Threat Operations Lead, Google Defense Intelligence

Socket.dev; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 262,000 - 364,000; Full time

Job summary

Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) Defense Intelligence (GDI) team seeks a manager to lead security engineers and analysts. You will direct complex investigations, translate intelligence into systemic mitigations, and provide strategic risk assessments to Google leadership while scaling defenses globally.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and education.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience is required.
• 10+ years in security assessments, design reviews, or threat modeling.
• 10+ years in security engineering, networks, and security protocols.
• 10+ years leading technical teams or risk analysis in an enterprise environment.
• Experience in people management.

Responsibilities

• Threat hunting and advanced attribution to disrupt sophisticated campaigns.
• Provide high-fidelity strategic assessments and threat landscape analysis for leadership risk management.
• Drive sustainable capacity and performance through automation and streamlined workflows.
• Oversee integration of agentic workflows and advanced analytics into investigative capabilities.
• Manage early-warning escalation lifecycles and cross-functional response to high-exposure threats.

Skills

Security leadership

Threat modeling

Security engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10 years of experience with security assessments or security design reviews or threat modeling.
• 10 years of experience with security engineering, computer and network security and security protocols.
• 10 years of experience leading teams in a technical capacity or leading technical risk analysis in an enterprise environment.
• Experience in people management.

Preferred qualifications:

• Deep technical expertise in threat research, exploit and vulnerability analysis, and the execution of intelligence-led disruption strategies.
• Expertise in developing specialized teams to identify, analyze, and counter emerging threats and tactics.
• Track record of building specialized technical teams, optimizing organizational health, and driving operational excellence.
• Demonstrated ability to scale threat analysis and accelerate intelligence velocity using agentic workflows.
• Exceptional communication skills in translating complex analysis and campaigns for leadership and executives.

About the job:

Our Security team works to create and maintain the safest operating environment for Google's users and developers. Security Engineers work with network equipment and actively monitor our systems for attacks and intrusions. In this role, you will also work with software engineers to proactively identify and fix security flaws and vulnerabilities.

Operating within the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), the Google Defense Intelligence (GDI) team identifies, attributes, and counters sophisticated global cyber threats and sits alongside its peer teams of Advanced Persistent Threat Intelligence and Cyber Crime Intelligence under the Threat Operations organization. GDI’s mission is to protect Google's ecosystem by tracking and disrupting advanced adversaries within specialized threat domains (such as Information Operations and commercial surveillance vendors), monitoring threat actors to stay ahead of AI-driven exploitation and enablement, and providing rapid response and threat hunting for developing global exploitation and threats.

As the manager of Google Defense Intelligence, you will direct operational execution and investigative strategy for security engineers and analysts. You will oversee complex campaign investigations, convert intelligence into systemic mitigations, and deliver strategic risk assessments to Google leadership while scaling global defenses alongside peers in parallel teams. We succeed in collaborative, high-tempo, innovative problem-solving, balancing real-time response with long-term issue tracking. Our team fosters technical curiosity and cross-functional collaboration to solve complex security issues at Google scale.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $262000 - $364000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities:

• Threat hunting and advanced attribution to unmask and disrupt sophisticated global adversary campaigns.
• Provide high-fidelity strategic assessments and threat landscape analysis to guide leadership risk management and enable defense.
• Drive sustainable capacity and performance through toil-reducing automation and streamlined workflows.
• Oversee the integration of agentic workflows and advanced analytics into core investigative capabilities.
• Manage early-warning escalation life-cycles and cross-functional response to emerging, high-exposure threats.