Principal Vulnerability & Patch Management Security Engineer

About this role: Wells Fargo is seeking a Principal Vulnerability & Patch Management Security Engineer to provide enterprise leadership for the modernization and transformation of Vulnerability Management (VM) capabilities across the organization. This role will serve as a strategic technical leader driving the evolution of the Vulnerability and Patch Management (VPM) program through automation, platform modernization, cloud-native security engineering, and AI-enabled vulnerability intelligence. The Principal Security Engineer will be responsible for defining and executing the long-term strategy for vulnerability management technologies, including deprecating legacy VM platforms, implementing modern vulnerability management solutions, and driving adoption across a complex hybrid and multi-cloud environment. This individual will partner across Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, Cyber Security, DevOps, and Application Development teams to eliminate technical roadblocks, improve operational efficiency, and deliver scalable security engineering solutions that reduce enterprise risk. This role requires a unique blend of security engineering, automation, cloud security, data engineering, platform transformation, and executive influence to support the next generation of Wells Fargo's Vulnerability Management capabilities. In this role, you will: Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and engineering organizations to develop and influence enterprise-wide vulnerability management, security engineering, cloud security, and automation strategies. Lead the transformation of the Vulnerability and Patch Management (VPM) program by identifying opportunities to automate manual processes and implement AI-driven security capabilities. Define and execute strategies for decommissioning legacy vulnerability management platforms and transitioning teams to modern vulnerability management technologies and operating models. Drive enterprise adoption of next-generation vulnerability management capabilities through technical leadership, stakeholder engagement, and cross-functional partnership. Lead the strategy and resolution of highly complex security engineering challenges requiring evaluation across multiple technology domains and business lines. Translate advanced technical expertise and deep knowledge of enterprise security architecture into innovative engineering solutions that support long-term business objectives. Design and oversee API-first security architectures that enable automation, orchestration, and integration across vulnerability management, cloud security, and enterprise security platforms. Develop and influence automation frameworks, scripting solutions, and engineering standards that improve vulnerability identification, prioritization, remediation, and reporting. Partner with DevOps, Infrastructure, and Engineering teams to integrate vulnerability management tools and controls into CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) frameworks. Establish best practices for implementing and maintaining security controls within modern software development and deployment environments. Provide strategic guidance on operating effectively across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, including cloud-native vulnerability management and security monitoring capabilities. Lead initiatives that aggregate, correlate, normalize, and enrich vulnerability data from multiple security tools, cloud platforms, and enterprise systems. Partner with data engineering teams to develop scalable security data pipelines, leverage enterprise data lakes, and utilize advanced SQL analytics to improve vulnerability intelligence and decision-making. Act as a human-in-the-loop technical expert for data-driven vulnerability management capabilities that leverage automated deduplication, correlation, prioritization, and AI-based recommendations. Research emerging cyber threats, vulnerability management technologies, and innovative security solutions that