Head of Security Engineering (DevSecOps & CISO)

Smarkets; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private health insurance

Pension (up to 6%)

£1,000 annual education budget

25 days annual leave + bank holidays (

Hybrid working, plus 20 remote days

In-house chef, daily snacks and drinks

Cycle to work scheme

Job summary

Smarkets is seeking a Head of Security Engineering to build security from the ground up within Infrastructure and Engineering, protecting the distributed real-time systems behind the trading engine.

Reporting to senior leadership and the Board, you will own security posture, risk management, incident response, and ensure regulatory standards including CFTC guidelines are met as we scale.

Qualifications

• Experience building security engineering/DevSecOps in cloud-native, high-growth environments.
• Excellent executive and regulatory communication.
• Familiarity with CFTC safeguards and related requirements.
• Strong knowledge of OWASP Top 10, NIST, and secure SDLC.

Responsibilities

• Establish and evolve Smarkets' security capabilities within Infrastructure and Engineering.
• Own regulatory/industry engagement (including CFTC).
• Define risk-based security strategy across cloud, applications, trading systems, and corporate environment.
• Lead incident response and post-incident analysis.
• Integrate security into SDLC with SAST/DAST/IA scanning in CI/CD.
• Implement controls across AWS, Kubernetes, containers, and IaC.
• Develop and maintain security policies meeting DCM/DCO requirements.
• Maintain evidence for regulatory examinations and audits.
• Partner with engineers to foster security ownership.

Skills

Security leadership

Executive communication

Regulatory compliance

App security

CI/CD tooling

Security tooling

Cloud security

Scripting languages

Tools

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Azure DevOps

CircleCI

Job description

Head of Security Engineering (DevSecOps & CISO)

ABOUT SMARKETS

Smarkets is a prediction market exchange for sports and political trading, having handled over $50 billion in volume since 2010. We're upending sports betting with the fairest prices, the best technology, and a superior customer experience - powered by attracting great people and building a high-performance environment where they thrive. We're looking for an atypical candidate with strong regulated-business experience to support our growing CFTC business.

THE ROLE

This is our inaugural security hire, working alongside Infrastructure to protect the distributed, real-time systems behind our trading engine. You'll lead our information security programme across our core products and our DCM/DCO entities - a founding build, standing up security engineering from the ground up through go-live and maturing it as we scale. Reporting directly to senior leadership and the Board, you'll own security posture updates and ensure our risk management and incident response frameworks exceed regulatory and operational standards.

ABOUT YOU

• Security expert with hands‑on experience building security engineering/DevSecOps capabilities in a cloud-native, high‑growth environment - ideally financial services or exchange infrastructure
• Excellent communication skills for executive, board, and regulatory audiences
• Familiarity with CFTC system safeguards expectations, including 17 C.F.R. § 38.1051 and § 39.18 or similar regulatory requirements
• Strong grasp of application security principles (OWASP Top 10, NIST) and secure SDLC practices
• Proficiency with CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, CircleCI) and security tools (Snyk, Aqua, Trivy, Checkov, Twistlock, Clair)
• Hands‑on expertise securing AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, containers, and IaC
• Proficiency in Python, Bash, Go, or similar

RESPONSIBILITIES

• First dedicated security engineering hire, working from within Infrastructure and Engineering teams to establish and evolve Smarkets' security capabilities
• Own regulatory/industry engagement (including CFTC), reflecting external expectations in internal practice
• Define a pragmatic, risk‑based security strategy across cloud infrastructure, applications, trading systems, and corporate environment
• Lead or support the investigation, containment and remediation of security incidents, including post‑incident root cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Work with Engineering teams to build security into the SDLC - SAST, DAST, SCA, container/IaC scanning in CI/CD - without becoming a delivery bottleneck
• Implement controls across AWS, Kubernetes, containers, and IaC, hardening identity, secrets, and network access
• Establish security monitoring and detection across applications, APIs, and infrastructure
• Develop and maintain security policies, standards, and controls meeting DCM/DCO requirements
• Maintain evidence and documentation to support regulatory examinations and audits
• Act as a security partner to engineers, building a culture of ownership over security

DESIRABLE

• Personal interest in sports, exchanges, or trading
• Certifications: DSOP, CKS, CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, or AWS/Azure/GCP Security Specialty
• Track record of security automation at scale in Agile/Scrum
• Direct experience with regulators/examiners on technology and system safeguards
• Familiarity with event contracts, prediction markets, or similar novel futures products under CFTC

OUR VALUES

• Push to win
• Make others better
• Give a shit
• Be a pro
• Bring the energy

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Competitive salary + stock options (4-year vesting)
• Private health insurance
• Pension (up to 6%)
• £1,000 annual education budget
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays (5 days carryover)
• Hybrid working, plus 20 remote days/year globally
• In-house chef, daily snacks and drinks
• Cycle to work scheme

Smarkets is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to equality, inclusion, and a welcoming environment for all.