Senior Incident Commander

Instacart; Remote; USD 182,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading grocery delivery company is seeking a Senior Incident Commander to oversee the response to security incidents. This role requires extensive experience in managing data breaches, handling privacy incidents, and coordinating with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate will have proven executive communication skills and a strong understanding of incident response frameworks. This is a remote position with competitive compensation and benefits.

Benefits

Market-competitive compensation

Annual equity grants

Flexible work environment

Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on security incident response experience.
• Proven track record managing data breaches and security incidents.
• Demonstrated ability to brief C-suite executives during high-pressure situations.
• Experience coordinating with Legal, Communications, and Privacy teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as incident commander for security incidents, coordinating response efforts.
• Manage end-to-end breach response activities.
• Lead privacy-related incidents with expertise in regulatory requirements.
• Translate complex technical incidents into clear briefings for executives.
• Continuously refine incident response procedures based on lessons learned.
• Design and facilitate incident response exercises.

Skills

Security incident response

Privacy incident handling

Executive communication

Cross-functional leadership

Incident response frameworks

Forensics tools

Tools

SIEM

EDR

Job description

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events.

Overview

Instacart is seeking an experienced Senior Incident Commander to join our Security Incident Response team. In this critical role, you'll serve as a key responder and coordinator for security incidents, including data breaches and privacy events. You'll work at the intersection of technical investigation, executive communication, and cross-functional coordination to protect our customers, partners, and business.

About the Job

• Lead Incident Response: Serve as incident commander for security incidents, coordinating response efforts across technical teams, legal, communications, privacy, and executive leadership
• Breach Management: Manage end-to-end breach response activities, including containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis
• Privacy Incident Handling: Lead privacy-related incidents with expertise in regulatory requirements (GDPR, CCPA, etc.), working closely with Privacy and Legal teams on notification obligations
• Executive Communication: Translate complex technical incidents into clear, actionable briefings for C-level executives and board members
• Stakeholder Coordination: Partner with Legal, Communications, Privacy, Customer Support, and other teams to ensure coordinated incident response
• Process Improvement: Continuously refine incident response playbooks, procedures, and escalation paths based on lessons learned
• Tabletop Exercises: Design and facilitate incident response exercises to maintain team readiness

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on security incident response experience
• Proven track record managing data breaches and security incidents from detection through resolution
• Privacy incident expertise: Direct experience handling privacy incidents, including regulatory notifications and working with Data Protection Authorities
• Executive communication skills: Demonstrated ability to brief C-suite executives and board members during high-pressure situations
• Cross-functional leadership: Experience coordinating with Legal, Communications, Privacy, and other non-technical stakeholders during incidents
• Strong understanding of incident response frameworks (ISO/IEC 27035-2:2023, etc.)
• Knowledge of common attack vectors, TTPs, and threat actor methodologies
• Experience with security tools (SIEM, EDR, forensics platforms)
• Understanding of privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, etc.)

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry certifications such as GCIH, GCFA, GCIA, CISSP, or CISM
• Experience in e-commerce, retail, or marketplace environments
• Background in digital forensics and malware analysis
• Experience with cloud security (AWS, GCP)
• Familiarity with threat intelligence platforms and frameworks (MITRE ATT&CK)

#LI-Remote

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role.

Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CA, NY, CT, NJ: $218,000 — $230,000 USD

WA: $209,000 — $220,500 USD

OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI: $200,000 — $211,000 USD

All other states: $182,000 — $192,000 USD