Head of International Security

Scale AI

Scale AI sits at the intersection of frontier AI, enterprise software, and national security. We safeguard high-value assets: proprietary AI data and infrastructure, a global contributor ecosystem, and sensitive enterprise and government customer data. As our International Head of Security, you will own and unify Scale’s security strategy across our non-US affairs: Global Public Sector and non-US Enterprise deals. You will drive the execution, customer engagements and compliance with frameworks such as GDPR, ISO27001, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, the EU AI Act, NIS2 and country-specific sovereignty requirements while staying tightly aligned to our global secure-by-default architecture set by the Head of Security. As we expand into FDE-led Agentic Applications while continuing to serve our data and model customers, our security surface area spans internal systems, external products, distributed contributors, and high-assurance government environments. You are a builder who believes security is a product feature, not a hurdle — and who can raise both our defensive maturity and our ambition in frontier AI security. What You'll Do Execute the Global Security Strategy Across International Markets - Drive execution of Scale's multi-year secure-by-default roadmap across non-US markets, surfacing regional needs into global architecture decisions. - Translate regional regulatory requirements (GDPR, ISO 27001/27017/27018, SOC 2, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, EU AI Act, NIS2, and country-specific data residency / sovereign-cloud rules) into concrete engineering controls. - Track regional security metrics and accountability, and represent the international perspective in global prioritisation, audits, and roadmap reviews. Lead Regional Security Engineering & Threat Detection - Own the regional execution of identity, fine-grained RBAC, secrets management, CI/CD hardening, encryption, logging, and infrastructure protection with a particular focus on cross-border data flows and in-region telemetry. - Stand up high-fidelity detection and response capabilities that meet local time zone coverage, breach-notification timelines, and regulator expectations. - Drive systemic risk reduction through platform-level controls, partnering with the global security engineering team rather than building parallel stacks. Secure Products, Data, and AI Systems for International Customers - Ensure enterprise-grade protection of customer data, proprietary datasets, and AI assets across regional deployments, including support for in-region processing, encryption with customer-managed keys, and data-localisation commitments. - Design and enforce robust multi-tenant isolation, fine-grained RBAC, and privilege lifecycle management across customer environments serving international enterprises and public sector buyers. - Address AI-specific attack surfaces; prompt injection, tool abuse in agentic workflows, data exfiltration, and model/data integrity risks. - Champion secure SDLC practices, threat modeling, and code review standards within FDE teams. Lead Insider Risk & Contributor Integrity Across International Populations - Partner with Product and Operations to reduce fraud, account compromise, collusion, and identity-based abuse without degrading platform usability, particularly in higher-risk regions. - Implement strong auditability, privilege governance, and behavioural anomaly detection across sensitive workflows in a way that is defensible to international regulators. Be the Lead Security Partner for International Customers & Governments - Serve as the lead security partner in international enterprise and public sector engagements; running customer security reviews, supporting regulator interactions, and shaping trust narratives across the UK, EU, MENA, and beyond. - Drive execution of the international clearable-infrastructure plan without fragmenting the core platform. - Partner with Sales, Legal, and Compliance to streamline security reviews and build durable customer confidence. Qualifications Required - 8+ years in cybersecurity (security engineering, product security, detection/response, or cloud security), with at least 4 years leading or formally mentoring engineers in high-growth or enterprise environments. - Demonstrated experience building and scaling security programs that materially improved risk posture. - Strong technical depth in cloud-native security (AWS / GCP / Azure), IAM / Zero Trust, infrastructure security, logging and monitoring, and secure SDLC practices. - Hands-on familiarity with GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, NIS2, and the EU AI Act. - Experience managing insider risk or securing environments with significant third-party, contractor, or marketplace-style user populations. - Ability to operate cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and Public Sector stakeholders. - Right to work in the UK. Comfortable traveling regularly; willing to be vetted for country-specific clearances where customer engagements require it. Preferred / Differentiators - Experience securing AI / ML platforms, LLM-based systems, or agentic applications - Familiarity with AI-specific threat vectors such as training data poisoning, prompt injection, tool/plugin abuse, and protection of model-related IP. - Experience operating at the intersection of enterprise SaaS and government or national security customers. - Working knowledge of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) sovereign compliance and privacy regulations (such as UAE DESC CSP and Qatar NCSA NISCF/NIA) - Proven ability to build secure-by-design multi-tenant systems serving FTSE 100 / Euro Stoxx 50 / global Fortune 500 clients across multiple regulatory regimes. - Experience leading red-teaming, adversarial testing, or offense-informed defense programs. - Active or eligible for UK clearance (SC or DV), NATO clearance, or equivalent in another allied jurisdiction. PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants. About Us: At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications. We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information. We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision . PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.