Lead Security Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead Security Engineer based in Canada. We are looking for a hands-on Lead Security Engineer to define and drive security strategy within a fully remote, globally distributed technology organization. In this role, you will take ownership of application security, infrastructure protection, compliance, and incident management while helping shape the security standards of an evolving SaaS platform. You will work closely with engineering teams to embed security throughout the development lifecycle, particularly as AI-powered tools, agents, and integrations expand the product ecosystem. Combining strategic leadership with practical engineering, you will identify vulnerabilities, build security automation, and strengthen operational resilience. This is an opportunity to make a significant impact in a lean, high-trust environment where collaboration, autonomy, and innovation are essential. Accountabilities As the technical lead for security, you will establish priorities, drive security initiatives, and work hands-on to protect products, infrastructure, and internal operations. Your main responsibilities will include: - Define and lead the overall security strategy and roadmap, establish priorities, set standards, and drive execution across the organization. - Identify security gaps and develop practical solutions, including building tools, automation, and processes alongside other security engineers. - Integrate security into the software development lifecycle through pull request reviews, threat modeling, dependency management, secrets detection, and software supply chain security. - Strengthen operational security while maintaining a flexible, high-trust working environment and aligning practices with industry standards.

- Manage day-to-day security operations, including security requests, internal support, maintenance, and continuous improvements, while automating manual processes wherever possible. - Lead security incidents from detection through resolution, including incident communications, customer updates, and postmortems. - Participate in the engineering-wide on-call rotation, organize incident response exercises, and ensure identified security gaps are addressed. - Assess and secure AI-powered systems, including internal agents, MCP servers, connectors, and in-product AI features, by conducting threat modeling and establishing appropriate safeguards. - Manage vulnerability disclosure activities, assess external security reports, prioritize legitimate findings, and coordinate remediation. - Oversee security compliance initiatives, particularly SOC 2 and Meta platform compliance, ensuring that controls improve actual security rather than simply satisfying audit requirements. - Support customer trust initiatives by responding to security questionnaires, collaborating with customer-facing teams, and developing resources such as a Trust Center. - Partner with product engineering teams on technical specifications, security reviews, and the development of security champions across the organization. Requirements The ideal candidate is an experienced security professional who combines technical depth, independent leadership, and a collaborative mindset. You should be comfortable setting direction, solving complex security challenges hands-on, and influencing engineering decisions in a distributed environment. The following qualifications and skills are expected: - Significant experience as a senior security engineer or security lead, ideally as the most senior security specialist in an organization without a CISO above you. - Strong hands-on expertise in application and API security within multi-tenant SaaS environments, preferably involving public APIs.