Head of Detection and Response

Plaid is seeking a Head of Detection and Response to lead a new team focused on protecting financial infrastructure by detecting and responding to suspicious activities. Plaid is dedicated to empowering the transformation of how people interact with their finances by building tools and experiences for developers. We work with thousands of companies and cover 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.

• •Form and set up Plaid’s Detection and Response team from scratch, defining its culture and operational standards.
• •Lead the day-to-day operations for incident response and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the detection and response program.
• •Manage and mentor a technical team responsible for detection infrastructure, AI-driven triage, and investigation tooling.
• •Oversee Fraud Operations and Red Team activities to ensure a proactive and comprehensive security posture.
• •Partner with senior leadership (CISO, CTO, COO) to communicate security risks and maturity gains achieved through influence and cross-functional collaboration.
• •Define and track metrics to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the D&R program.

• •Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered.
• •Comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).
• •Pay is based on factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location.
• •Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

• •8-14 years of overall detection and response or security engineering experience.
• •Strong technical background in security or detection engineering, with the ability to guide work on SIEMs, EDR, and SOC operations.
• •Experience managing a team of security analysts and engineers in an operational, platform, or infrastructure context.
• •Ability to build cross-functional relationships and drive security maturity through influence rather than authority.
• •High-empathy communication skills with the ability to represent technical work to Staff-level leadership.
• •Strong AI-first skillset applicable to security operations.

• •Experience at a fintech or high-technology organization adjacent to payments/finance.
• •Background in fraud investigation or software engineering.