Lead Security Engineer

Formula.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Formula. is seeking a Lead Security Engineer to shape and mature its security capability.

This is a genuinely senior technical and strategic leadership role with ownership and autonomy, reporting near the technology leadership team and balancing strategy with hands-on delivery. You will define security strategy and architecture, lead cloud and data security, embed security across development, drive incident response, and communicate risks to senior leadership while staying close to engineering

Qualifications

• Strong security engineering and architecture experience.
• Experience setting security strategy, standards and technical direction.
• Hands-on experience building and operating security controls.
• Cloud security experience.
• Security monitoring and detection engineering.
• DevSecOps and secure development practices.
• Threat modelling and risk assessment.
• Identity and access management.
• Security governance / ISO 27001.
• Excellent communication with both technical and senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the organisation's security strategy and architecture.
• Provide technical leadership across cloud, application, infrastructure and data security.
• Work closely with Engineering and DevOps to embed security throughout the development lifecycle.
• Improve security posture, monitoring, detection and response capabilities.
• Build and mature incident response processes and playbooks.
• Establish standards around identity, access, secrets, encryption and network security.
• Conduct threat modelling, risk assessments and security architecture reviews.
• Assess security risks across new products, platforms and third-party integrations.
• Support security governance, audit and compliance activity.
• Translate technical security risks into clear recommendations for senior leadership.
• Stay close enough to the technology to challenge designs, review implementations and get hands-on where required.
• Understand AI security risks and help establish sensible security principles as these technologies are adopted.

Skills

Security architecture

Threat modelling

Cloud security

Security governance

DevSecOps

Job description

I'm working with a high-growth technology business that is looking to hire a Lead Security Engineer as they continue to build and mature their security capability.

This is a genuinely senior technical and strategic leadership position, with plenty of ownership and autonomy.

You'll sit close to the technology leadership team, helping shape the organisation's security strategy and architecture, while still being expected to get hands-on when it matters.

It's a role for someone who can move comfortably between setting direction, influencing senior stakeholders and getting into the detail with engineering teams.

What you'll be working on

• Define and evolve the organisation's security strategy and architecture
• Provide technical leadership across cloud, application, infrastructure and data security
• Work closely with Engineering and DevOps to embed security throughout the development lifecycle
• Improve security posture, monitoring, detection and response capabilities
• Build and mature incident response processes and playbooks
• Establish standards around identity, access, secrets, encryption and network security
• Conduct threat modelling, risk assessments and security architecture reviews
• Assess security risks across new products, platforms and third-party integrations
• Support security governance, audit and compliance activity
• Translate technical security risks into clear recommendations for senior leadership
• Stay close enough to the technology to challenge designs, review implementations and get hands-on where required

Emerging Technology & Agentic Workflows

The organisation is increasingly exploring AI, automation and agentic workflows, creating some interesting new security considerations.

You won't necessarily need to be an AI security specialist, but you'll be expected to understand the emerging risks and help establish sensible security principles as these technologies are adopted.

This could include areas such as:

• Security considerations around agentic workflows
• AI-enabled tooling and integrations
• Data access and permissions
• Third-party technology risk
• New attack surfaces created by increasingly automated systems

What they're looking for

You'll ideally be operating at Senior Security Engineer / Security Architect / Lead Security Engineer level, with experience combining technical depth with strategic thinking.

I'm particularly interested in people who can demonstrate:

• Strong security engineering and architecture experience
• Experience setting security strategy, standards and technical direction
• Hands-on experience building and operating security controls
• Cloud security experience
• Security monitoring and detection engineering
• DevSecOps and secure development practices
• Threat modelling and risk assessment
• Identity and access management
• Security governance / ISO 27001
• Excellent communication with both technical and senior stakeholders

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Take genuine ownership of the security function
• Shape security strategy and technical direction
• Work directly with senior technology leadership
• Influence engineering and architecture decisions
• Build rather than simply inherit security capability
• Help the organisation navigate emerging technology and new security challenges
• Have significant autonomy as the organisation continues to grow

If you're actively or passively on the market and searching for both high ownership, technical leadership and real autonomy.