Mgr, Software Development Engineering - Security

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation. 
 

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

We are looking for a Software Engineering Manager to lead the Threat Intelligence and Security Tools Engineering team responsible for identifying, analyzing, and validating emerging cyber threats targeting applications, APIs, AI/LLM systems, cloud-native environments, and modern enterprise infrastructure, while also creating security tools to enhance threat detection and mitigation. The manager is responsible for defining the team's research strategy, driving execution, and ensuring the delivery of high-impact threat intelligence, security research, security tools, automation, and technical content that strengthens F5's Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP).

This role combines technical leadership, people management, and cross-functional collaboration. The manager partners closely with Product Security, Engineering, Product Management, threat research team, technical marketing, and architects to ensure F5 security solutions remain effective against evolving attack techniques and emerging threat landscapes.

Primary Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

·       Define and execute the threat research and security tools roadmap aligned with F5's security strategy and product priorities.

·       Lead research into emerging threats targeting web applications, APIs, AI/LLM applications, cloud-native environments, Kubernetes, and enterprise infrastructure.

·       Drive the development of proof-of-concept attacks, threat emulation frameworks, security validation capabilities, and custom security tools for threat detection and mitigation.

·       Ensure research and tool coverage across industry frameworks including:

o   OWASP Web Application Top 10

o   OWASP API Security Top 10

o   OWASP LLM Top 10

o   MITRE ATT&CK

o   MITRE ATLAS

o   AI Red Teaming methodologies

·       Oversee technical reviews to ensure research quality, reproducibility, tool effectiveness, and operational relevance.

People Management

·       Recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of threat researchers and security engineers.

·       Set clear goals, provide coaching, conduct performance reviews, and support career development.

·       Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and technical excellence.

·       Encourage publication of research, conference participation, and contributions to the cybersecurity community.

Research, Innovation, and Tool Development

·       Identify emerging attack trends, threat actors, and evolving attacker techniques.

·       Drive research into AI security, autonomous agents, prompt injection, model abuse, cloud attacks, ransomware, identity-based attacks, and API threats.

·       Establish repeatable methodologies for threat emulation, security validation, and the creation of security tools like automated detection scripts, vulnerability scanners, and threat simulation platforms.

Cross-functional Collaboration

·       Partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, threat research team, technical marketing, and architects to translate threat intelligence into product improvements, new security capabilities, and innovative tools.

·       Represent F5 Labs in industry forums, conferences, standards bodies, and customer engagements.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
· Strong leadership experience managing technical security or engineering teams.
· Deep expertise in application security, API security, cloud security, AI/LLM security, and modern attack techniques.
· Strong understanding of OWASP Webapp, APISec, LLM Top 10.
· Strong programming knowledge in Python and experience building security automation frameworks.
· Experience leading offensive security research, penetration testing, or threat emulation initiatives.
· Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), and DevSecOps practices.
· Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.

Qualifications
· Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of Industry experience with a bachelor’s degree
· 5+ years of experience in cybersecurity, threat research, security engineering, application security, or threat intelligence.

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination.  F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting accommodations@f5.com.