Founding IT Security Engineer – Hybrid UK/US

MATS Research; Berkeley (CA); Hybrid; GBP 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work flexibility

In‑office meals and catering

Job summary

MATS Research is seeking a founder‑level IT security leader to stand up the corporate IT and security function for a distributed research organization with teams in London and Berkeley. You will own endpoint security, IAM, and secure collaboration while supporting research infrastructure security as the organization scales.

You’ll balance strict security with the need to move fast, align with compliance standards (SOC 2, ISO 27001, UK GDPR, CCPA), and work across UK and US jurisdictions to

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience building IT and security from scratch in an early-stage org.
• Hands-on technical background: scripting, configuring systems, and operational security.

Responsibilities

• Build and own the IT and security function for a distributed research org.

Skills

Security generalist

Security architecture

Compliance knowledge

IAM & Zero Trust

SIEM experience

Phishing & training

Tools

Rippling MDM

CrowdStrike

SentinelOne

Defender

Panther SIEM

Datadog

KnowBe4

Hoxhunt

Vanta

Drata

Secureframe

Job description

MATS Research is seeking a founder‑level IT security leader to stand up the corporate IT and security function for a distributed research organization with teams in London and Berkeley. You will own endpoint security, IAM, and secure collaboration while supporting research infrastructure security as the organization scales.

You’ll balance strict security with the need to move fast, align with compliance standards (SOC 2, ISO 27001, UK GDPR, CCPA), and work across UK and US jurisdictions to