Director, Security Architecture & Engineering

Who You Are

At Justworks, we're on a mission to help entrepreneurs and growing businesses thrive by simplifying payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance. Our work supports a diverse and global workforce—so we're building a security team that can match our scale and ambition.

We are seeking a strategic and technically strong Director of Security Architecture & Engineering to lead and grow our security engineering team. In this leadership role, you will be responsible for designing, building, and advancing the security architecture and technical capabilities that protect our infrastructure, applications, and data. You will report directly to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO & VP). You will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the technical security strategy that protects our products, data, and cloud infrastructure. This is a senior leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of deep technical security expertise and strategic influence, and who is passionate about building secure-by-design capabilities at scale. You will work closely with cross-functional partners in product and engineering, infrastructure, IT, and other teams to ensure our security posture scales with the business. This role requires a blend of deep technical knowledge, forward-looking architecture thinking, and strong leadership to build secure-by-design solutions and embed security into our engineering and operations.

Your Success ProfileWhat You Will Work On

• Manage and inspire the Security Architecture & Engineering team, setting vision, priorities, and execution plans to improve the security posture to support Justworks Digital Security’s vision and mission.
• Design and drive strategic roadmaps for core security capabilities across the full spectrum of security domains, including network and cloud security, product and application security, identity and access management, data protection, as well as tools support for Security Operations and Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC).
• Lead the deployment or implementation of security capabilities and ensure the operational excellence of those technical controls.
• Champion security-as-quality, partnering closely with product, infrastructure, and IT teams to ensure that secure practices are standardized and built into Justworks’ product and infrastructure development lifecycle, elevating both customer trust and internal efficiency.
• Develop security architecture, design, and coding standards across the Justworks development and  infrastructure to standardize a Security-SDLC to a security maturity model in-line with Justworks risk posture.
• Drive the development of secure-by-default controls, scalable guardrails, and automation that enable engineering velocity without compromising security.
• Lead the evaluation, selection, and implementation of modern security tools and platforms that support cloud-native, developer-centric environments.
• Strengthen identity and access management practices organization-wide, driving principle-of-least-privilege, zero trust, and modern authentication strategies.
• Play a key leadership role in company-wide governance, influencing initiatives around data protection, secure AI usage, and compliance with regulatory and risk standards.
• Collaborate deeply with peers in Security Operations and GRC, taking a holistic approach to managing and reducing cyber risk across the organization.

How You Will Do Your Work

• Good judgment - the exercise of critical thinking, analyzing and assessing problems and implications, identifying patterns, making connections of underlying issues, understanding risks and developing mitigation strategies, and taking ownership of the outcome.
• Resourcefulness - taking a can-do approach, even in the face of obstacles and constraints by assessing what’s in front of you and effectively and efficiently optimizing what you have, whether it's working on something new or thinking about how to do something better.
• Teamwork and communication - putting our collective best together through documentation, collaboration, relationship-building, listening, empathy, recruiting, and evangelism.
• Influence and leadership - fostering a community of knowledge-sharing, collaboration, mentorship, and forward-thinking.
• Skills and knowledge - the capacity to actively learn and apply specific domain knowledge, know-how, and best practices to continually enhance and improve.

In addition, all Justworkers focus on aligning their behaviors to our core values known as COGIS. It stands for:

• Camaraderie - Day to day you can be seen working together toward a higher purpose. You like to have fun. You’re an active listener, treat people respectfully, and have a strong desire to know and help others.
• Openness - Your default is to be open. You're willing to share information, understand other perspectives, and consider new possibilities. You’re curious, ask open questions, and are receptive to thoughts and feedback from others.
• Grit - You demonstrate grit by having the courage to commit and persevere. You’re committed, earnest, and dive in to get the job done well with a positive attitude.
• Integrity - Simply put, do what you say and say what you'll do. You’re honest and forthright, have a strong moral compass, and strive to match your words with your actions while leading by example. 
• Simplicity - Be like Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

What We’re Looking For

• Demonstrated expertise in security strategy, design, and secure coding practices with a focus on scaling solutions for complex enterprises
• 5+ years experience in cloud environments and 3+ years in AWS is preferred.
• Familiar with AWS infrastructure and core services including security services. 
• At least 10 years' experience in cyber security, with the familiarity in common technical security controls, and security architecture design principles
• Extensive experience in security architecture, system design and engineering g scalable security solutions
• Strong experience leading product security including threat modeling, secure coding practices and security scanning technologies and vulnerability management 
• Experience in agile development and implementing DevSecOps
• Strong experience in Identity Access Management, including both traditional IAM implementations and AWS IAM management
• Demonstrated leadership on cyber risk management in technology and business
• Proven track record as a strong communicator both in written and oral presentations; capable of rapidly creating detailed, yet concise written reports; and ability to translate technical terms into business languages. 
• Exceptional program management and organizational skills.
• Strong analytical skills and demonstrated ability to solve technical and business problems.
• 5+ years of experience managing and leading teams  
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow high-performing teams.
• Security Certifications: CISSP and CISM are preferred

The base wage range for this position based in our New York City Office is targeted at $250,000.00 to $300,000.00 per year.