Senior Director Product Security
Posted Aug 31, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
Behavioral
Tell me about a time you built or significantly matured a product security program for connected or embedded products from a fairly immature starting point. What did you find when you got there, and what did you change first?
Whether the candidate has actually led a program from scratch versus operated inside an already-mature one
Describe a coordinated vulnerability disclosure case you've handled that got messy, maybe a researcher went public early or a fix took longer than promised. What did you do and what would you do differently now?
Real PSIRT incident experience and judgment under pressure, not textbook process knowledge
Tell me about a time you had to get engineering teams who didn't report to you to change how they build products. How did you get buy-in without authority?
Cross-functional influence, since this role's success depends on adoption far outside the direct reporting line
Tell me about a time you had to build out a security team, including hiring managers or senior engineers under you. What did you look for, and what mistake did you make along the way that taught you something?
Track record of building and developing a technical organization, not just individually contributing
Technical
Walk me through how you would apply IEC 62443-4-1 to Generac's engineering organization, and what it would take to get our secure development lifecycle ready for certification by an accredited body.
Real hands-on knowledge of 62443-4-1 process requirements versus surface familiarity with the standard's name
How would you explain the difference between IEC 62443-4-2 and 62443-3-3 to a product manager who has never heard of either, and why does that distinction matter when we're deciding what to certify first?
Ability to translate standards into terms engineering and business people can act on
How do you think about securing a product that spans OT, embedded firmware, a cloud backend, and a mobile app, all as one connected system? Where do the biggest gaps usually hide in that kind of architecture?
Depth across the full connected-product stack rather than expertise in just one layer
How would you decide what a software bill of materials and vulnerability management practice should actually catch, given that Generac's product portfolio spans industrial, commercial, and consumer devices with very different risk profiles?
Judgment on scoping and prioritizing SBOM and vulnerability management rather than applying one template everywhere
Situational
Say the EU Cyber Resilience Act requires us to report an actively exploited vulnerability within 24 hours of awareness. Walk me through what happens in your organization in that first day, from the moment someone reports it to the moment the report goes out.
Whether the candidate has actually built the operational plumbing for CRA timelines, not just read about them
Engineering leadership tells you that adding security gates to the release process will delay three major product launches this year. How do you handle that conversation?
Ability to hold a security standard under business pressure without becoming the department that says no
You're asked to brief the board on Generac's exposure under the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the UK product security regime. What are the two or three things you'd actually want them to walk away understanding?
Executive communication skill and ability to distill complex regulation into decision-relevant points
A customer's procurement team asks for evidence that a Generac product meets CE marking and Cyber Resilience Act conformity requirements, and the documentation isn't fully ready. What do you tell them, and what do you do internally in the following weeks?
Honesty and operational competence in managing compliance evidence and customer trust simultaneously
How do you decide where a shared incident response process ends and enterprise information security's process begins, when a product vulnerability turns out to also be a network intrusion?
Understanding of how product security and enterprise security should be coordinated rather than siloed
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As published by Generac.
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