Director, Forward Deployed Security

Overview

The Cloud & AI organization accelerates Microsoft's mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers' heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. Microsoft is one of the largest enterprise service companies in the world.

Forward-Deployed Security within CISO Leadership is responsible for bootstrapping and maturing security programs and addressing threats faced by Microsoft divisions with emerging, non-traditional-enterprise technologies. We work where the problems are least standardized and the stakes are real: new products, fast-moving platforms, uneven security maturity and teams that need practical help building an architecture that works for them - not abstract guidance and frameworks. We land, understand the environment, build roadmaps, develop recon and exposure tooling, and stay involved to land security improvements until the problem space is stable and an operational team is ready to stand on its own.

We are looking for a technical program leader to help turn complex security needs into clear decisions, executable programs, and measurable outcomes. You will shape a portfolio of security programs, and build the mechanisms that help security, engineering, product, and business teams deliver together. While this role does not require specific technical skills, the successful candidate will be able to develop enough technical depth to challenge assumptions, understand architecture and delivery tradeoffs, improve how work gets done, and stay accountable for adoption and risk reduction. AI will be part of how the team researches, analyzes, plans, and operates, and you will be responsible for the quality, limitations, and human oversight of AI-assisted outputs used in decision making.

Responsibilities

• Turn ambiguous security needs into well-scoped programs with explicit goals, priorities, dependencies, owners, success measures, and decision paths.
• Ensure alignment with CISO-mandated governance processes, including quarterly risk reviews, third-party risk, and PIR governance.
• Partner deeply with engineering, architecture, product, and security leaders to identify risks, resolve planning misalignment, and drive technically sound decisions through delivery and adoption.
• Build and improve the operating mechanisms behind security reviews, roadmap execution, risk prioritization, telemetry, and remediation so the organization can scale without adding unnecessary friction.
• Use customer feedback, security telemetry, incident learning, exposure data, and other evidence to guide experiments, influence investment decisions, and continuously improve the portfolio.
• Apply AI and automation to research, planning, analysis, and workflow orchestration while setting standards for validation, traceability, escalation, and responsible human judgment.
• Establish patterns for security program management across forward-deployed divisions, setting clear objectives and improving execution quality.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development

• OR equivalent experience.

• 3+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree AND 12+ years experience engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development

• OR equivalent experience.

• 8+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.

• 1+ year(s) of experience reading and/or writing code (e.g., sample documentation, product demos).

• Experience leading complex technical programs across multiple organizational boundaries from problem definition through delivery, adoption, and outcome measurement.

• Experience defining success measures and using customer, telemetry, operational, or business data to make program decisions including decisions with budget, headcount and organizational structure implications.

• Experience managing at least one sustained security, privacy, or identity program.

• Experience partnering with engineering and architecture teams on system design, technical tradeoffs, dependencies, and delivery risks.

• Experience applying AI or automation to research, planning, analysis, or operational workflows and setting standards for validating and communicating the limitations of AI-generated output.

• Leading a portfolio of security, cloud, infrastructure, identity, data, AI, or developer-platform programs across multiple divisions.

• Managing managers or building a technical program-management function.

• Designing mechanisms for technical reviews, risk prioritization, roadmap delivery, remediation programs, or product and service health.

• Experience managing a cross-functional roadmap with product deliverables, engineering platform constraints, and financial/revenue stakeholders.

• Applying Responsible AI practices, evaluation methods, and human oversight to AI-assisted products or operational workflows.

Technical Program Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.