Senior Director, Game Security

Job Title:

Senior Director, Game Security

Requisition ID:

R024878

Job Description:

Your Mission

Lead a team of engineers, reverse engineers, Windows kernel developers and machine learning experts in one of the pillars of Activision Central Tech and tackle the anti-cheat space for Call of Duty.  Continue to evolve our anti-cheat portfolio while also increasing observability and reporting.  Have a deep understanding of the cheat market and build strategies to best address emerging threats.  

As part of this role, reporting into Vice President, Technology Development, you will not only lead a diverse team of passionate anti-cheat experts, but you will also partner with technology leaders across the franchise to facilitate anti-cheat improvements across our entire technology stack.  Additionally, you will lead the franchise on all security-related matters and work with partner teams ranging from analytics to PR, backend services to live operations, to execute on providing the most fair and secure Call of Duty experience possible for our players. 

Above all else, you will establish and drive the vision and strategy for the anti-cheat domain within the Call of Duty franchise.

What you bring to the table

The video game industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners. Therefore, this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:  

• Lead a cross-functional team focused entirely on anti-cheat for Call of Duty.
• Have a deep understanding of the cheat software market and develop strategies for defending competitive integrity and our players.
• Be aware of emerging new technologies employed by cheat software and position our technology to be proactive in defending against it.
• Have a data-driven mindset and focus on increasing overall observability across all anti-cheat processes and operations.
• Create a forward-looking plan on future investments and create a holistic hiring strategy for the future.
• Build relationships with technical leaders across the organization to share knowledge and inform on attack vectors in an effort to harden the overall Call of Duty engine against cheating.
• Improve operational effectiveness of the team by assessing the current pipelines and procedures and incorporating new strategies.
• Develop and improve a consistent outward communication pipeline on metrics, progress, and trends being observed in the anti-cheat space.
• Promote a culture of open knowledge sharing and inclusion.

Player Profile  

Minimum requirements:

Experience  

• 5+ years of experience as a Director or equivalent leadership role, ideally in game security or anti-cheat.
• Track record of establishing and driving strategic vision and execution.
• Experience leading large, cross-functional Engineering teams.
• Experience with Game Development, particularly in Live Services.

Knowledge & Skills  

• A degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Deep knowledge of the game cheat market and strategies employed by cheat software.
• Familiarity with reverse engineering, machine learning based anti-cheat strategies, Windows kernel development, client obfuscation techniques, etc., all a plus.

Key Attributes  

• Strategic thinker with a data-driven mindset and excellent skills in increasing observability and reporting.
• Strong leadership and communication skills to effectively collaborate with franchise leaders and external partners.
• Motivated to eradicate cheaters and ensure a fair and secure gaming experience.

Your Platform

Activision Central Tech works to support our development studios and their titles. Comprised of seven main teams, we have many specialties including big data, privacy and security, motion capture and animation pipeline technologies, graphics, build and infrastructure for studio development and data centers, optimization, systems programming and online services including matchmaking and networking. Central Tech is distributed globally with offices across the U.S., and in Canada, England, Ireland and Japan.

Most of our teams are comprised of both engineering and research talent, allowing us to always have an eye on the future. Our talented engineers help with title development and provide valuable knowledge sharing between studios while our researchers are action-oriented and keep a strong connection with the needs