[Remote] Associate Dir., CD&A Engineering – Security Data Platforms
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Merck is seeking an Associate Director of CD&A Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, and operational delivery of security data pipelines and cloud infrastructure. This role focuses on ensuring reliable and scalable ingestion and processing of security telemetry while overseeing team leadership and technical direction.
Responsibilities
- Drive the engineering roadmap for security data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and platform services aligned with CD&A and enterprise cybersecurity strategy
- Responsible for the data ingestion, transformation, and delivery across SIEM, XDR, and data lake platforms
- Establish engineering standards, design patterns, and governance frameworks that scale across teams and environments
- Represent CD&A Engineering in cross-functional forums with Cloud Security, Platform Engineering, Compliance, and enterprise architecture leadership
- Design Cribl-based pipelines for ingesting, parsing, enriching, routing, and transforming high-volume security telemetry
- Drive optimization of data flows for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency across security analytics platforms
- Define and enforce data standards for normalization, metadata enrichment, and data quality — ensuring Copilot, AI, and analytics readiness
- Oversee onboarding of new security data sources and continuous improvement of existing pipeline architecture
- Contribute to the infrastructure strategy for security data platforms across Azure and Google Cloud, delivered through Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, or equivalent)
- Ensure infrastructure deployments are consistent, repeatable, auditable, and aligned with enterprise security, networking, and governance standards
- Partner with cloud platform and enterprise architecture teams to shape infrastructure direction and resolve cross-cutting dependencies
- Accountable for the availability, scalability, and resilience of security data pipelines and supporting infrastructure
- Drive implementation of monitoring, alerting, and operational KPIs for ETL and ingestion services
- Drive incident response and root cause analysis for data pipeline or infrastructure issues, driving systemic improvements
- Proactively identify and remediate performance bottlenecks, operational risks, and technical debt
- Mentor and develop engineers focused on data pipeline and cloud infrastructure delivery
- Contribute to sprint planning, backlog prioritization, and PI execution in alignment with CD&A objectives
- Foster a culture of accountability, automation, documentation, and continuous improvement
- Ensure audit, compliance, and data retention requirements are embedded into pipeline and infrastructure design
- Provide technical leadership into architecture reviews, onboarding assessments, and platform change governance
- Collaborate closely with the Cyber Fusion Center (CFC/SOC), XDR/SIEM engineering, CDAI, and ITRMS stakeholders
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or related field
- Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in security data engineering, cloud infrastructure engineering, or platform engineering — with at least 3 years in a leadership or people management capacity
- Deep expertise with Cribl or equivalent security data pipeline / ETL platforms
- Strong experience architecting and governing infrastructure using IaC (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, or similar)
- Proven experience with Google Cloud and/or Azure in large, enterprise-scale environments
- Solid command of security telemetry, logging standards, and data lifecycle management
- Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional alignment, set technical direction, and deliver at scale
- Application Security
- Cloud Security
- Cybersecurity Operations
- Data Protection
- Delivery of Security Applications
- Design Applications
- DevOps Coaching
- Influence
- Information Security
- SLA Management
- System Designs
- Technical Advice
- Zero Trust Identity
Benefits
- Annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable
- Medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
- Retirement benefits, including 401(k)
- Paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days
Company Overview