Deputy CISO (Sunnyvale)

Job Description

The Deputy CISO serves as an operational leader and strategic execution partner to the CISO, responsible for advancing the company’s cybersecurity priorities while enabling business growth, product innovation, and operational agility.

Job Description

The Deputy CISO serves as an operational leader and strategic execution partner to the CISO, responsible for advancing the company’s cybersecurity priorities while enabling business growth, product innovation, and operational agility. This role partners closely with engineering, product, AI, cloud, IT, and executive teams to ensure security is integrated into the business in a practical, risk‑based, and scalable way. The role balances strong security governance with business realities, helping the organization move quickly to achieve business objectives and enable innovation while appropriately managing enterprise risk. The Deputy CISO also serves as a credible executive representative of the security organization with customers, prospects, regulators, and strategic partners when needed.

Responsibilities

Security Strategy Execution

• Partner closely with the CISO and other Deputy CISOs to operationalize the enterprise cybersecurity strategy and drive execution across the organization.
• Translate strategic security priorities into measurable operational plans, governance models, and execution roadmaps.
• Establish accountability, execution rigor, and operational cadence across security initiatives.

Business Enablement & Risk Partnership

• Partner with engineering, product, AI, cloud, and infrastructure teams to enable innovation while appropriately managing enterprise risk.
• Develop pragmatic, scalable security frameworks that support rapid product development and emerging technology adoption.
• Drive a culture of “secure enablement” focused on helping teams move quickly and safely rather than creating unnecessary friction.
• Help business and technology leaders make informed, risk‑based decisions aligned with company priorities and customer expectations.
• Ensure security controls are proportional, practical, and aligned to business impact.

Security Program Leadership

• Oversee execution of enterprise security programs across areas which may include:
  • Cloud security
  • Identity and access management
  • Security operations and incident response
  • Vulnerability management
  • AI security governance
  • Third‑party risk
  • Security architecture
  • Governance, risk, and compliance
• Continuously improve operational maturity, scalability, and effectiveness of the security organization.

Cross‑Functional Leadership

• Build strong partnerships across engineering, product, IT, legal, HR, compliance, and executive leadership teams.
• Serve as a trusted advisor on operational resilience, cybersecurity risk, and emerging technologies.
• Act as incident coordinator during major security incidents, operational escalations, or enterprise risk events.

Customer & Executive Engagement

• Support strategic customer and prospect engagements requiring executive‑level security credibility.
• Participate in executive briefings, customer trust discussions, security reviews, and high‑priority escalations.
• Help articulate the company’s security strategy, operational maturity, and approach to emerging technologies such as AI.
• Partner with Field CISOs and sales leadership on strategic accounts where internal operational expertise is valuable.

Organizational Leadership

• Help scale and mature the security organization, operating model, and leadership team.
• Drive operational excellence, prioritization, and organizational effectiveness across security functions.
• Mentor and develop future security leaders across the organization.

Ideal Leadership Characteristics

• Business‑minded and commercially aware
• Pragmatic and solutions‑oriented
• Strong executive judgment and risk assessment capabilities
• Comfortable making informed tradeoffs in fast‑moving environments
• Collaborative partner to engineering and product organizations
• High bias for action and operational execution
• Able to balance governance with innovation and speed
• Believes security should enable the business, not constrain it

• Fortinet offers employees a variety of benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, 401(k), 11 paid holidays, vacation time, and sick time as well as a comprehensive leave program.

Wage ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, and job level. Earnings for this position are expected to be $350,000 - $380,000 Exact salary offers will be determined by factors such as the candidate’s subject knowledge, skill level, qualifications, experience, and geographic location. All roles are eligible to participate in the Fortinet equity program, Bonus eligibility is reviewed at time of hire and annually at the Company’s discretion.

About Us

Fortinet makes possible a digital world that we can always trust through its mission to protect people, devices, and data everywhere. This is why the world’s largest enterprises, service providers, and government organizations choose Fortinet to securely accelerate their digital journey. The Fortinet Security Fabric platform delivers broad, integrated, and automated protections across the entire digital attack surface, securing critical devices, data, applications, and connections from the data center to the cloud to the home office. Ranking #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide, more than 615,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. And the Fortinet NSE Training Institute, an initiative of Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), provides one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry to make cyber training and new career opportunities available to everyone.