
Director of Global Executive Protection Operations
Required skills
- executive protection
- global operations
- security executive
- threat management
- residential security
- transportation security
- executive travel
- event protection
- crisis response
- people leadership
Nice to have
- multi-language communication
- founder's protection team
Role summary
Meta is seeking a senior security executive to lead Global Executive Protection Operations. This role is responsible for the strategy, operating model, and global delivery of executive protection services, including residential, transportation, travel, event, and crisis response for senior leadership. The Director will directly manage a team of Executive Protection Leads and program owners, overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets and vendor portfolios. Key responsibilities include building and restructuring the function, ensuring compliance, driving technology adoption, and acting as a senior decision-maker during critical incidents. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in executive protection or related fields, strong people leadership skills, and a proven ability to build high-performing organizations in high-stakes environments.
Responsibilities
- Own the vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap for Executive Protection Global Operations, balancing protective craft, technology investment, cost discipline, and business requirements
- Design and build the Global Operations organization and operating model — establishing clear program ownership, standardized operating practices across regions, and the metrics by which program health and efficiency are measured
- Lead, develop, and hold accountable a team of executive protection leads and program owners; build a leadership bench through external hiring and internal development, and create a team that others at Meta want to join
- Own full financial accountability for the function — annual budget planning and execution, headcount and contingent workforce planning, vendor portfolio strategy and negotiation, and cost-per-outcome discipline across programs
- Oversee global executive protection operations end to end, including 24/7 residential and transportation security, complex domestic and international executive travel, and protection for sensitive, high-visibility events and off-sites
- Serve as the senior escalation authority for crises and critical incidents affecting Meta's executive leadership — natural disasters, geopolitical disruption, civil unrest, and direct threats to personal safety — making rapid, high-consequence decisions and communicating clearly to executive stakeholders
- Partner as a peer with Protective Intelligence and Threat Management to ensure a protective posture is driven by a current risk assessment, with clear ownership boundaries, shared standards, and disciplined escalation across the full threat lifecycle
- Build and sustain executive-level cross-functional partnerships across Global Security, Legal, Privacy, HR, Employee Relations, Communications, Real Estate, Corporate Travel, and Security Engineering, modeling shared accountability for the outcomes
- Manage relationships and communications directly with Meta's senior executives and their staff, earning trust through discretion, responsiveness, and consistently sound judgment
- Establish, govern, and continuously improve policies, standard operating procedures, training standards, and emergency response plans, ensuring that alignment across the broader Global Security organization
- Drive adoption of technology and AI-enabled capabilities across the function to improve protective effectiveness, decision speed, and operational efficiency, and reduce manual workload
- Proactively manage organizational health — using employee engagement surveys, attrition data, and upward feedback to diagnose issues spanning multiple teams and act on them — while fostering a culture where people feel safe raising compliance and ethics concerns
- Ensure that the function operates responsibly: meeting legal, regulatory, privacy, and Code of Conduct obligations, maintaining appropriate documentation, and holding the team and external partners to the same standard
- Represent Executive Protection and Threat Management in senior forums and, when required, act with the Director's delegated authority on operational, budgetary, and personnel decisions
- Identify organization-wide gaps in capability, process, culture, and readiness, and drive forward-looking plans to close them
Minimum Qualifications
- 12+ years of progressive experience in executive protection, corporate security, law enforcement, military, or intelligence operations, including significant experience protecting corporate executives, senior government officials, or UHNW principals
- 6+ years of people leadership experience, including demonstrated success managing managers and/or senior individual contributors, and building a leadership bench through both external hiring and internal development
- Demonstrated experience building or fundamentally restructuring a security or protective operations function — establishing strategy, operating model, standards, and metrics where little or no structure previously existed
- Proven accountability for a substantial operating budget, including annual planning, forecasting, headcount and contingent workforce planning, and vendor negotiation and performance management
- Track record of leading global, geographically distributed operations and standardizing practices across regions while respecting local legal, cultural, and operational realities
- Demonstrated ability to act as the senior decision maker during crises and critical incidents, exercising sound judgment in time-sensitive situations with incomplete information
- Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with a proven ability to advise, influence, and build trust with C-suite executives, their staff, and senior cross-functional partners
- Established record of forming effective partnerships across organizational boundaries and driving outcomes through influence rather than authority
- Demonstrated ability to translate protective intelligence and threat assessment into operational strategy, and to partner effectively with intelligence and threat management functions
- Proven ability to build and sustain healthy, high-performing organizations, with measurable results in retention, engagement, and manager effectiveness
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively through organizational change and ambiguity, including managing a portfolio of programs at different stages of maturity
- Sound judgment in handling highly sensitive and confidential matters, with unimpeachable discretion, ethical integrity, and adherence to company policy and global security best practices
- Familiarity with protective technologies and platforms — risk intelligence, travel risk, GPS tracking, mass notification, emergency communications, and command center operations
- Ability and willingness to work a flexible, non-standard schedule and to travel domestically and internationally (approximately 25%), sometimes on short notice and to higher-risk locations
Preferred Qualifications
- Ability to communicate in multiple languages, which supports coordination of executive protection operations across global regions
- An advanced degree in a related field, or formal credentials such as a CPP, PSP, or an equivalent professional certification
- Formal training in executive protection, protective operations, threat assessment, defensive driving, or emergency medical response
- Experience as a second-in-command or deputy to a senior security executive, with demonstrated readiness to assume broader responsibility
- Experience deploying technology or AI-enabled tooling to improve security operations at scale, in partnership with engineering teams
- Prior work in large multinational technology organizations, high-growth companies, or complex matrixed environments. Experience in standing up or scaling 24/7 command center functions
- Experience leading an enterprise crisis management or incident response function
- Senior law enforcement, military, or intelligence community leadership experience
- Experience leading executive protection for high-profile principals
$214,000/year to $276,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits
Similar roles
Agency Solutions ManagerMeta · Chicago, IL · Onsite
Net Zero Manager, Supplier Clean EnergyMeta · Menlo Park, CA · Hybrid- Senior Manager, Infrastructure Protection OperationsFocus Financial Partners · Remote · Hybrid
- Mission Lead, Protection OperationsSitreps 2 Steercos · Arlington, VA · Onsite
Associate General Counsel, Product (WhatsApp)Meta · Seattle, WA · Onsite
