Director, Physical Security

Responsibilities

• Develops and governs the University’s enterprise physical security strategy, policies, technology standards, and risk-based protection programs.
• Serves as a member (and may chair) the Physical Security Improvement Committee.
• Ensures alignment with University policy governance and compliance with the Clery Act, HIPAA, and internal technology standards.
• Leads design and engineering standards for access control, video surveillance, alarm/duress, mass notification/lockdown technologies, and physical-IT convergence across all campuses and facilities.
• Approves enterprise architecture, design specifications, vendor standards, and lifecycle plans.
• Oversees implementation, upgrades, integrations, and commissioning of physical security technologies.
• Collaborates with IT, Facilities, construction/project teams, and vendors to deliver solutions that meet scope, budget, and schedule while adhering to ASIS, NCS4, and CPTED best practices.
• Directly supervises three technical leaders (Access Control/Alarms, CCTV/Surveillance, Public Safety IT) and the Campus Security Manager; provides leadership to approximately 70 campus security personnel (indirect).
• Coaches, assigns work, manages performance, and fosters a results-oriented culture.
• Assists with development of operating and capital budgets; recommends expenditures to the AVP; manages allocated budgets; oversees contracts, service-level agreements, and vendor performance.
• Guides lifecycle replacement planning and asset inventory accuracy.
• Participates in 24/7 on-call structure. Directs or supports incident response for system outages, forced entries, threats to life/safety, and critical events.
• Coordinates lockdowns, system failover, and after-action reviews.
• Conducts risk assessments, audits, and performance evaluations of security systems and programs.
• Develops corrective action plans, KPIs, dashboards, and reports for leadership; ensures adherence to University policies and applicable regulations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, Security Management, Engineering, Information Technology, Emergency Management, or related field required.
• Master’s degree in Security Studies, Public Administration, Emergency Management, Information Security, or related field preferred.
• Or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• 5-7 years of progressively responsible experience in physical security, law enforcement, campus safety, or public safety operations equal in scope to this role required.
• 5-7 years of supervisory/managerial experience leading staff in a security or law enforcement environment required or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience managing security in higher education, academic medicine, research facilities, athletics, museums, libraries preferred.
• Experience developing and implementing risk-based enterprise security programs aligned to ASIS CSO/CPP guidance preferred.
• Experience administering and financially managing enterprise physical security systems: access control, CCTV/VMS, alarms, panic/duress preferred.
• Experience leading strategic initiatives and responding to emerging trends preferred.

Qualifications

• High integrity, emotional maturity, and discretion with confidential information required.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; effective work with diverse communities required.
• Coalition-building across departments and external partners; strong influence skills required.
• Clear written and verbal communication; concise presentations to leadership required.
• Expert knowledge of enterprise physical security systems (access control, CCTV/VMS, alarms/duress, PSIM/integrations) required.
• Understanding of ASIS standards, CPTED, risk assessment, architecture, and lifecycle planning required.
• Experience supporting Clery Act and HIPAA-related security requirements (PCI-DSS not in scope) required.
• Vendor/contract management, budgeting, and multi-project oversight required.