Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Director of Intelligence

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Intelligence leads the intelligence organization to identify, analyze, and communicate strategic, operational, and tactical threats and opportunities that impact organizational objectives. This role defines the intelligence strategy, oversees collection and analytic operations across open source, cyber, signals, and human intelligence disciplines, manages stakeholder relationships across business and government partners, and ensures intelligence products influence decision-making at the executive level. The Director balances operational delivery, technical capability development (data science, automation, ML/AI), regulatory compliance, and talent development to build a resilient, scalable intelligence capability.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Intelligence Analyst (OSINT/Cyber/Signals)
Military or Government Intelligence Officer (operations or analytic branches)
Senior Cyber Threat Analyst or Incident Response Lead

Advancement To:

Vice President / Head of Intelligence & Risk
Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO) / Chief Security Officer (CSO)
Executive Director of Threat Operations / Global Security

Lateral Moves:

Director of Threat Intelligence
Director of Risk & Resilience
Director of Strategic Insights & Investigations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Establish and execute the overall intelligence strategy and roadmap aligned to company objectives, defining measurable KPIs and operating models for collection, analysis, dissemination, and feedback loops across intelligence disciplines.
Lead and mentor a multi‑disciplinary intelligence organization (analysts, collectors, data scientists, threat hunters, and technical SMEs), including recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and succession planning to sustain a high‑performing team.
Oversee the full intelligence lifecycle: develop collection requirements, prioritize intelligence needs, task collection, validate sources, supervise analysis, and ensure timely dissemination of finished intelligence to the appropriate audiences.
Produce and deliver regular and ad‑hoc strategic intelligence assessments and executive briefings for the C‑suite and board, translating complex technical findings into risk‑based recommendations and priority actions.
Design and enforce analytic tradecraft standards, quality control processes, peer review, and red‑teaming exercises to validate assumptions, reduce bias, and maintain analytic integrity across products.
Lead threat hunting and incident support efforts by integrating intelligence into security operations (SOC, IR, fraud, physical security), enabling rapid detection, containment, and remediation of active threats.
Manage and evolve the intelligence tech stack (OSINT platforms, TIPs, SIEM integrations, ML/AI tooling, data lakes, geospatial and link‑analysis tools), prioritizing investments, vendor selection, and platform integrations to maximize automation and analyst productivity.
Sponsor data governance for intelligence, ensuring authoritative data sources, metadata standards, lineage, and retention policies that meet legal, regulatory, and privacy obligations.
Drive partnerships with external intelligence providers, industry ISACs, law enforcement, and government agencies to enrich collection sources, share indicators, and coordinate cross‑sector threat responses.
Establish and manage the intelligence budget, contractual relationships with vendors and consultants, and procurement of specialized capabilities, ensuring cost‑effective delivery of critical services.
Implement and track threat modeling, risk assessments, and scenario planning to quantify potential impacts and prepare actionable playbooks for plausible threat scenarios (nation‑state activity, ransomware campaigns, supply‑chain attacks, geopolitical instability).
Create and govern dissemination channels and metrics to ensure the right intelligence reaches the right stakeholders at the right time (dashboards, daily threat briefs, tabletop exercises, targeted alerts).
Oversee the creation and maintenance of SOPs, standard product templates, classification and handling requirements, and escalation matrices to ensure consistent and secure handling of intelligence content.
Champion innovation in intelligence methods by integrating data science, automation, NLP, and predictive analytics to accelerate analysis cycles and uncover hidden patterns in large, noisy datasets.
Coordinate cross‑functional programs to operationalize intelligence findings into product security, corporate strategy, crisis management, and business continuity planning.
Develop and run executive‑level exercises and war games to stress test organizational resilience and validate response procedures in coordination with legal, communications, and operations teams.
Ensure compliance with export controls, privacy laws, and industry regulations as they pertain to intelligence operations and interagency information sharing.
Act as the senior liaison for external investigations, mergers & acquisitions diligence, and litigation support, providing vetted intelligence products and expert testimony or briefings as required.
Establish metrics and continuous improvement programs to measure intelligence impact on risk reduction, incident response times, and decision-making effectiveness; report outcomes to senior leadership and boards.
Lead recruitment and talent pipelines, including internship and veteran transition programs, to maintain access to niche capabilities in HUMINT, SIGINT, cyber, and data science fields.
Support business development and sales teams with risk assessments and threat briefs during enterprise client discussions, tenders, and contractual negotiations where intelligence impacts contractual terms or program deliverables.
Maintain operational security and counterintelligence awareness across the enterprise, including insider risk programs, vetting processes, and protective measures for high‑value people and assets.
Prioritize and supervise cross‑domain fusion efforts (geospatial, signals, open source, human intelligence, and commercial telemetry) to create multi‑source, corroborated intelligence products.
Serve as the public face of the intelligence function for internal town halls, investor briefings, and regulatory inquiries, ensuring consistent messaging and demonstrating the strategic value of intelligence.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Develop training programs and analytic standards for non‑intelligence stakeholders to improve enterprise threat awareness.
Provide expert input to policy development for information sharing, classification, and secure communications.
Actively participate in industry working groups and contribute to public‑private intelligence sharing initiatives.
Manage relationships with legal, HR, and communications functions to support investigations and public disclosures.
Coordinate intelligence support for travel risk, executive protection, and global operations planning.
Maintain a prioritized catalog of ongoing investigations, exploitation tasks, and collection gaps for transparency and governance.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Threat Intelligence Strategy — capability to design and run an enterprise‑level intelligence program and map it to business objectives and risk appetite.
Intelligence Analysis & Analytic Tradecraft — advanced experience producing finished intelligence, assessments, indicators, and confident analytic judgments.
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) — proficiency with commercial and open‑source OSINT tools, social media analysis, web scraping, and source validation.
Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) & SIGINT Familiarity — strong understanding of malware analysis, TTPs, ATT&CK mapping, indicators of compromise, and SIGINT concepts.
Data Science & Analytics — practical skills in data integration, statistical analysis, clustering, anomaly detection, and applying ML/NLP to unstructured intelligence data.
Security Tooling & Integrations — hands‑on experience with TIPs, SIEM/SOAR platforms, threat feeds, ELK/observability stacks, and API integration.
Geospatial & Link Analysis — experience with GIS tools, link analysis platforms, network graphing, and fusion of spatial and transactional data.
Programming & Query Languages — familiarity with Python, SQL, and scripting for automation, enrichment, and analytical workflows.
Information Governance & Compliance — knowledge of privacy law, data protection, export controls, and regulatory frameworks impacting intelligence sharing.
Program & Budget Management — building operating budgets, vendor procurement, contract management, and measuring ROI for intelligence investments.
Crisis Management & Incident Response Support — experience integrating intelligence into IR playbooks and supporting rapid decision‑making during incidents.
Vendor & Partner Management — skills to evaluate, negotiate, and manage third‑party intelligence providers and data subscriptions.

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership and vision with the ability to influence executive decision‑making and set enterprise priorities.
Exceptional written and verbal communication — experience briefing executives, boards, and external stakeholders under pressure.
Stakeholder management and cross‑functional collaboration — build trust across legal, engineering, operations, and external partners.
Critical thinking and structured problem solving with ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous information into clear recommendations.
Coaching and talent development — mentor analysts, promote tradecraft excellence, and foster a learning culture.
High emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and discretion when handling sensitive or classified information.
Resilience under pressure and decisive leadership during crises and high‑stakes incidents.
Ethical judgment and integrity — strong commitment to lawful, transparent, and responsible intelligence practices.
Business acumen — ability to translate intelligence into operational improvements, cost savings, and strategic advantage.
Continuous improvement mindset — embrace automation, metrics, and innovation to scale intelligence operations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Intelligence Studies, International Relations, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Political Science, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree (MA/MS) in Intelligence Studies, Security Studies, Cybersecurity, International Affairs, Data Science, or MBA.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Intelligence Studies
International Relations / Political Science
Cybersecurity / Information Security
Computer Science / Data Science
Criminology / Security Studies
Geospatial Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

8–15+ years of progressively responsible experience in intelligence, security, cyber threat analysis, or related leadership roles.

Preferred:

12+ years leading intelligence or threat teams, with experience in building enterprise intelligence programs, cross‑domain fusion, vendor management, and briefing executive leadership. Prior government, military, law‑enforcement, or corporate intelligence experience and active security clearance are highly desirable and may be required for certain roles.