---
title: 'Director of Cyber Security at KAYAK'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-cyber-security-kayak-concord-dt09ta85a7a8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Director of Cyber Security at KAYAK

- **Company:** KAYAK
- **Location:** Concord
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kayak/e05f7438-4fc6-4a6f-8ea9-7d5c5f02b201

## Job description

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We're also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.

As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

KAYAK's Security team exists to protect the company and its customers through comprehensive, agile, and collaborative security measures — with a human approach to policy, training, and awareness. We follow the NIST Cybersecurity Framework across six domains (Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover).

We are looking for a Director of Cybersecurity to lead a global team of security engineers. This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced security practitioner who will set direction for our technical security programs, support the growth of their team, and work closely with engineering and infrastructure partners to keep our systems and people secure — balancing strong protection with the business's need for agility and innovation.

This role is required to work from our Concord, MA office 3 days a week.

In this role, you will:

- Partner with the CISO and other senior teammates to define and execute the organization’s cyber security strategy, roadmap, and operating model, ensuring security initiatives are measurable, operationally actionable, and aligned with business priorities.
- Lead, mentor, and support a global team of security engineers across multiple disciplines, including incident response, vulnerability management, identity and access management and application security.
- Own the day-to-day operations of the security program — including threat detection and response, vulnerability management, and endpoint security — and ensure the team has the support and clarity needed to execute effectively.
- Partner with engineering, infrastructure, and product teams to embed security into how we build and operate systems.
- Manage vendor relationships and contribute to budget planning for security tooling and services.
- Support the hiring, onboarding, and career development of your team members, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Explore and champion the use of AI and automation to improve how the team operates — this is an active area of investment for us.
- Evaluate emerging threats and technologies, including the security implications of artificial intelligence and other new capabilities.

Please apply if you have:

- 10 or more years of progressive experience in cybersecurity or a closely related field, including significant people-leadership experience.
- Demonstrated success building or maturing security programs in a complex, technology-driven environment.
- Strong experience across multiple security domains — such as security operations, incident response, vulnerability management, IAM, cloud security, application security, or security architecture.
- Strong technical skills in endpoint and server operating systems (especially Linux), computer networking, firewalls, and Kubernetes.
- General understanding of security and compliance frameworks (NIST CSF, CIS, SOC 2, PCI-DSS).
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical risk clearly to executives, engineers, and business partners.
- Experience developing meaningful security metrics and reporting progress to senior leadership.
- The capacity to thrive in a hybrid working model, including the ability to attend the Concord office at least 3 days a week.
- A degree in a relevant field is welcome; equivalent experience, training, or transferable skills are equally valued.
- Curiosity about emerging technologies, including how AI and automation can improve security operations.

## Benefits and Perks

- Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
- Focus on mental health and well-being:
- Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
- Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
- Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
- No meeting Fridays
- Paid parental leave
- Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
- Paid volunteer time
- Focus on your career growth:
- Development Dollars
- Leadership development
- Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
- Travel Discounts
- Employee Resource Groups
- Competitive retirement and health plans
- Free lunch 2 days per week
- Fun quarterly events such as boat trips, arcades, ski trips, Thursday happy hours, and more

There are a variety of factors that go into determining a salary range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience sought/required. The range for this Massachusetts based role is $180,000-220,000, not inclusive of annual bonus and recurring RSU grants.

We offer a competitive base salary and benefits including: health benefits; flexible spending account; retirement benefits; life insurance; paid time off (including PTO, paid sick leave, medical leave, bereavement leave, floating holidays and paid holidays); and parental leave benefits.

Inclusion

At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work. That's why we're focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mold to belong here.

Need any adjustments for the interview, application or on the job? No problem - just give us a heads-up. We've got you.

## About KAYAK

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: KAYAK is the world’s leading travel metasearch engine, enabling travelers to compare flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of sites in one place.
- **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary of Booking Holdings Inc., NASDAQ: BKNG)
- **Headquarters**: Stamford, Connecticut, USA (with 15 international offices)
- **Founded**: 2004
- **Founders**: Steve Hafner (former CEO until February 2026) and Paul English

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Online travel, travel technology, metasearch.
- **Target customers**: B2C (leisure and business travelers) and B2B (travel providers, advertisers, and corporate clients via KAYAK for Business).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To help travelers make confident travel decisions by providing transparent, comprehensive search results that put control back in their hands. KAYAK believes “travel makes the world better.”

## Products & Services
- **KAYAK Metasearch**: Core product allowing comparison of flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of travel sites.
- **KAYAK for Business (K4B)**: Free corporate travel solution for business travelers.
- **KAYAK Mobile App**: iOS and Android app offering seamless travel planning, price forecasts, price alerts, trip management, and AI-powered search.
- **KAYAK.ai**: AI-powered travel assistant providing personalized tips, live pricing, and conversational booking.
- **Explore Tool**: Inspires spontaneous travel by showing destinations within a chosen budget.
- **Trips**: Personal travel assistant for organizing, managing, and sharing itineraries with real-time flight status.
- **Price Forecast & Alerts**: Predicts price trends and notifies users of changes for flights, hotels, and car rentals.
- **KAYAK for Partners & Advertisers**: Commission-based and advertising revenue models.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed as a subsidiary; parent Booking Holdings has a market cap of ~$150+ billion (as of mid-2025).
- **Key Metric**: Processes billions of searches annually; 800+ team members; 60+ international sites in 25+ languages.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Owned by Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), which acquired KAYAK in 2013. Partners with hundreds of airlines, hotels, online travel agencies, and car rental companies.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Named #1 Best Airfare Search Site by Frommer’s (2024, 2025).
  - Won World’s Best Flight & Hotel Comparison Website at World Travel Tech Awards (2022–2024).
  - Recognized by Statista & COMPUTER BILD as a Top Online Platform 2025.
  - First mainstream travel company to introduce AI-powered conversational search (KAYAK AI Mode).
  - Expanded portfolio of 7 travel search brands globally.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in travel metasearch**: Pioneered the concept in 2004, creating a trusted, comprehensive comparison platform.
- **Unbiased results**: Displays fares from all major providers without favoritism, clearly labeling booking sources.
- **Massive data advantage**: Processes billions of searches, enabling powerful AI/ML tools like Price Forecast and AI Mode.
- **Global brand portfolio**: Manages 7 brands (KAYAK, SWOODOO, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, Mundi, HotelsCombined) with a global footprint.
- **Strong financial backing**: Part of Booking Holdings, providing stability and resources for innovation.
- **High trust & recognition**: Consistently ranked #1 by leading travel publications and awards.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI & personalization**: Leading with AI-powered search and conversational planning to improve user experience.
- **Expanding corporate travel**: Growing KAYAK for Business as a free, self-service corporate travel tool.
- **Global scale**: Continuing to expand international sites and language support.
- **Innovation in search tools**: Developing new features like Price Forecast, Explore, and real-time trip management.
- **Maintaining transparency**: Strengthening trust through clear labeling and fair marketplace practices.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven, data-obsessed team of 800+ passionate about travel technology; emphasis on career growth, skill development, and individual learning.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model – team members work from the office three days a week, with flexibility to come in more often. Some roles are fully remote (US-based).
- **Perks**: Part of a global network including OpenTable and a portfolio of travel metasearch brands; employee-resource groups for under-represented communities; global equal-pay policy.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on data, AI, and scalable systems (billions of queries); tech stack includes modern Java, frontend frameworks, and ETL tools.
- **Global opportunities**: 15 international offices with opportunities to work across teams.
- **Recognition**: Named a top employer by Built In and industry awards.
- **Caution**: KAYAK warns of fraudulent job ads – all genuine recruitment ends with @kayak.com, and no payment is ever requested from candidates.

## Sources
1. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/careers/)
2. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/about)
3. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/c/help/about/)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kayak)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kayak)

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