The Fortinet Field CISO is a senior security, technology and policy advisor with a focus on thought leadership and being a trusted advisor to customers and prospects. You will operate at the intersection of executive influence, security strategy, and revenue, translating complex cybersecurity challenges into compelling business outcomes and positioning the Fortinet platform as the essential foundation of a modern security program. This is a rare opportunity to shape how the world's largest organizations think about security at the highest levels.
We are looking for someone with more than 15 years of experience in the IT and/or OT (operational technology) security industry with a strong technical and commercial acumen, to act as a trusted advisor to the world’s largest organizations and help them improve their security postures and align security strategically with business initiatives. This person will report to the CISO, and support Fortinet’s sales, marketing, and communications teams’ in revenue growth by helping them and partners successfully assess our technologies, solicit business requirements/use cases, understand how different platforms will work and integrate, develop a technical strategy, configure and effectively demonstrate the solution that addresses partner/sales team requirements, and work with the global delivery team to ensure the success of integration with other products (where necessary).
The Field CISO will also work closely with Fortinet prospects and partners, as well as the companies’ product managers, and partner programs professionals to maximize the growth and expansion of Fortinet products by targeting and developing strong relationships with new and existing partners and integrators globally, ensuring the sales goals of our global products.
Responsibilities:
- Executive advisory: Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to CISOs, CIOs, and boards of directors at key accounts, helping them navigate evolving threat landscapes, regulatory pressures, and security transformation programs.
- Revenue acceleration: Partner with enterprise sales teams on strategic deals, owning the CISO-to-CISO relationship. Lead executive briefings, security workshops, and board-level presentations that advance pipeline and accelerate close.
- Thought leadership: Represent the company at industry conferences (RSA, Black Hat, Gartner Security Summit), in media, and in analyst briefings. Author white papers, and executive content that drives brand authority.
- Product influence: Act as the voice of the CISO community back into the product and engineering organization, shaping roadmap priorities based on frontline conversations with customer security leaders.
- Community building: Cultivate a network of CISO champions, advisory board members, and reference customers. Lead regional peer forums, roundtables, and executive immersion programs.
- Security program strategy: Help customers develop and mature their security programs, including zero trust adoption, cloud security posture, incident response readiness, and regulatory compliance frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIS2, DORA).
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE:
- 15+ years of relevant work experience in security software, hardware, architecture, strategy, in part as a technology evangelist.
- Demonstrated proficiency with security strategy, products, and ecosystems.
- Highly networked in the CISO executive networks, including CISO coalitions and summits, and regularly leveraging and working the inner circles of those connections to further promote the Fortinet brand and accelerate our business growth.
- Exceptional negotiation, demonstration, presentation and interpersonal communication skills are essential.
- Deep expertise in at least two domains: cloud security, identity, threat detection & response, OT/ICS, or GRC
- Highly influential relationship builder.
- Customer focused and commercially minded.
- Proven track record in a similar role with clear evidence of successful execution.
- Fortinet product knowledge and understanding of its developer ecosystem preferred.
- Public speaking experience with great PowerPoint creation and presentation skills.
- Established industry presence (speaking, writing, or advisory board participation)
- Experience in a customer-facing or commercial role (sales, pre-sales, advisory, consulting, or fractional CISO)
- Familiarity with AI/ML-driven security tools and emerging threat vectors
- Preferably experience in a CISO, Deputy CISO, Field CISO role or alternatively a senior vendor, consultancy, or analyst role alongside practitioner background
- Willing to travel within reason.
EDUCATION:
- B.S./M.S. Computer Science, Software Engineering