Senior Director, Security Engineering

Ripple; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 260,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Ripple in Washington, DC is seeking a Senior Director of Security Engineering to build and lead a dedicated security team, embedding security into every layer of Ripple's technology stack. This hands-on role emphasizes AI security, agentic guardrails, and a culture of security across products, infrastructure, and corporate IT.

You will guide security strategy, define AI guardrails, and ensure secure development practices while mentoring engineers and partnering with leadership to protect

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in security engineering.
• 5+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Hands-on expertise in AI security and guardrails around AI agents and workflows.
• Expert knowledge of security architecture across cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure) and modern stacks.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic vision and roadmap for the Security Engineering team, focusing on product, infrastructure, and IT security with a focus on AI security.
• Serve as a security domain expert, communicating risks to senior leadership and partners.
• Define guardrails around AI agents and tools within Ripple's environment, including scope and rollback mechanisms.
• Implement and enforce agentic SDLC guardrails, testing gates, and human oversight of AI-assisted development workflows.
• Lead, mentor, and strengthen a team of security engineers and foster technical excellence.
• Drive security guidelines across the engineering organization to integrate security into day-to-day development.
• Lead security architecture reviews before production for new products and major initiatives.
• Own the vulnerability management program, coordinating testing and remediation with engineering teams.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and IT leadership to align on security priorities for customers.

Skills

Security architecture

Leadership

AI security

Threat modeling

Communication

Security culture

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

OAuth

SAML

OIDC

OWASP Top 10

IAM

Penetration testing tools

Job description

Please note this is for Washington, D.C., United States. You only need toapply to one location if there are multiple listed for the job.

THE WORK:

As the Senior Director of Security Engineering, you will be responsible for building and leading a dedicated, humble, and paranoid team of Security Engineers to secure Ripple's products, infrastructure, and corporate IT systems. You will play a substantial role in defining the security strategy and encouraging a culture of security across the entire company. Your leadership will be crucial in protecting our business and our customers by embedding security into every layer of our technology stack.

This is a hands‑on role and requires a deep understanding of technology. AI is fundamentally reshaping how we build software and how our tools and systems operate, and this role sits at the center of that challenge. You will ensure our use of AI tooling and agentic workflows is secure, controlled, and auditable.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Set the strategic vision and roadmap for the Security Engineering team, focusing on product security, infrastructure security, and IT security, with a particular focus on AI security, including agentic guardrails and AI‑assisted development risk.
• Serve as a security domain expert, providing guidance and communicating security risks and concepts to senior leadership, engineering teams, and other partners.
• Define guardrails around AI agents and tools operating within Ripple's environment, including scope boundaries, blast radius limits, and rollback mechanisms.
• Implement and enforce agentic SDLC guardrails, testing gates, and human oversight of AI‑assisted development workflows.
• Lead, mentor, and strengthen a team of security engineers, cultivating an atmosphere that values technical excellence, continual learning, and innovation.
• Drive the implementation of security guidelines across the engineering organization, ensuring security is integrated into day‑to‑day development processes.
• Lead security architecture reviews for new products, infrastructure changes, and major engineering initiatives, serving as a formal checkpoint before systems go to production.
• Own the vulnerability management program, including coordinating penetration testing, prioritizing remediation, and partnering with engineering teams to close risk at pace.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and IT leadership to ensure alignment on security priorities and to champion security outcomes on behalf of our customers.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING:

• 15+ years of experience in security engineering, with at least 5+ years in a leadership or management role, preferably in the crypto, blockchain, or FinTech space.
• Hands‑on expertise in AI security: a clear understanding of the risk surface introduced by LLMs, AI agents, and AI‑assisted development workflows, and how to build guardrails around them.
• Expert‑level knowledge of security architecture, including cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure), modern application stacks, and network security.
• Strong understanding of cryptographic principles, secure coding practices, and common web and blockchain vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP Top 10).
• Experience with authentication and authorization standards (OAuth, SAML, OIDC) and their security implications.
• Demonstrated expertise in IT security, including endpoint protection, network security, identity and access management (IAM), and corporate security policy enforcement.
• Hands‑on experience with threat modeling methodologies and risk identification techniques.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts and security risks to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• A track record of fostering a positive security culture within an organization and proven experience leading and building a high‑performing security team.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and the ability to effectively and creatively manage complex security challenges.

WHO WE ARE:

Do Your Best Work

• The opportunity to build in a fast‑paced start‑up environment with experienced industry leaders
• A learning environment where you can dive deep into the latest technologies and make an impact. A professional development budget to support other modes of learning.
• Thrive in an environment where no matter what race, ethnicity, gender, origin, or culture they identify with, every employee is a respected, valued, and empowered part of the team.
• In‑office collaboration for moments that matter is important to our culture, and we give managers and teams the flexibility to decide which 10+ days a month they come in.
• Bi‑weekly all‑company meeting - business updates and ask me anything style discussion with our Leadership Team
• We come together for moments that matter which include team offsites, team bonding activities, happy hours and more!

Take Control of Your Finances

• Competitive salary, bonuses, and equity
• Competitive benefits that cover physical and mental healthcare, retirement, family forming, and family support
• Employee giving match

Take Care of Yourself

• R&R days so you can rest and recharge
• Generous wellness reimbursement and weekly onsite & virtual programming
• Generous vacation policy - work with your manager to take time off when you need it
• Industry‑leading parental leave policies. Family planning benefits.
• Catered lunches, fully‑stocked kitchens with premium snacks/beverages, and plenty of fun events

Benefits listed above are for full‑time employees.

Ripple is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, sexual identity, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, military status, or any other characteristic protected by local law or ordinance.