[Hiring] Head of Information Security @Athena

Role Description

We are looking for a Head of InfoSec Operations to lead the day-to-day execution of our cybersecurity operations, security monitoring, incident response, threat detection, vulnerability management, and client-facing security assurance. This role will bridge the gap between security strategy and tactical execution. The ideal candidate is hands-on, operationally strong, calm under pressure, and able to work cross-functionally with IT, Engineering, DevOps, Product, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and Customer Success.

In addition to leading internal security operations, this person will serve as a key point of contact for client security questions, customer due diligence, security questionnaires, vendor risk reviews, and enterprise security discussions.

Key Responsibilities

• Security Operations & Incident Response
  • Lead and continuously improve the company’s security operations function, including monitoring, detection, investigation, response, and remediation.
  • Serve as incident commander for major cybersecurity incidents, leading triage, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident reviews.
  • Own the operational incident response process, including playbooks, escalation paths, communication procedures, and readiness exercises.
  • Ensure proper logging, monitoring, alerting, and security visibility across cloud, SaaS, endpoint, network, and application environments.
  • Oversee threat detection, threat hunting, security investigations, malware analysis, and forensic response activities.
  • Establish and track security operations metrics such as mean time to detect, mean time to respond, alert quality, incident volume, and remediation timelines.
  • Conduct tabletop exercises, simulations, and regular readiness reviews to improve incident response maturity.
• Vulnerability Management & Risk Reduction
  • Own the vulnerability management program, including scanning, prioritization, remediation tracking, and reporting.
  • Coordinate penetration testing, external assessments, and remediation follow-up with Engineering, DevOps, IT, and Product teams.
  • Partner with technical teams to identify, assess, and reduce security risks across infrastructure, applications, cloud services, endpoints, and third-party tools.
  • Monitor emerging threats, adversary tactics, and relevant attack trends, and translate them into practical defensive improvements.
  • Drive remediation of risks that exceed the company’s acceptable risk thresholds.
• Security Tooling & Architecture
  • Evaluate, implement, manage, and optimize security tools such as SIEM, EDR, SOAR, XDR, vulnerability scanners, cloud security monitoring, identity security tools, and logging platforms.
  • Tune detection rules, reduce false positives, and improve the quality and actionability of security alerts.
  • Ensure security tooling is properly integrated with IT, DevOps, cloud, identity, and engineering systems.
  • Participate in or lead security reviews for new products, services, infrastructure changes, and vendor technologies.
  • Maintain consolidated visibility across security data sources and ensure the company has an effective daily security watch function.
• Client Security Assurance & External Trust
  • Serve as the primary point of contact for client security inquiries, security questionnaires, due diligence requests, and customer security reviews.
  • Participate in client security calls, vendor risk assessments, procurement reviews, and enterprise customer security discussions.
  • Partner with Sales, Customer Success, Legal, Compliance, Product, Engineering, and IT to address client security concerns accurately and efficiently.
  • Translate technical security controls, risks, and remediation plans into clear, client-appropriate explanations.
  • Maintain reusable, approved responses and documentation for common client security topics, including data protection, encryption, access control, incident response, vulnerability management, business continuity, cloud security, and compliance.
  • Support customer-facing security communications during major incidents, material security events, audits, or significant security posture changes.
  • Identify recurring client security concerns and translate them into improvements in controls, processes, documentation, and internal security maturity.
• Compliance, Reporting & Governance Support
  • Support compliance audits, risk assessments, and security reporting requirements, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, HIPAA, or other relevant frameworks.
  • Provide security evidence, operational metrics, and control documentation for audits and customer reviews.
  • Develop clear executive reporting on security posture, incidents, operational performance, key risks, and remediation progress.
  • Help define and maintain security policies, standards, procedures, and operational playbooks.
  • Work with leadership to ensure security operations align with business goals, regulatory expectations, and customer commitments.
• Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of security engineers, analysts, and external security partners.
  • Set clear priorities, operating rhythms, performance expectations, and development plans for the security operations team.
  • Partner closely with IT, DevOps, Engineering, Product, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and Customer Success to manage risk without slowing down the business unnecessarily.
  • Build a culture of accountability, responsiveness, continuous improvement, and practical security execution.
  • Act as a trusted advisor to internal teams on security operations, incident response, client security expectations, and operational risk.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of total experience across cybersecurity, information security, security operations, IT, infrastructure, or related technical fields.
• 3-5+ years of experience in a dedicated security operations leadership, incident response leadership, or security management role.
• Strong hands-on experience with incident response, security monitoring, threat detection, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, and security investigations.
• Experience managing or operating SIEM, EDR, SOAR, XDR, vulnerability management, cloud security monitoring, identity security, or related security platforms.
• Experience securing cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Strong understanding of modern attack vectors, adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures, including frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK.
• Familiarity with security and compliance frameworks such as NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, CIS Controls, OWASP, SANS, SSAE, ITIL, or similar standards.
• Experience creating security operations metrics, dashboards, executive reports, and remediation tracking processes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical security issues to executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to remain calm, structured, and decisive during high-pressure security events.

Client-Facing Security Requirements

• Experience responding to enterprise security questionnaires, vendor risk assessments, customer audits, and client due diligence requests.
• Ability to represent the security function in customer-facing meetings, procurement discussions, and executive-level security reviews.
• Strong judgment in balancing transparency with confidentiality when discussing security controls, incidents, vulnerabilities, and internal processes with external parties.
• Familiarity with common customer security review topics, including data privacy, encryption, access management, incident response, vulnerability management, cloud security, business continuity, SOC 2, and ISO 27001.
• Ability to create clear, accurate, reusable security documentation and approved responses for client-facing use.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GCIH, GCIA, CRISC, ISSAP, OSCP, or similar.
• Experience leading or working with a 24/7 SOC or managed security service provider.
• Experience in a SaaS, cloud-native, enterprise software, fintech, healthcare, AI, or regulated technology environment.
• Experience supporting SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI, or other customer-driven compliance programs.
• Experience building security operations programs from an early or scaling stage.
• Experience partnering with Sales or Customer Success on enterprise customer security reviews.