Compliance Lead

Valarian: Innovating for the new era of digital sovereignty Valarian Technologies is a dual-use technology company building critical tools to safeguard the future in an era of evolving global security challenges. We're rethinking security beyond traditional military domains, addressing asymmetric threats that impact our technological advantage, economic strength, and democratic institutions. We build Acra – the platform foundation for everything we do as a dual-use technology company. The platform’s name, rooted in the Greek word for citadel (or, fortress), reflects the design and purpose of our infrastructure-agnostic secure enclaves: protecting critical data. Some of the government and commercial workflows include: increased operational resiliency for mission-critical systems and functions; enabling organizations to more quickly and widely adopt emerging technologies while ensuring the integrity of their intellectual property; information flow during disaster response scenarios, and zero-trust / least-privilege environments for M&A, attorney-client privileged communications, etc. And we’ve only scratched the surface. At our core, we're driven by a shared mission and a belief in making a tangible impact on our world. Whether you join our London HQ or the wider global organisation, you’ll be a part of collaborative, high-performing teams, creating cutting-edge software, platforms, and infrastructure. The Role As Head of Information Security at Valarian, you will define and lead our security strategy with a strong focus on protecting our digital ecosystem, spanning cloud infrastructure, SaaS platforms, and internal tooling. You’ll be responsible for securing how our organisation operates day-to-day: from identity and access across SaaS tools, to cloud architecture, to data protection across systems. This is a hands-on leadership role combining strategy, architecture, and execution. You’ll work closely with Engineering, Product, Legal, and Leadership to embed security into everything we build, while evolving our compliance posture across ISO-27001 and SOC-2 (including expansion into additional controls). What you’ll do: Own and execute Valarian’s end-to-end information security strategy Lead and mature our security posture across compliance frameworks, including ISO-27001, SOC 2, and expansion into additional control frameworks Design and implement scalable security architecture across cloud, infrastructure, and applications Partner with Engineering to embed secure-by-design principles into development workflows Build, manage, and continuously improve security policies, standards, and controls Lead risk management, threat modeling, and vulnerability management processes Oversee incident detection, response, and recovery planning Drive security awareness and training across the company Establish and manage identity and access management (IAM), SSO, and device security across the organisation Manage audits, certifications, and relationships with external assessors Establish metrics and reporting to provide visibility into security posture and risk Hire, develop, and lead a high-performing security team as the company grows What you’ll bring: Proven experience leading information security in a cloud-first, SaaS-heavy environment Deep expertise in securing cloud infrastructure and modern workplace tooling Strong hands-on experience with identity and access management, SSO, and zero-trust approaches Experience managing and securing a broad ecosystem, including vendor risk and access governance Practical experience with SOC 2 and ISO-27001 Strong understanding of cloud security principles (networking, IAM, secrets management, logging, monitoring) Experience implementing security tooling such as SIEM, EDR, and CSPM security platforms Track record of building scalable, pragmatic security programs in high-growth environments Ability to balance strong security practices with usability and business velocity Excellent stakeholder management