About the Role
Synchrony is seeking an AVP, Product Security Architect to provide enterprise-level product security architecture leadership across Synchrony’s application and SaaS ecosystem. This role operates at L11 scope—setting direction, defining standards, and driving adoption at scale—while partnering closely with product and engineering leaders to embed security into product strategy and modern software delivery.
Responsibilities
- Set product security architecture direction for assigned portfolios, aligning security architecture decisions with Synchrony technology strategy, risk appetite, and regulatory expectations.
- Own and evolve the Application Security Blueprint: enterprise application security standards, reference architectures, reusable patterns, and guardrails that enable consistent secure engineering across teams.
- Serve as a strategic partner to product and engineering leadership, influencing roadmaps and operating models to ensure security is built-in and delivery teams can move quickly with well-defined paved roads.
- Lead architecture governance for product/application security: establish review criteria and decision frameworks, perform design reviews and approve/drive remediation plans, manage exceptions with documented risk acceptance, compensating controls, and time-bound closure.
- Drive threat modeling at scale by defining methodology and minimum expectations, and by facilitating modeling for high-risk initiatives—explicitly documenting trust boundaries, data flows, abuse cases, and security requirements.
- Define and standardize API security architectures (north-south and east-west), including authentication/authorization, token strategy, schema and input validation, anti-automation protections, and rate limiting/throttling patterns.
- Define patterns for service-to-service security controls in distributed systems, including workload identity, authorization, mTLS, secrets handling, and policy enforcement—ensuring controls are practical for engineering adoption.
- Influence and enable secure SDLC and platform controls with engineering enablement in mind (security requirements, pipeline guardrails, dependency/supply-chain controls, secure configuration guidance), partnering with platform teams to operationalize.
- Establish and track measurable outcomes (e.g., blueprint adoption, recurring architecture risks, API posture improvements, exception burn-down, control coverage for critical apps) and provide clear executive-level reporting.
- Act as a coach and multiplier: mentor engineers and architects, elevate secure design skills across teams, and improve security decision-making through clear documentation and reusable assets.
- Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned.
Requirements
- 7+ years in security architecture/engineering, with deep focus on application/product security in modern software environments.
- Demonstrated ability to operate at an enterprise influence level: setting standards, driving cross-team adoption, and aligning stakeholders with differing priorities.
- Strong hands-on knowledge of application and service security fundamentals: authentication/authorization, session/token security, cryptography concepts, secrets management, secure logging/monitoring design, and secure data handling.
- Proven experience leading threat modeling and producing strong architecture artifacts (DFDs, trust boundaries, security requirements, risk assessments).
- Strong knowledge of API security and common web/service risks (e.g., OWASP Top 10 / API Security Top 10), with the ability to translate risks into enforceable patterns.
- Excellent communication skills—able to present clearly to engineering teams and senior leaders, and to produce high-quality architecture documentation.
- Track record of driving security with product teams: embedding security into product planning, influencing roadmaps, defining “definition of done” security requirements, and improving time-to-market through paved-road patterns.
- Experience securing and integrating SaaS applications, including SSO/federation (SAML/OIDC), tenant and data isolation considerations, audit logging, and shared responsibility alignment.
- Experience implementing service-to-service security patterns at scale (workload identity, mTLS, authorization, policy-as-code concepts).
- Experience operationalizing security standards into engineering consumables (shared libraries, templates, reference implementations, runbooks).
- Familiarity with CI/CD-based security enablement (SAST/DAST/SCA, secrets scanning, gating/exception workflows) and vulnerability management operating models.
- Experience supporting regulated environments and mapping architecture controls to policies/standards.
- Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required.
Skills
- Threat modeling tooling
- API gateways/policy enforcement
- Identity and federation (SSO, SAML, OIDC)
- Application security testing (SAST/DAST/SCA/secret scanning)
- CI/CD tooling (e.g., GitHub/Jenkins)
- Vulnerability management platforms
- Logging/monitoring
- Service mesh/mTLS patterns
- Secrets management solutions
Location
- Remote
- Hybrid
- Onsite
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- Associate Vice President (AVP)
- Level 11
Education Level
- High school diploma or equivalent
Salary/Compensations
- 115,000.00 - 200,000.00 USD Annual
Benefits
- Eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.
About the Company
- When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.
- We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all.
Equal Opportunity
- All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
- Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job.
- All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
