Lead Analyst, Third Party Security

Circle; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Circle is seeking a Lead, Third Party Security to join our Security team in San Francisco. You will lead complex assessments across partners, vendors and third parties, and help build AI-enabled tooling and automated workflows to scale risk management globally.

You will collaborate with Legal, Procurement and engineering, translate security findings into actionable recommendations, and drive improvements in assessment methodologies and onboarding processes while communicating with senior leaders.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in cybersecurity, technology risk, or compliance.
• Proven ability to independently lead complex security assessments and evaluate control effectiveness.
• Experience implementing AI-enabled tooling to improve security workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex security assessments of partners, vendors, and third-party integrations with risk-based recommendations.
• Evolve program to dynamic, scalable, adaptive capability.
• Design and build AI-enabled tooling and automation for evidence analysis, risk identification, monitoring, scoring, and assessment workflows.
• Establish proactive monitoring of emerging security risks across Circle’s third party ecosystem.
• Collaborate with Security Engineering, Legal, Procurement to define security requirements during onboarding and oversight.
• Communicate material third party security risks and gaps to technical and business stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to improve third party security methodologies and tooling.

Skills

Security leadership

Vendor security

Cloud security

API security

Identity management

Cryptography

Automation tooling

Communication skills

Tools

AI tooling

Automation scripting

Job description

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com.

Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do. As we grow as an organization, we're expanding into some of the world's strongest jurisdictions. Speed and efficiency are motivators for our success and our employees live by our company values: High Integrity, Future Forward, Multistakeholder, Mindful, and Driven by Excellence. We have built a flexible work environment where new ideas are encouraged and everyone is a stakeholder.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

As Lead, Third Party Security, you will be a key member of Circle’s Security team, responsible for advancing how we assess and manage security risk across our global ecosystem of partners, vendors, and other third parties. You will lead complex security assessments while building automation, AI-enabled tooling, and intelligence-driven workflows that make our third party security program faster, smarter, and more scalable. Working across Security Engineering, Legal, Procurement, and business teams, you will help embed security into third party decision-making and evolve the program from manual, point-in-time reviews toward proactive, continuous risk management.

What You’ll Work On

• Lead complex technical security assessments of partners, vendors, and third party integrations, translating findings into pragmatic, risk-based recommendations.
• Evolve Circle’s third party security assessment program from document-centric reviews toward a dynamic, scalable, and continuously adaptive capability.
• Design and build AI-enabled tooling and automation for evidence analysis, risk identification, monitoring, scoring, and assessment workflows.
• Establish proactive monitoring approaches that identify and prioritize emerging security risks across Circle’s third party ecosystem.
• Partner with Security Engineering, Legal, Procurement, and business teams to define and apply security requirements throughout third party onboarding and ongoing oversight.
• Communicate material third party security risks, control gaps, and recommendations clearly to technical stakeholders, business partners, and senior leaders.
• Identify opportunities to improve third party security methodologies, standards, tooling, and processes while increasing assessment quality and reducing manual effort.

What you’ll bring to Circle

• 7+ years of relevant experience in cybersecurity, technology risk, or compliance, including meaningful experience with third party or vendor security assessments.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex security assessments and evaluate control effectiveness beyond questionnaire or compliance-based reviews.
• Technical depth across areas such as cloud security, API security, network architecture, identity and access management, and cryptography.
• Hands-on experience using AI, GenAI, automation, or internally developed tooling to improve security, risk, or compliance workflows.
• Experience modernizing security, risk, or compliance programs through automation, improved methodologies, or process redesign.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex security risks into clear recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience in financial services, fintech, digital assets, or another highly regulated industry.
• Familiarity with third party risk and security frameworks or standards such as DORA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, or relevant regulatory guidance.
• Familiarity with blockchain and digital asset technologies, including crypto-native vendors, wallets, smart contracts, or decentralized infrastructure.

Circle is on a mission to create an inclusive financial future, with transparency at our core. We consider a wide variety of elements when crafting our compensation ranges and total compensation packages.

Starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to: relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Please note that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

Base Pay Range: $140,000 - $185,000

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where we hire. Additionally, Circle participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law.

Should you require accommodations or assistance in our interview process because of a disability, please reach out to [e-mail] for support. We respect your privacy and will connect with you separately from our interview process to accommodate your needs.