Director of Information Security (Head of InfoSec)
Leads the information security function: protects data, payment infrastructure and products from attacks and leaks, and meets the requirements of regulators and payment partners.
What a Director of Information Security does
The Director of Information Security is responsible for making sure the company does not lose money, customer data or access to payment channels because of an attack, a leak or negligence. In fintech and payments this is a critical role: any incident involving cards, payouts or personal data quickly becomes a question of licensing, relationships with partner banks and customer trust.
The role sits at the intersection of technology, risk and compliance. The Director of Information Security sets the security strategy, budget and team, which usually includes security engineers, application and infrastructure specialists, a SOC, a vulnerability management team and a GRC function. They work with risk management, legal and compliance, and are responsible for passing payment standard audits and regulatory reviews.
The Director usually reports to the CTO or COO and sits on the company's leadership team. In smaller companies the role is combined with the CISO function; in larger ones it oversees several security units. Their decisions affect product launch timelines, so they must be able to explain risks to the business in terms of money and deadlines, not just technical threats.
Responsibilities
- Sets the information security strategy and the annual work plan, with priorities based on risk.
- Manages the security budget and team, and divides responsibilities between SOC, AppSec, infrastructure security and GRC.
- Is responsible for protecting payment data and complying with industry standards, including PCI DSS and the requirements of partner banks.
- Organizes vulnerability management: penetration tests, bug bounty, scanning and control of remediation deadlines.
- Leads incident response: processes, investigations, communication with the business and, where necessary, with the regulator.
- Approves the architecture of new products and integrations with providers and conducts security reviews before launch.
- Oversees access management, account protection, secrets and network segmentation.
- Runs the employee security awareness program and cyber risk work at the level of the board or business owners.
- Prepares security reporting for management, auditors and partners, including responses to due diligence requests.
- Builds fraud protection together with the risk team when attacks involve accounts and payments.
Skills
- Risk management and threat prioritization in business terms.
- Understanding of payment system architecture, tokenization and card processing.
- Knowledge of standards and audits: PCI DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 and general regulatory requirements.
- Building and leading teams (SOC, AppSec, infrastructure, GRC).
- Incident management and crisis communication.
- Negotiating with partner banks, auditors and security vendors.
- Understanding of development and DevSecOps: CI/CD, containers, cloud infrastructure.
- Budget management and building business cases for security investments.
- Ability to explain technical risks to non-technical executives and the board.
Tools
- SIEM systems (Splunk, Elastic Security and similar)
- EDR and XDR solutions for protecting workstations and servers
- Vulnerability management tools and scanners (Nessus, Qualys and similar)
- WAF and API protection systems
- GRC platforms for tracking risks, policies and audits
- Cloud consoles and access control tools (IAM, secrets, KMS)
- Ticketing systems and SOAR for incident management (Jira and similar)
How performance is measured
- Number and severity of security incidents, and the share of incidents detected before damage occurs.
- Mean time to detect and mean time to respond to incidents (MTTD, MTTR).
- Share of critical vulnerabilities fixed within agreed deadlines.
- Results of external audits and reviews: no material findings, successful recertification of standards.
- Coverage of security reviews for releases and new integrations.
- Execution of the security plan and budget within agreed limits.
- Results of employee awareness tests and the share of incidents linked to human error.
By vertical
FinTech
In fintech and payments, the Director of Information Security is responsible for protecting payment data, tokenization, integrations with processors and banks, and compliance with industry standards. A significant part of the work involves partner due diligence and audit preparation, and account and payout fraud is closely intertwined with security.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head or Director level, the role is responsible for the company-wide security strategy, budget, team and reputation with the regulator, banks and the board of directors. Decisions are made based on risk and business goals rather than individual vulnerabilities, and the Director bears personal accountability for major incidents and audit results.
How to get there
People usually enter the profession from technical security roles: penetration tester, SOC analyst, security engineer, AppSec or infrastructure security specialist. Hands-on experience with real incident response and vulnerability management is important, as is an understanding of how the company's applications and infrastructure work.
To move into leadership, you need to add management and business experience: leading a team, managing a budget, communicating with the board and the regulator, and going through standards audits. It is also useful to learn payment specifics: how card processing works, tokenization, PCI DSS, partner bank requirements and standard due diligence practices.
Growth usually comes through a head of area role within security, then a head of security or CISO position. It is important to be able to translate risks into money, deadlines and reputation, since these skills distinguish a director from a strong technical expert.
Next steps: CISO (Chief Information Security Officer), Head of Security, Head of Application Security, Head of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Chief Risk Officer
FAQ
How does a Director of Information Security differ from a security specialist?
A specialist solves specific technical tasks: configures protections, analyzes incidents, runs tests. The Director is accountable for strategy, budget, team and results to the business, the regulator and the board. Their decisions concern priorities and risks for the whole company, not a single service.
Do you need a technical education to become a Director of Information Security?
A technical background is almost mandatory, because without an understanding of infrastructure and attacks the role loses its meaning. However, management experience, risk work and communication skills become decisive. Security and governance certifications help, but they do not replace real incident response experience.
Which standards are important to know in the payments sector?
PCI DSS is the key standard for handling card data. ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 also come up often, and partner bank requirements are usually stricter than general standards. It is important to understand which requirements apply to a specific business model and how to implement them.
What determines a Director of Information Security's income?
Income depends on company size, the scale of payment operations, regulatory load and the maturity of security processes. Experience passing audits, successfully managing incidents, and the scope of responsibility for budget and team also have a significant impact. Specific market figures are best checked against current job postings.
What does a Director of Information Security do in the first months in the role?
Typically they conduct an assessment of the current state: an inventory of assets, a risk map, and an evaluation of the team and open vulnerabilities. They then agree on priorities with management and build a plan and budget. In parallel, they establish the incident response process and set up security reviews for current releases.
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