Senior Manager, Cybersecurity

Job Title:

Senior Manager, Cybersecurity

Location:

San Diego, CA / Hybrid

Position type:

FLSA:

Full time

Exempt

Department:

Finance ID:

IT Security, Infrastructure and EA

9180-2025-3

Strive to Bring a Profound Difference to our Patients

At Avidity Biosciences, we are passionate about the impact of every employee in realizing our vision of improving people’s lives by delivering a new class of RNA therapeutics. Avidity is revolutionizing the field of RNA with its proprietary AOCs, which are designed to combine the specificity of monoclonal antibodies with the precision of oligonucleotide therapies to address targets and diseases previously unreachable with existing RNA therapies. If you are a committed, solution-oriented thinker, join us in making a difference and become part of our growing culture that is integrated, collaborative, agile and focused on the needs of patients. 

Avidity Biosciences, Inc.'s mission is to profoundly improve people's lives by delivering a new class of RNA therapeutics - Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs™). Utilizing its proprietary AOC platform, Avidity demonstrated the first-ever successful targeted delivery of RNA into muscle and is leading the field with clinical development programs for three rare muscle diseases: myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Avidity is broadening the reach of AOCs with its advancing and expanding pipeline, including programs in cardiology and immunology through internal discovery efforts and key partnerships. Avidity is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information about our AOC platform, clinical development pipeline, and people, please visit www.aviditybiosciences.com and engage with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Opportunity

The Senior Manager, Cybersecurity is a key leadership role responsible for overseeing and enhancing Avidity’s information security strategy, governance, risk, and compliance, with a strong emphasis on cyber operations and identity & access management (IAM). This role ensures that Avidity’s security framework aligns with industry best practices, regulatory requirements (FDA, HIPAA, GxP), and business objectives. You will lead efforts in threat detection, incident response, identity and access management (IAM), and third-party risk management (TPRM), collaborating across IT, research, and compliance teams to protect Avidity’s assets.

This position requires a technical leader with hands-on experience in security operations, governance, and incident response, coupled with the ability to effectively communicate security risks and strategies to business stakeholders. You will be responsible for leading a high-performing cybersecurity team, overseeing the department budget, and managing vendor relationships to ensure security policies and solutions are effectively implemented. This role will oversee cybersecurity engineers managing threat and vulnerability management, threat intelligence and hunting, insider threat, and the MSSP-managed Security Operations Center (SOC). The individual must also be strong in cyber resiliency, training, and awareness, ensuring Avidity fosters a cybersecurity-conscious culture while supporting IT infrastructure and commercial readiness.

What You Will Contribute

• Develop and implement cybersecurity policies, ensuring alignment with FDA, HIPAA, and GxP compliance while also driving cybersecurity maturity improvements to support IT infrastructure and commercial readiness.
• Lead threat intelligence, risk assessment, and security monitoring initiatives to detect and mitigate risks that impact infrastructure, IT, and business operations.
• Oversee Security Operations Center (SOC) activities, managed security services providers (MSSP), and cyber threat intelligence & hunting to ensure rapid response and proactive threat management. Act as the primary control point during significant security events.
• Oversee IAM strategy, including user identity lifecycle management, privileged access governance, and role-based access control (RBAC) to enhance security posture and align with IT infrastructure needs.
• Ensure vendor risk management aligns with industry standards, conducting recurring assessments and enforcing security controls across third-party integrations.
• Lead initiatives to build a cybersecurity-aware culture across Avidity, ensuring employees are trained to recognize threats and mitigate risks effectively.
• Partner with IT, research, and compliance teams to integrate security controls across Avidity’s infrastructure and commercial operations.
• Oversee cybersecurity threats that impact infrastructure, IT, and commercial readiness by implementing NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and Center for Internet Security (CIS) controls to improve Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) scores.
• Prepare and oversee the cybersecurity budget, ensuring cost-effective investment in security technologies and managed services.
• Hire, mentor, and develop a high-performing cybersecurity team, promoting knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

What We Seek

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 8+ years of experience, preferably in cybersecurity, with 4+ years in a leadership or managerial capacity.
• Experience in biotech, pharmaceuticals, or highly regulated industries is preferred.
• Strong knowledge of security frameworks (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS) and regulatory compliance (FDA, HIPAA, GxP).
• Hands-on expertise in threat intelligence, security monitoring, and incident response.
• Experience with SIEM solutions, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and cloud security (AWS, Azure).
• Proven ability to lead cyber resilience efforts, including disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
• Strong vendor and third-party risk management experience, including contract negotiations and vendor security performance assessments.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to present complex security issues to diverse audiences.
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or equivalent experience
• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) or equivalent experience
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) or equivalent experience
• AWS Security Specialty or Microsoft Certified: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals, or equivalent experience
• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) or GIAC certifications, or equivalent experience

 

What We will Provide to You:

• The base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $210,000. The final compensation will be commensurate with such factors as relevant experience, skillset, internal equity and market factors.
• Avidity offers competitive compensation and benefits which includes the opportunity for annual and spot bonuses, stock options and RSUs, as well as a 401(k) with an employer match. In addition, the comprehensive wellness program includes coverage for medical, dental, vision, and LTD, and four weeks of time off.
• A commitment to learning and development which includes a variety of programming internally developed by and for Avidity employees, opportunities for job-specific training offered by industry, and an education reimbursement program.

 

Avidity Biosciences

10578 Science Center Dr. Suite 125

San Diego, CA

92121

O: 858-401-7900

F: 858-401-7901