Description
We are seeking a highly technical and influential Director of Engineering, Governance Foundation to define how security, privacy, and responsible data practices are built into the core of Databricks' products and infrastructure.
This role is not simply about running programs,it is about designing and scaling the engineering platforms, guardrails, and operating models that make secure and compliant product development the default across a rapidly growing, multi-cloud ecosystem.
As a Director of Engineering, Governance Foundation, you will lead a team of senior security engineers, partner with product and infrastructure leaders, and shape the foundational governance systems that enable Databricks to innovate quickly while maintaining world-class security and customer trust.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Defining the company-wide strategy for embedding security, privacy, and responsible data use across engineering workflows and platform components.
- Building scalable governance frameworks that help engineering teams design secure systems from the start, not after the fact.
- Establishing and leading a Security & Privacy Postmortem Review process that drives learning, accountability, and long-term resilience.
- Ensuring insights from incidents translate into systemic improvements across tools, infrastructure, and engineering culture.
- Rebuilding and scaling a Security Champions Network that brings security and governance expertise directly into product and infrastructure teams.
- Creating centralized enablement, tooling, and shared learning systems that allow thousands of engineers to integrate security seamlessly.
- Leading efforts to ensure responsible data use across AI/ML systems, SaaS environments, and internal workspaces.
- Defining and enforcing policies that uphold privacy, integrity, auditability, and proper data lifecycle management.
- Transforming security into a key enabler for engineering velocity.
- Delivering automation, self-service tools, and intelligent guardrails that reduce developer friction while increasing safety and compliance.
- Building JIT (Just-In-Time) security education and systems that proactively surface risky behaviour before it becomes an incident.
- Identifying and elevating Databricks' security posture to exceed DB50 customer expectations, including areas such as audit logging, controlled access workflows, secure asset import/export, behaviour monitoring and lineage.
- Partnering with security, IT, and compliance teams to ensure readiness for the most demanding enterprise and regulated environments.
To be successful in this role, you will need:
- 10+ years of experience in large-scale software engineering, with at least several years leading engineering managers and senior ICs.
- Strong technical grounding in backend systems, distributed systems, identity/security, or enterprise cloud platforms.
- Experience defining governance, security, or enterprise-grade platform capabilities.
- A background as a senior IC (e.g., Staff/Principal Engineer) at some point,this role requires deep technical credibility.
- Proven success hiring, developing, and retaining senior engineering talent.
- Expertise driving cross-functional technical programs with senior stakeholders.
- Experience building cloud-agnostic or multi-cloud services.
- Background in enterprise features such as access control, policy engines, compliance, or identity systems.
- Experience leading organisations through scaling phases in high-growth environments.
You will be rewarded with a competitive salary range of $255,900-$305,350 USD, plus eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and comprehensive benefits.