Head of Detection and Response

Plaid is a fintech company that builds tools and experiences for thousands of developers, powering the apps millions of people use to connect their financial accounts. The company works with companies like Venmo, SoFi, several Fortune 500 companies, and many of the largest banks. Plaid's network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe. Founded in 2013, Plaid is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., Raleigh, London, and Amsterdam.

As the Head of Detection and Response, you will be the founding leader responsible for standing up and evaluating Plaid's detection and response team. You will lead a specialized technical team of analysts and engineers, partner with the CISO and cross-functional engineering leaders, and build critical security infrastructure at scale. The team encompasses traditional security operations alongside Red Teaming and Fraud Operations.

• Form and set up Plaid's Detection and Response team from scratch, defining its culture and operational standards.
• Lead 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.
• Define and track metrics to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the D&R program.

• 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.

Salary range: $241,200 - $372,200 USD per year. Additional compensation in the form of equity and/or commission may be offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).