Principal Technologist - Product Security

Aptiv PLC; Walnut Creek (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology company is seeking a Principal Technologist specializing in Product Security for their cloud platform. This role involves defining security architecture, leading threat assessments, and driving secure configurations. The ideal candidate has over 15 years of experience, deep expertise in product security, and strong knowledge of cloud networking and virtualization. Located in Walnut Creek, this position offers a challenging opportunity to influence architecture in critical industries.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in cloud/platform engineering, embedded systems, or cybersecurity with deep architectural ownership.
• Expertise in product security, including threat modeling, secure architecture, and vulnerability management.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD security, SAST, DAST, container scanning, SBOM generation.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the security architecture for Wind River Private Cloud Platform.
• Lead threat modeling, security risk assessments, and mitigation strategies.
• Drive secure-by-default configurations across compute, storage, networking, and platform services.

Skills

Product security

Threat modeling

Linux internals

Virtualization technologies

Cloud networking

Containerization

Education

Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity or similar

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD tools

Job description

Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for mission‑critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. Wind River helps customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries solve complex technology challenges on their journey toward the new intelligent machine economy.

The company’s software powers generation after generation of the safest, most secure systems in the world. Examples include playing a key role in NASA space missions such as Artemis I, the James Webb Space Telescope, and multiple Mars rovers. We’ve achieved recent 5G milestones, including the world’s first successful 5G data session with Verizon and building one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world with Vodafone.

The company has received industry recognition for its technology innovation and leadership and for its workplace culture, including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a “Top Workplace” for ten consecutive years.

Role Summary

As a Principal Technologist specializing in Product Security for the Wind River Private Cloud Platform, you will serve as the technical authority driving the secure design, architecture, and lifecycle hardening of Wind River’s mission‑critical cloud infrastructure solutions. You will guide security strategy across virtualization, orchestration, and distributed edge computing systems—ensuring the platform meets stringent requirements for telco, aerospace, defense, and industrial deployments. This role bridges advanced cloud engineering, embedded systems knowledge, and modern cybersecurity practices.

Security Architecture & Strategy

• Define and evolve the security architecture for Wind River Private Cloud Platform, including control plane components, hypervisors, networking stacks, and orchestration frameworks.
• Lead threat modeling, security risk assessments, and mitigation strategies across distributed cloud/edge environments.
• Establish platform security requirements, secure design patterns, and architectural standards.

Product & Platform Security

• Drive secure‑by‑default configurations across compute, storage, networking, and platform services.
• Own the security roadmap for the platform, ensuring alignment with industry standards (NIST, CIS, FIPS, FedRAMP, ISO 27001, etc.).
• Oversee vulnerability management, secure boot, runtime integrity measures, API security, and cryptographic services.
• Partner with product, engineering, and QA teams to embed security throughout SDLC (shift‑left security).

Technical Leadership

• Serve as the top technical expert and advisor for product security across cloud, containerization, virtualization, and real‑time/edge systems.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence engineering directors and executives on cybersecurity tradeoffs and priorities.
• Represent the organization in security reviews, customer briefings, escalations, and cross‑functional technical committees.

Security Operations & Compliance

• Guide secure deployment patterns and operational security practices for private cloud customers.
• Support incident investigation, root‑cause analysis, and remediation for platform‑level vulnerabilities.
• Define and enforce policies for SBOM, supply chain integrity, CI/CD security, and secure artifact distribution.

Collaboration & Influence

• Collaborate with teams across Wind River Studio ecosystem (edge platform, analytics, DevSecOps tooling).
• Represent Wind River in standards bodies and industry working groups (ETSI, CNCF, Linux Foundation, etc.).
• Partner with customer engineering teams on secure deployment architectures for telecom and mission‑critical environments.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years in cloud/platform engineering, embedded systems, or cybersecurity with deep architectural ownership.
• Expertise in product security, including threat modeling, secure architecture, and vulnerability management.
• Strong knowledge of:
  • Virtualization technologies (KVM, QEMU, etc.)
  • Linux internals, kernel security, containers (Docker), and Kubernetes
  • Cloud networking, SDN/NFV, microservices security
  • Cryptography and hardware root of trust (TPM, secure boot)
• Hands‑on experience with CI/CD security, SAST, DAST, container scanning, SBOM generation.
• Proven ability to lead complex cross‑organizational security initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with private cloud infrastructure, Titanium Cloud, or telecom/industrial‑grade cloud infrastructure.
• Background in telco (5G), aerospace/defense, industrial IoT, or other safety/security‑critical domains.
• Familiarity with Yocto, embedded Linux, RTOS environments.
• Participation in open‑source security initiatives or upstream kernel/cloud projects.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity, or similar field.

Success Indicators

• Demonstrated improvements in platform security posture, measurable vulnerability reduction, and secure SDLC maturity.
• Adoption of security architecture patterns across engineering teams.
• Strong technical influence with executives, partners, and global customers.
• Delivery of innovative, scalable platform security capabilities for distributed cloud and edge environments.

Aptiv is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.