Roles and responsibilities
- Lead and develop a team of engineers, ranging from graduate to senior
- Provide technical guidance on vulnerability remediation
- Drive the development of new security engineering projects
- Work with upstream open source projects on vulnerability lifecycle handling
- Coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback
- Identify and measure team health indicators
- Implement disciplined engineering processes
- Represent your team and product to stakeholders, partners, and customers
- Develop and evangelise great engineering and organisational practices
- Plan and manage progress on agreed goals and projects
- Be an active part of the security engineering leadership team, collaborating with other leaders
What we are looking for in you
- An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path
- Drive, and a track record of going above-and-beyond expectations
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
- A love of developing and growing people and a track record of it
- Organised and able to ensure your team delivers timely, high quality results
- Professional manner interacting with colleagues, partners, and community
- Solid background in software development, including expertise in support and maintenance
- Mastery in any programming language (Go, Java, C, Python, ...)
- Knowledgeable and passionate about software and application security
- Solid experience working in an agile development environment
- A demonstrated drive for continual learning
- Builds trust, relationships and confidence
- Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
- Ability to travel twice a year, for company events up to two weeks each
Optional things we value
- Strong technical understanding of the inner-workings of Linux distributions (ideally Ubuntu or Debian)
Desired candidate profile
1. Security Strategy and Planning
- Develop and Execute Security Strategies: Lead the development of security strategies for Ubuntu, defining both short-term and long-term goals for securing the operating system and related services.
- Security Roadmap: Develop and maintain a security roadmap, ensuring that Ubuntu security features and patches are aligned with the company's goals and meet customer needs.
- Risk Management: Continuously assess and manage risks related to Ubuntu’s security posture, ensuring that security best practices are followed.
2. Team Leadership and Management
- Lead Security Engineering Teams: Manage and mentor a team of security engineers, providing technical leadership, career development, and regular performance reviews.
- Collaboration with Cross-Functional Teams: Work closely with other teams, including software development, quality assurance, and DevOps, to ensure that security is integrated into all stages of the software lifecycle.
- Recruitment and Hiring: Lead efforts to recruit, interview, and hire top security talent to strengthen the security engineering team.
3. Security Vulnerability Management
- Vulnerability Assessment: Oversee the identification, assessment, and remediation of vulnerabilities within the Ubuntu OS and related packages. Ensure that vulnerabilities are handled according to priority.
- Patch Management: Ensure timely delivery of security patches and updates to users through Ubuntu's regular update mechanisms.
- Incident Response: Develop and oversee incident response protocols for security breaches or vulnerabilities, including root cause analysis and mitigation strategies.
4. Security Tools and Automation
- Security Tools Development: Lead the design and implementation of security tools and automated systems that help secure the Ubuntu environment, such as patch management systems, security scanning tools, and monitoring solutions.
- Automation: Integrate security best practices into CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks to ensure secure software development and deployment processes.
- Penetration Testing: Oversee regular penetration testing and other security assessments to identify vulnerabilities proactively and ensure Ubuntu's security posture is robust.
5. Compliance and Standards
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that Ubuntu meets industry security compliance standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other relevant regulations.
- Security Audits: Lead internal and external security audits, ensuring that Ubuntu’s security practices are up to date and meet compliance requirements.
- Security Documentation: Maintain clear and detailed documentation on security policies, procedures, and incident responses to ensure transparency and consistency.
6. Community Engagement and Advocacy
- Engage with the Ubuntu Community: As Ubuntu is an open-source project, the Engineering Manager must work closely with the Ubuntu community and upstream contributors to ensure that security patches, improvements, and vulnerabilities are shared and addressed.
- Contribute to Open Source Security: Advocate for and contribute to the open-source security ecosystem, participating in discussions around best practices, vulnerabilities, and patches.
- User Education and Communication: Engage with the Ubuntu user base to communicate security updates, best practices, and provide guidance on securing their environments.
7. Metrics and Reporting
- Security Metrics: Define and track security metrics to measure the effectiveness of security initiatives, track vulnerabilities, and monitor the overall security health of the Ubuntu environment.
- Reporting to Leadership: Regularly report on security trends, incidents, patching statuses, and team performance to senior leadership.