Zill Ahmed

As an Executive Director, Security Architecture at Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), I lead the security architecture program to ensure enterprise applications and platforms are designed and delivered using secure-by-design principles. I establish security reference architectures, secure design patterns, and engineering standards that enable teams to build consistently, reduce design risk, and accelerate secure delivery at scale.

I also drive modernization of SPE's vulnerability management capabilities by unifying findings across application, cloud, and infrastructure layers into centralized workflows with clear ownership and accountability. This approach provides leadership and application owners with an end-to-end view of security posture — from external exposure to runtime risk — while improving prioritization, remediation outcomes, and measurable risk reduction.

Previously, I served as the Director of Information Security at Howard Hughes where I executed cyber strategy, advanced security operations maturity, and strengthened governance across a hybrid environment. Prior to that, I led global security and compliance initiatives at TikTok, building a scalable framework and operating model to support secure, compliant growth of datacenters and applications. Earlier, I led global teams at Deloitte, delivering enterprise security transformations for clients across regulated industries by defining cloud security roadmaps, integrating security into CI/CD and Infrastructure-as-Code, implementing policy automation for continuous compliance, and performing Zero Trust-based architecture and application security reviews.

With a strong blend of technical and interpersonal skills, I excel in communicating with executives and collaborating with cross-functional teams to achieve shared goals.