coordinate security initiatives across multiple teams.

Skills

SSE/SASE platform

Zero-trust security

ServiceNow integrations

API scripting

Python scripting

Vulnerability management

Regulatory audits

Tools

Next-gen firewalls

IPS

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.

About the Team

Northern Trust is a globally recognized financial institution with a long-standing commitment to service, expertise and integrity. Our Security Platform Engineering and Operations team protects Northern Trust’s partners, clients, applications, networks, infrastructure and emerging AI workloads by engineering and operating enterprise security at scale. Because the team operates in a highly regulated environment, audit-ready execution, operational resilience and measurable risk reduction are core expectations.

The Role

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 LLM Applications
• MITRE ATLAS
• ServiceNow Vulnerability Response or USEM implementation experience.
• Low-code automation or Terraform/IaC.
• Prior experience in financial services, banking, asset servicing, wealth management or another highly regulated industry.

Salary Range:
$137,400 – 233,600 USD

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. 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).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at , or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.