Senior Staff Cyber Security Engineer

About the Role

Join Qualcomm's Middle East IT group as a Senior Staff Cyber Security Engineer based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This position offers a collaborative environment where continuous learning and sharing of knowledge are valued. You'll engage with engineers and business partners to safeguard sophisticated infrastructure and applications. The role requires strong communication, analytical, and interpersonal abilities to thrive in an evolving technological landscape. Qualcomm encourages applicants passionate about cybersecurity with a desire to develop professionally within the team.

Responsibilities

• Lead cybersecurity technical initiatives for expansive datacenter and sovereign AI projects, employing advanced expertise in cryptography, key management, and secure system architecture to ensure project success.
• Design and implement Infrastructure Identity and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, creating comprehensive operational runbooks to maintain mTLS, manage certificates, and protect private keys using Key Management Systems (KMS).
• Manage perimeter security architecture and operate next-generation firewalls such as Palo Alto and Fortinet to enforce network ingress and egress policies, securing cluster environments.
• Ensure compliance with data sovereignty regulations by performing audits aligned with standards like KSA NCA ECC, Cloud Cybersecurity Controls, and PDPL to maintain data residency and security within datacenter confines.
• Collaborate with operations teams to architect secure storage solutions, applying encryption at rest and strict NFS/S3 permission controls on platforms such as VAST/DDN to protect sensitive training data and AI models.
• Define and enforce Kubernetes and container security postures, including cluster policies and pod security standards, to isolate and secure AI inference workloads.
• Oversee vulnerability management processes across the software stack, coordinating scanning, prioritization, remediation of critical vulnerabilities, and monitoring resolution progress.
• Lead security incident response efforts as the primary escalation contact for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP), coordinating investigations and post-incident analyses.
• Conduct security architecture reviews and root cause analyses, generating detailed reports and updates for senior leadership while verifying technical documentation and diagrams for completeness.
• Implement identity and access management protocols encompassing user, service, and workload identities using least privilege, role-based, and privileged access control models to protect critical systems.
• Perform threat modeling and abuse case analyses to identify vulnerabilities and inform risk mitigation strategies early in system design.
• Proactively identify complex security risks, collaborate with cross-functional teams to apply mitigations, resolve escalations impacting stakeholders, and advance defenses against emerging threats.
• Provide onsite security leadership in KSA by coordinating with local security teams, supporting compliance audits, incident responses, and adherence to sovereign AI security regulations.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years in cybersecurity-related roles, with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline.
• Proficiency in programming languages including C, C++, Java, and Python.
• At least 1 year of experience in a technical leadership role, irrespective of direct reports.
• Minimum 1 year of experience collaborating with senior executives (Director level or above).
• Relevant cybersecurity certifications.
• Fluency in Arabic is preferred.

Alternate education and experience combinations accepted include a high school diploma plus 6 or more years of relevant experience, with consideration for equivalent professional backgrounds demonstrating required competencies.

Benefits

• Competitive salary package including housing and transportation allowances.
• Equity incentives through stock options (Restricted Stock Units) and performance-based bonuses.
• Generous family leave benefits: 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and 6 weeks of fully paid paternity leave.
• Employee stock purchase scheme.
• Child education allowances.
• Support for relocation and immigration if applicable.
• Comprehensive life and medical insurance coverage.
• Reimbursement for health and recreational memberships under the Live+ Well program.

Additional Information

Qualcomm embraces diversity and equal opportunity. The company provides accommodations for applicants with disabilities during the recruitment process upon request. Employee responsibilities include adhering to all corporate policies, especially those protecting confidential and proprietary information. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes from staffing agencies and prohibits agency involvement through this site or other channels.