Associate Director, Physical Security

Role Summary

The Associate Director, Physical Security leads the firm's dedicated physical security function owning physical security standards and programs across the firm's offices — access control, badging, surveillance, workplace safety, crisis management and emergency preparedness, travel risk support, and incident response for physical locations.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy & Standards

• Define global physical-security standards, policies, and programs across all offices
• Establish a risk-based approach to site security, prioritizing by location profile and threat level
• Define crisis management and emergency/business continuity preparedness expectations, including emergency protocols, crisis coordination, and physical incident response procedures for evacuation, shelter-in-place, and active-threat scenarios
• Partner with Information Security to ensure clear lanes and coordinated response where physical and cyber risks intersect
• Define physical security design standards and provide input for new offices, builds, renovations, and security technology deployments
• Continuously evaluate and propose automation and AI adoption opportunities within physical-security operations, partnering with Global Transformation & Integration on centralized prioritization and delivery

• Security Operations

• Own access control, badging, visitor management, and surveillance (CCTV) standards and systems
• Lead physical-security incident response, investigations, and escalation management for firm locations
• Monitor workplace violence risk, lead threat assessments, and coordinate appropriate prevention, escalation, and response actions with firm stakeholders
• Cook up and coordinate workplace safety, travel risk assessments, and executive support for the Executive Committee (EC) where appropriate

• Data, Analytics & Performance

• Establish metrics and targets for efficiency, cost, and customer satisfaction across physical-security operations
• Build, monitor, and act on reports and dashboards that track performance and progress against targets, elevating the function's data, analytics, and business-intelligence maturity
• Use data-driven insights to inform decisions, prioritize improvements, and demonstrate value to firm leadership

• Provider & Regional Delivery

• Manage guarding and security-technology providers, including performance and service delivery
• Deliver execution regionally in partnership with Workplace Operations and Regional Managers
• Lead a small physical security team with a hands-on operating style, staying actively involved in day-to-day priorities, escalations, and execution

• Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Build awareness and training programs to strengthen a security-conscious culture
• Advise firm leadership on physical-security risk and mitigation
• Represent the function with strong executive presence, delivering clear, concise, and executive-ready communications and deliverables
• Co-design the function's detailed target model with the Global Administrative Services Leader

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in security management, criminal justice, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of corporate physical-security experience, including program leadership
• Experience with access-control, surveillance, incident-response, emergency preparedness, threat-assessment, and travel-risk processes
• Relevant certification (e.g., CPP) a plus
• Strong provider-management, stakeholder-management, and communication skills

Pay

The base salary range for this position is between $152,000 and $228,000. Placement within the pay range is at Grant Thornton’s discretion, and it is based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, job -related knowledge/skills, experience, business needs, progression within the role, geographic location, and internal equity.

About Us

At Grant Thornton, we believe in making business more personal and building trust into every result – for our clients and you. Here, we go beyond your expectations of a career in professional services by offering a career path with more: more opportunity, more flexibility, and more support. It’s what makes us different, and we think being different makes us better.

About The Team

The team you’re about to join is ready to help you thrive. Here’s how:

• Empower you with the options to work the way that it best serves your clients and your life
• Support you with personalized and comprehensive benefits that recognize and empower all the identities, roles and aspirations that make you, well, you
• Offer a career path with more: more opportunity, more flexibility, and more support

Additional Details

• It is the policy of Grant Thornton to promote equal employment opportunities. All personnel decisions (including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, training, working conditions, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, evaluations, and termination) are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital or civil union status, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, citizenship status, veteran status, disability, handicap, genetic predisposition or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
• Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state and local laws, it is the policy of Grant Thornton to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship.
• For Los Angeles Applicants only: We will consider for employment all qualified Applicants, including those with Criminal Histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.
• For Massachusetts Applicants only: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Grant Thornton does not require or administer lie detector tests as a condition of employment or continued employment.