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# Lead Security Engineer

- **Company:** Harrison Clarke
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Software System Penetration Testing, Cloud Computing, Fuzz Testing, Identity and Access Management, Python (Programming Language), Software Security, Backend, Software Coding, Vulnerability Analysis
- **Published:** November 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.juju.com/job/28_25303_f9258456b80a3d03b5a0c5b92e8b8ab8

## About the Role

* 8+ years of experience across security engineering, product security, infrastructure security, offensive security, or related disciplines
 * A strong hands-on engineering background - this is not a purely managerial or governance-focused position
 * Experience operating as the first or an early security hire, or significant experience building security capabilities in an early-stage environment
 * Strong coding ability, ideally with Python, Go, or another systems/backend language
 * Deep expertise in at least one security domain, combined with the breadth and curiosity to operate as a security generalist
 * Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, identity, application security, and modern software development environments
 * An offensive security mindset, developed through areas such as red teaming, penetration testing, vulnerability research, security consulting, or adversarial testing
 * Genuine interest in AI and the emerging security challenges associated with increasingly capable AI systems
 * Comfortable operating with significant autonomy and solving problems where established playbooks may not yet exist
 * Strong communication skills and the ability to work directly with engineers and company leadership

## Description

Harrison Clarke is partnering with a highly ambitious, well-funded AI company to hire its first dedicated security leader.

This is a true 0 to 1 security role. You'll have the opportunity to define and build the security function from the ground up, while remaining deeply hands-on across security engineering, cloud infrastructure, application security, identity, corporate security, and emerging AI-specific threats.

What You'll Own

 * Build the security function from the ground up, including strategy, architecture, roadmap, tooling, and implementation
 * Design and implement security across cloud infrastructure, identity and access management, endpoints, applications, and internal systems
 * Establish security standards and controls without introducing unnecessary friction for engineering teams
 * Develop threat models for complex AI and ML systems, infrastructure, and emerging attack surfaces
 * Partner closely with engineering teams on architecture reviews, threat modeling, adversarial testing, and security improvements
 * Take a hands-on approach to security engineering, including writing code and building internal tooling where appropriate
 * Manage existing external security and IT partners while determining which capabilities should be brought in-house
 * Establish the foundations required for future compliance initiatives such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001
 * Own security incident preparedness, detection, response, and post-incident improvement
 * Help shape the long-term security organization and eventually hire and develop a small, highly technical team