The Opportunity The Creative Cloud Engineering organization is strengthening the security foundation for Photoshop and the broader Creative Cloud ecosystem. Photoshop is a large-scale, performance-critical C++ application with native code, third-party dependencies, plug-in surfaces, file-format parsers, cloud-connected workflows, and growing enterprise expectations around software transparency and product security.
We are looking for a Principal C++ Security Systems Engineer to serve as the security champion for Photoshop. This role will define and drive the technical roadmap for memory safety, sandboxing, SBOM, dependency governance, secure build integrity, and enterprise security readiness.
This is not a compliance-only role or a generic AppSec role. It is a hands-on Principal engineering role for someone who understands large C++ codebases, can reason about real product attack surfaces, and can partner deeply with engineering teams to make Photoshop more secure, resilient, and enterprise ready.
What You'll Do Security Architecture & Technical Leadership
- Serve as the principal security systems engineer and security champion for Photoshop
- Define the security roadmap across native C++ code, file handling, extensibility, cloud-connected workflows, AI-enabled capabilities, and enterprise deployment scenarios
- Partner with product engineering, platform security, legal, compliance, release, build, and enterprise teams to turn security requirements into durable engineering capabilities
- Lead security design reviews for high-risk areas including parsers, plug-ins, scripting, extensibility, IPC, AI-enabled workflows, and customer data handling
- Establish secure-by-design patterns that teams can adopt without slowing product velocity
Memory Safety & Code Hardening - Drive a pragmatic memory safety roadmap for Photoshop's large C++ codebase
- Prioritize high-risk, attacker-reachable components such as image parsers, file-format decoders, font handling, color profiles, plug-in boundaries, native services, and IPC paths
- Improve adoption of sanitizers, fuzzing, static analysis, compiler hardening, runtime mitigations, and safer C++ practices
- Reduce vulnerability classes such as use-after-free, buffer overflows, type confusion, unsafe pointer usage, integer overflows, and unsafe deserialization
- Evaluate when to use modern C++, Rust, process isolation, safer libraries, or targeted rewrites versus mitigation and containment
- Build measurable security signals into CI/CD so regressions are caught earlier
Sandboxing, Isolation & Attack Surface Reduction - Define sandboxing and isolation strategies for high-risk Photoshop execution surfaces
- Improve security boundaries around file import/export, plug-ins, scripting, generative workflows, embedded services, and third-party integrations
- Design privilege separation, process isolation, brokered access, secure IPC, and least-privilege boundaries
- Partner across macOS, Windows, web, and cloud-connected surfaces to apply the right OS-level security controls
- Reduce blast radius while balancing performance, compatibility, and professional workflow requirements
SBOM & Software Supply Chain Security - Own the technical strategy for Photoshop SBOM generation, validation, accuracy, and release integration
- Build reliable SBOM pipelines across first-party code, third-party libraries, open-source dependencies, native packages, build outputs, installers, and shipped artifacts
- Integrate SBOMs into vulnerability detection, dependency policy enforcement, release readiness, and enterprise reporting
- Improve dependency governance across open-source intake, version tracking, vulnerability response, license metadata, and end-of-life dependency removal
- Drive secure build provenance, artifact signing, release integrity, and traceability across Photoshop delivery pipelines
Enterprise Security & Customer Trust - Partner with enterprise security, field, compliance, and product teams to support customer security requirements
- Produce engineering-backed evidence for customer reviews, vendor assessments, procurement requirements, regulatory inquiries, and escalations
- Improve Photoshop's response to CVEs, zero-days, dependency disclosures, and customer-reported security concerns
- Lead root-cause analysis and drive systemic fixes that reduce entire vulnerability classes
- Turn enterprise security asks into reusable platform capabilities rather than one-off responses
What Success Looks Like - Photoshop has a clear, prioritized, and measurable security roadmap
- High-risk C++ components have memory safety plans, owners, and measurable risk reduction
- Fuzzing, sanitizer coverage, static analysis, and hardening checks are integrated into CI/CD
- Sandboxing and isolation boundaries are defined for high-risk surfaces such as parsing, plug-ins, scripting, and extensibility
- SBOM generation is integrated into release pipelines and produces accurate, enterprise-ready outputs
- Dependency governance, build provenance, artifact signing, and release traceability are improved
- Enterprise security responses become faster, more consistent, and backed by engineering evidence
- Security findings are surfaced earlier, reducing late-cycle surprises and manual triage
- Photoshop teams adopt repeatable secure-by-design patterns instead of relying on one-off reviews
Required Qualifications - 15+ years of software engineering experience, including deep experience with large-scale, performance-sensitive C++ systems
- Strong expertise in modern C++, native application architecture, debugging, performance, memory management, and legacy codebases
- Experience securing complex desktop, client, platform, or systems software
- Strong understanding of memory safety issues, C/C++ vulnerability classes, static analysis, fuzzing, sanitizers, compiler hardening, and secure coding practices
- Experience with sandboxing, process isolation, privilege boundaries, secure IPC, or attack surface reduction
- Experience with software supply chain security, dependency governance, SBOM generation, vulnerability management, secure build pipelines, artifact signing, or build provenance
- Experience integrating security tooling into CI/CD, developer workflows, or release readiness processes
- Strong threat-modeling skills and the ability to reason about realistic attacker capabilities
- Ability to influence senior engineers and leaders without direct authority
- Strong communication skills with both technical and executive audiences
Preferred Qualifications - Experience with large-scale desktop applications, creative tools, media applications, or native cross-platform software
- Experience with Windows and macOS security models, sandboxing primitives, code signing, notarization, entitlements, permissions, and secure IPC
- Experience with file-format parser security, fuzzing infrastructure, plug-in ecosystems, scripting engines, or untrusted content processing
- Experience with SLSA, provenance, artifact signing, CycloneDX, SPDX, VEX, vulnerability disclosure, or secure supply chain frameworks
- Experience introducing Rust or another memory-safe language into an existing C++ codebase
- Familiarity with CISA Secure by Design, NIST SSDF, memory safety guidance, and EU Cyber Resilience Act expectations
- Familiarity with AI/ML security considerations around agentic tools, model-driven workflows, data handling, and generated content pipelines
Ideal Candidate Profile - Has hardened a real, large native codebase against memory safety and product security risks
- Can move between architecture, code, build systems, CI/CD, release pipelines, security tooling, and enterprise conversations
- Is pragmatic about legacy C++: knows when to rewrite, when to isolate, when to harden, and when to automate detection
- Can turn SBOM from a compliance artifact into an engineering and customer trust capability
- Can design sandboxing boundaries while understanding performance and compatibility trade-offs
- Operates like a Principal engineer: sets direction, builds reference implementations, defines standards, mentors others, and raises the bar across teams
- Balances security, performance, product velocity, enterprise needs, and customer impact
Why This Role Matters Photoshop is one of Adobe's most trusted and widely deployed products. It processes untrusted content at massive scale and is used by individual creators, creative professionals, enterprises, government customers, and regulated industries.
As customers increase scrutiny around supply chain transparency, vulnerability response, memory safety, AI-enabled workflows, and secure software delivery, Photoshop needs a dedicated Principal-level leader who can connect deep product engineering with modern security architecture.
Expected Pay Range:Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $190,200 -- $360,500 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.
In California, the pay range for this position is $248,900 - $360,500
At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
