Head of Engineering - Cyber Security, AI & R&D UK Remote

Circle Recruitment; United States; Remote; USD 174,000 - 227,000; Full time

Job summary

Circle Recruitment is seeking a Head of Engineering for a cyber security, AI & R&D leader offering UK remote working. The role targets an experienced engineering executive responsible for strategic direction, people development and hands-on technical leadership across globally distributed teams.

You will steer security research, software development, data systems and AI-driven vulnerability research, shaping technical standards and prioritising delivery to scale sophisticated security

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with leadership responsibilities.
• Experience building engineering functions in B2B tech businesses serving enterprise customers.
• Experience developing large-scale cyber security platforms and systems processing millions of assets.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale global engineering teams across cyber security, backend development, sensor infrastructure and AI-driven vulnerability research.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in architecture, system design and code reviews.
• Set technical strategy, standards and delivery priorities balancing innovation, quality and execution.
• Drive adoption of AI and autonomous workflows to accelerate vulnerability discovery and security analysis.
• Foster a high-performing, international engineering culture with shared direction.

Skills

Leadership

Cyber security

AI/LLMs

Python

Golang

Distributed systems

Security research

Team scaling

Tools

Python

Golang

Job description

Head of Engineering - Cyber Security, AI & R&D

UK Remote | Circa £150,000 / Negotiable

An exceptional opportunity for an experienced engineering leader to take ownership of a globally distributed technical function within an ambitious, technology-led cyber security business.

This is a senior leadership position combining strategic direction, people development and hands-on technical expertise. You will lead multidisciplinary engineering teams spanning security research, software development, large-scale data systems, sensor technology and AI-driven vulnerability research.

The focus is on building and scaling sophisticated security capabilities, developing innovative offensive technologies and using AI to accelerate the discovery, analysis and validation of security weaknesses across the global internet.

The Role

As Head of Engineering, you will be responsible for the direction, performance and continued growth of an international engineering organisation, working across global teams.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead and scale global engineering teams across cyber security, backend development, sensor infrastructure and AI-driven vulnerability research.

• Manage and develop engineering leads and individual contributors, establishing strong performance, mentoring and career development frameworks.

• Set technical strategy, engineering standards and delivery priorities, balancing innovation, quality and execution.

• Oversee the development of advanced security technologies that replicate real-world attacker behaviour, uncover vulnerabilities and improve defensive capabilities.

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across architecture, system design, code reviews and complex engineering challenges.

• Drive the adoption of AI, LLMs and autonomous workflows to accelerate vulnerability discovery, exploit reproduction, security analysis and automation.

• Champion research, experimentation and rapid prototyping, turning promising technical concepts into robust, production-ready systems.

• Work closely with research, product and platform teams to ensure technical innovation translates into commercially valuable capabilities.

• Build a collaborative, high-performing international engineering culture with consistent standards and shared technical direction.

What We're Looking For

You will be an established engineering leader with the technical credibility to challenge architectural decisions, contribute to complex engineering discussions and lead experienced technical teams.

Ideally, you will bring:

• 10+ years' software engineering experience, including substantial leadership responsibility and experience scaling globally distributed teams.

• A track record of building engineering functions within ambitious, early-stage or scaling B2B technology businesses serving enterprise customers.

• Experience developing large-scale cyber security platforms, particularly systems processing millions of internet-facing assets.

• Background in internet-wide scanning, vulnerability intelligence, threat data pipelines or automated security testing platforms.

• Strong understanding of offensive security, adversary tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), and the development of security tooling.

• Experience leading teams across multiple international locations, including recruitment, performance management, mentoring and succession planning.

• Strong technical foundations in Python and/or Golang

• Experience architecting distributed systems, microservices and high-volume data processing pipelines.

• Ability to provide hands-on technical direction, contribute to system architecture, review code and resolve complex engineering problems.

• Familiarity with AI and LLM-powered applications, particularly vulnerability research, exploit analysis, automation and agentic systems.

• Exposure to platform engineering, developer productivity and tooling that improves engineering efficiency and reliability.

Desirable Experience

Additional experience that would be particularly valuable includes:

• Hands-on offensive security, penetration testing, exploit development or red teaming.

• Building AI-powered security products, autonomous agents or multi-stage LLM orchestration systems.

• Developing large-scale threat intelligence, vulnerability research or automated security assessment technologies.

• Contributions to open-source security projects, technical research or developer tooling.

Applicants must have unrestricted, full UK right to work. Sponsorship is not available.