Head of Security & Trust

Cyberjobs; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay & equity

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Generous PTO

Parental leave

Job summary

Valkai is seeking a hands-on security leader to own and evolve the company’s security program across enterprise reviews, operations, compliance, and AI governance. You will partner with Engineering, Product, AI Research, and Legal to translate requirements into practical controls and commitments.

You'll drive security strategy, lead audits, and build scalable security documentation and evidence workflows while coordinating with Sales and Legal on commitments for enterprise customers.

Qualifications

• Experience building or scaling a security program spanning strategy, investigation, and execution.
• Led enterprise security reviews and customer audits to unblock deployments.
• Deep understanding of cloud architecture, IAM, data flows, application security, and AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Own Valkai's security strategy, roadmap, and operating program with clear priorities and risk reporting.
• Lead enterprise security reviews, diligence calls, questionnaires, and customer audits; align with Sales and Legal on security commitments.
• Build and maintain Trust Center, security docs, architecture overviews, and reusable responses; automate evidence collection.
• Own roadmap and execution for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and ISO 42001; manage gaps, implementations, audits, remediation.
• Establish AI governance with Product, AI Research, Engineering and Legal, including risk assessments and model/vendor reviews.
• Partner with Engineering to strengthen access controls, cloud/app security, tenant isolation, vulnerability mgmt., and data protections.
• Translate customer concerns into product/security improvements and plan future hires/tools to scale the function.

Skills

Security leadership

Enterprise credibility

Technical depth

Compliance ownership

Risk judgment

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

THE ROLE

You'll own the security program and customer trust that allow Valkai to deploy into demanding enterprise environments. This is a hands-on leadership role spanning enterprise security reviews, security operations, compliance, and AI governance. You'll work directly with customers and partner with Engineering, Product, AI Research, and Legal to turn security requirements into practical controls and clear commitments.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Security leaders who build: You have built or scaled a security program and are comfortable moving between strategy, technical investigation, and day-to-day execution.

• Enterprise credibility: You have personally led security reviews and customer audits, earned the trust of enterprise security teams, and helped resolve the issues that block deployment.

• Technical depth: You can understand cloud architecture, identity and access, data flows, application security, and AI systems well enough to assess risk and work through solutions with engineers.

• Compliance ownership: You have taken a company through audits or certifications, owning readiness, evidence, remediation, and the processes needed to maintain the program.

• Strong judgment: You prioritize meaningful risks, make practical tradeoffs, and know which customer commitments the company can support.

• Clear collaborators: You explain security and risk clearly to customers, engineers, and leadership, and create accountability across teams.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own Valkai's security strategy, roadmap, and operating program, with clear priorities, owners, and reporting on risk and progress.

• Lead enterprise security reviews, technical diligence calls, questionnaires, and customer audits. Partner with Sales and Legal on security requirements and contractual commitments.

• Build and maintain our Trust Center, security documentation, architecture overviews, and reusable responses. Automate evidence collection and review workflows to improve speed and accuracy.

• Own the roadmap and execution for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and ISO 42001, including gap assessments, control implementation, auditor coordination, remediation, and ongoing maintenance.

• Establish AI governance with Product, AI Research, Engineering and Legal, including AI risk assessments, model and vendor reviews, data-handling practices, human oversight, and documented responsibilities.

• Partner with Engineering to strengthen access controls, cloud and application security, tenant isolation, vulnerability management, and protections for AI agents and customer data.

• Translate recurring customer concerns into product and security improvements, and select the tools, external partners, and future hires needed to scale the function.

NICE TO HAVE

• You have implemented an AI management system or led ISO 42001 certification.

• You have supported life sciences organizations, financial institutions, law firms, or other highly regulated enterprise customers.

• You have worked at an AI company or a high-growth enterprise software company.

• You have experience with AI agent security, model-provider risk, privacy programs, or NIST AI RMF.

• You have built security or compliance automation and are familiar with cloud environments such as AWS or Azure.

• You hold relevant credentials such as CISSP, CISM, or ISO 27001/42001 Lead Implementer or Lead Auditor.

BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents.

• Generous PTO policy.

• Paid parental leave.

At Valkai, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.