Director, Forward Deployed Security Architecture

WHY JOIN US?
At AstraZeneca, we are dedicated to being a Great Place to Work, where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. With an ambitious goal of delivering 20 new medicines by 2030, there is no better place to make a difference in medicine, for patients, and in society.
Join us on this exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare. Our inclusive culture champions diversity and collaboration, and we are always committed to lifelong learning, growth, and development. As part of our team, you'll contribute to groundbreaking advancements that will shape a healthier future for people everywhere. Be a catalyst for change at AstraZeneca, where your work will have a real impact on improving people's lives.
Recognizing the importance of individualized flexibility, our ways of working allow employees to balance personal and work commitments while ensuring we continue to create a strong culture of collaboration and teamwork by engaging face-to-face in our offices 3 days a week. Our head office is purposely designed with collaboration in mind, providing space where teams can come together to strategize, brainstorm and connect on key projects.
This role is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Candidates must reside within commuting distance of Gaithersburg or be willing to relocate for this opportunity.
The Mission
Make secure engineering practices consumable, measurable, and scalable. Drive adoption of Secure by Design cybersecurity products; provide forward-deployed security architecture support; improve cybersecurity-related developer experience; operate cybersecurity-specific decision and exception services; enable secure AI and agentic engineering; and use product intelligence and consumer feedback to continuously improve the secure path.
About the Role
The Director, Forward-Deployed Security Architecture & DevEx is a technical leader responsible for establishing and leading a team within the cybersecurity architecture function focused on engineering enablement, developer experience, AI adoption, and security architecture advisory. The role works directly with software, platform, cloud, data, AI, and operational technology teams to help them adopt secure engineering practices at scale.
This is not a traditional governance or review-board role. It requires a leader who combines cybersecurity architecture expertise, software-development credibility, AI experience, product thinking, and a strong focus on improving the developer and engineer experience. The role will initially operate hands-on and will build a multidisciplinary team as the capability matures.
What you'll do:
Lead Secure by Design Cybersecurity Adoption
Lead adoption of secure engineering practices, reusable security solutions, and cybersecurity architecture products.
Partner directly with engineering teams to reduce security-related friction and improve usability.
Increase self-service consumption of cybersecurity capabilities.
Help teams navigate complex application, cloud, platform, AI, data, and OT security challenges.
Advise teams building AI-enabled applications and agentic systems as part of Secure by Design adoption.
Support secure adoption of AI-assisted software development and emerging engineering practices.
Use adoption measures and engineering feedback to identify friction and improve cybersecurity architecture products.
Lead Forward-Deployed Cybersecurity Architecture
Act as a trusted cybersecurity architecture advisor to engineering teams.
Provide security architecture guidance for complex and high-impact initiatives.
Help teams apply cybersecurity requirements to real-world delivery challenges.
Turn recurring security architecture questions into reusable solutions and guidance.
Own Cybersecurity Developer Experience (DevEx)
Define and improve the developer experience associated with cybersecurity requirements and controls.
Reduce friction in secure development workflows.
Partner with engineering-platform teams to improve delivery of cybersecurity capabilities.
Ensure cybersecurity feedback is actionable, contextual, and developer-friendly.
Operate Cybersecurity Architecture Decision & Exception Services
Lead cybersecurity architecture decision and exception processes.
Coordinate reviews of complex or non-standard cybersecurity scenarios.
Oversee cybersecurity decision workflows, documentation, tracking, and reporting.
Identify recurring cybersecurity exceptions and drive long-term solutions that reduce future demand.
Use exception trends and service measures to improve the off-road process and expand reusable paved-road solutions.
Operate the service without assuming enterprise architecture approval authority or business risk acceptance.
Build Cybersecurity Communities and Champion Networks
Establish security champion programs and communities of practice.
Promote secure engineering culture across software, cloud, AI, platform, data, and OT teams.
Develop enablement content, learning paths, and engagement programs.
Create sustainable mechanisms for scaling cybersecurity expertise.
Build and Lead the Forward-Deployed Security Architecture Organization
Establish the vision, operating model, and roadmap for the function.
Recruit and develop a high-performing multidisciplinary team.
Build a scalable capability spanning cybersecurity architecture, secure engineering enablement, AI security, adoption insight, and developer experience.
Create strong partnerships across cybersecurity, architecture, engineering, platform, AI, data, OT, and risk organizations.
Technical Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information technology, cybersecurity, or a comparable discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Significant experience in cybersecurity architecture, secure software development, platform engineering, developer experience, or related technical disciplines.
Strong understanding of modern software delivery, version control, CI/CD, APIs, cloud-native architectures, containers, infrastructure as code, and policy as code.
Experience with threat modeling, application security, cloud security, identity, Zero Trust, supply-chain security, and runtime controls.
Practical experience with generative AI, AI-assisted development, or agentic systems and their security implications.
Ability to engage credibly with engineering teams on code, architecture, automation, and developer workflows.
Familiarity with OT/ICS security and regulated or safety-sensitive environments is desirable.
Leadership & Business Experience
Demonstrated experience leading complex technical programs, services, or architecture functions.
Experience establishing or scaling a new technical capability and building high-

Skills
CI/CD, Generative AI, Documentation