Security Engineer Lead, Security Foundations

Meta; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 271,000 - 347,000; Full time

Job summary

Meta is seeking a Security Engineer Lead to scope, design, and champion security solutions across the company. This role spans identity, cryptography, product identity, AI security, and cloud security, requiring broad coordination rather than ownership of a single domain.

You will shape threat models, drive platform-level controls, and translate complex regulatory needs into concrete security decisions. The role emphasizes collaboration with security, infra, and legal teams to safeguard Meta and

Qualifications

• B.S. Computer Science or related field.
• Deep technical expertise in at least one of these domains, and a demonstrated ability to become credible quickly in unfamiliar ones.
• Significant experience in driving large cross-company engineering initiatives.
• Experience managing security risk and navigating the tradeoff between security and friction in a large organization.
• Experience communicating and influencing across functions to drive solutions.
• Ability to operate in high-ambiguity environments and balance technical solution design with complex business processes and requirements.
• Hands-on engineering experience and the ability to lead across a blended Security Engineering and Software Engineering organization.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for security solutions and platforms shared across the company, working through Security Engineering, Security Analyst, and Software Engineering teams.
• Determine the highest-risk items across these domains company-wide, then lead development of detailed threat models and solutions.
• Define how AI agents are identified, authorized, and audited across Meta's infrastructure — a space where neither existing industry practice nor our own human-centric models are sufficient.
• Navigate tradeoffs between security and friction or cost, so the company can keep moving fast securely.
• Drive solution design, including technical architecture, and lead implementation as needed.
• Build partnerships across security, infrastructure, corporate engineering, and legal — then use those partnerships to translate ambiguous business and regulatory requirements into well-articulated tradeoffs between "secure the company and our users" and "slow the company down".
• Represent those tradeoffs credibly to senior leadership, including VPs and C-level executives (CTO, CISO), to drive decisions.

Skills

Security engineering leadership

Threat modeling

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Ambiguity navigation

Education

B.S. Computer Science or related field

Tools

Active Directory

Linux

Windows

SaaS

Job description

Summary:

Security Foundations is Meta's first-line-of-defense technology organization, owning the controls that manage security risk across the company. We're looking for a Security Engineer Lead to scope, design, and champion security solutions company-wide across the domains we support.This is a breadth role. Each domain below has its own engineering leaders and managers — you will set technical direction across them rather than owning one. The hardest problems in this space does not sit inside a single domain. Agent identity and authorization, for example, spans identity and access, product authentication, AI security, and cloud simultaneously. Finding those problems and getting them solved once, coherently, is central to this role.The domains you'll influence:Identity and Access Management — the authorization layer every Meta system depends on, serving tens of billions of access checks per secondCryptography and Data Security — including Meta's post-quantum migration and Encryption at RestProduct Identity and Access — authentication for billions of end usersAI Security — the controls protecting Meta's frontier AI productsCloud Security — securing Meta's footprint across public cloud and third-party compute providers, including identity, network egress, and posture managementAsset Management — authoritative security risk classification for assets across the companyScope and complexity:-Security Foundations is a cross-functional organization of engineers, analysts, and product managers, partnering closely with hundreds of engineers elsewhere in the company.-The role spans a large set of technical domains: Meta's products and custom technology stack, commercial off-the-shelf software (e.g. Active Directory), and commercial IaaS/PaaS services. Familiarity with industry best practices and relevant regulatory frameworks — plus the ability to translate between those frameworks and deeply technical software engineers.What success looks like in the first year:-A defensible, company-wide view of the highest-risk items across these domains, with named owners and real threat models — not a list.-At least one shared platform or control adopted broadly enough to measurably change the company's risk posture.-Security tradeoffs represented credibly at the VP and C-level, with decisions made rather than deferred.

Required Skills:

Security Engineer Lead, Security Foundations Responsibilities:

1. Set technical direction for security solutions and platforms shared across the company, working through Security Engineering, Security Analyst, and Software Engineering teams.

2. Determine the highest-risk items across these domains company-wide, then lead development of detailed threat models and solutions.

3. Define how AI agents are identified, authorized, and audited across Meta's infrastructure — a space where neither existing industry practice nor our own human-centric models are sufficient.

4. Navigate tradeoffs between security and friction or cost, so the company can keep moving fast securely.

5. Drive solution design, including technical architecture, and lead implementation as needed.

6. Build partnerships across security, infrastructure, corporate engineering, and legal — then use those partnerships to translate ambiguous business and regulatory requirements into well-articulated tradeoffs between "secure the company and our users" and "slow the company down".

7. Represent those tradeoffs credibly to senior leadership, including VPs and C-level executives (CTO, CISO), to drive decisions.

Minimum Qualifications:

1. B.S. Computer Science or related field

2. Deep technical expertise in at least one of these domains, and a demonstrated ability to become credible quickly in unfamiliar ones

3. Significant experience in driving large cross-company engineering initiatives

4. Experience managing security risk and navigating the tradeoff between security and friction in a large organization

5. Experience communicating and influencing across functions to drive solutions

6. Ability to operate in high-ambiguity environments and balance technical solution design with complex business processes and requirements

7. Hands-on engineering experience and the ability to lead across a blended Security Engineering and Software Engineering organization

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Experience with identity and access management, cryptographic systems and massively scaled infrastructure

2. Experience securing AI/ML systems or agentic workloads

3. Familiarity with SOX, SOC 2, or comparable control frameworks and the engineering work required to satisfy them

4. Experience leading security work spanning both production (Linux) and corporate (Windows, Active Directory, SaaS) environments

Public Compensation:

$271,000/year to $347,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits

Industry:

Internet

Equal Opportunity:

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affimative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at [e-mail].