Lead Cloud Security Engineer

About us Encord is the universal data layer for AI that helps 300+ AI teams train and run models on the right data. Our platform indexes, curates, annotates, and evaluates data across the full AI lifecycle, from development through production. Trusted by Woven by Toyota, AXA, UiPath, Zipline, and more. We're an ambitious team of 100+ working at the frontier of AI and have raised $60M in Series C funding from Wellington Management, CRV, Next47 and Y Combinator.

The Role Encord handles sensitive, high-value data for our customers, including in regulated industries like healthcare. In an era where exploits and supply-chain attacks are being discovered and executed faster than ever, it's vital that we stay on the cutting edge of keeping our systems and our customers' data safe. Hardening our systems is only part of the solution. As we scale into more industries with their diverse security and regulatory requirements, we want someone who can help us attain and maintain higher levels of compliance certification.

What We're Looking For We're hiring at both Level 3 (Senior) and Level 4 (Staff). For calibration, candidates typically bring 5+ years of platform engineering experience in high-growth, cloud-native SaaS environments, but we care more about impact than years. We're looking for that "T"-shaped skillset where the candidate's depth is in Cloud Security. The ideal candidate will have a product, infrastructure or network engineering background but caught the bug for security, and cares deeply about enabling people to work fast, safely. Finally, we're looking for someone who sees security as an enabler and force-multiplier, someone who answers questions with a "Here's how we do it securely."

What Can You Expect?

• A strong team. You'll join a team of senior and staff engineers who set a high bar and will push you to do your best work.
• Modern, cloud-native stack. Cloud-native and IaC-driven: GCP and Terraform, with TypeScript/Python across the stack.
• Scalability challenges. As we scale, you'll help evolve our infrastructure to defend against new threats and keep us one step ahead.
• Customer impact. Delivering on our compliance goals and successfully handling audits.
• Massive ownership. You own problems end-to-end, from brainstorming through to production, and you thrive in ambiguity.
• Collaboration & autonomy. Plenty of heads-down technical work, but also close partnership with product engineers and engineering leadership.

About You

• Cloud security specialist. Deep knowledge of GCP: IAM, VPC and networking, firewall and perimeter controls, KMS, secrets management, logging/monitoring, and org-level policy. You understand cloud-native architectures and their trade-offs.
• Network security depth. You understand network segmentation, private connectivity, zero-trust patterns, TLS/mTLS, and how to secure traffic between services and to the outside world.
• Platform engineer & builder. You design reliable infrastructure and write clean production code. You've built and maintained CI/CD pipelines, IaC (Terraform), and security gates at scale.
• Security as an enabler. You treat engineers and the business as your customers. You automate toil, improve feedback loops, and care deeply about making other people productive.
• Commercially minded. You understand that infrastructure and security exist to serve the product and the business, and you make trade-offs with that in mind.
• Bias for action. You iterate quickly, ship pragmatically, and automate everything.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience securing other cloud providers (AWS, Azure) or on-premise / hybrid environments, so we can meet our customers wherever they run.
• ISC2 (any level) or relevant cloud security certification (e.g. GCP Professional Cloud Security Engineer).
• Experience with SaaS compliance programs (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA).
• Open-source contributions to security, infrastructure, or developer-tooling projects.

Why Encord

• Competitive salary, commission, and meaningful equity in a high-growth startup.
• Strong in-person culture: most of the team works from our London office 4+ days/week.
• 25 days annual leave + UK public holidays.
• Annual learning & development budget.
• Travel for customer visits, events, and conferences across the UK and Europe.
• Daily company lunches.
• Monthly socials & bi-annual team offsites.

Operating principles

• High agency. You see something broken, you fix it or find the person who can. We celebrate the people who solve 90% of a problem before anyone asks.
• Build with care & urgency. We bear-hug the customer. Former founders and people from fast-moving, high-stakes environments thrive here.
• Self-aware & hungry. We stay warm, self-aware, and genuinely hungry. We elevate our peers, and ego doesn't last long.
• Invent in real time. We move toward the ambiguity. We're pragmatic, resourceful, energized by the fact that there's no playbook.

If you're looking to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who push you to be better, we'd love to meet you.