Lead, Data Center Physical Security Operations (North America)

About the role As Anthropic's Lead for Data Center Security Operations in North America, you will own the physical security program across our NA data center footprint — spanning owned sites and colocation partners. You'll partner closely with data center build and operations teams from the earliest design conversations through commissioning and into steady‑state operations, shaping the security posture that protects some of the most consequential AI compute in the industry. This role is hands‑on and strategic at the same time. You'll be on‑site when it matters, author the policies and standards that govern the region, run the vendor and guard‑force relationships that keep our sites secure day‑to‑day, and lead incident response when something happens. You'll also be one of the primary regional voices shaping how security integrates with infrastructure, compute, real estate, and legal partners as Anthropic scales. You will join a growing Data Center Security Engineering function that is still in build mode. The work is ambiguous, fast‑moving, and changes as strategy changes. We need someone who can set direction without waiting for mature playbooks, and who treats security as an enabler of business outcomes. Responsibilities You will own a region of North America data center security operations program across owned and colocation sites. You will partner with data center build and engineering teams on new‑site design and activation, ensuring security scope is defined, delivered, and turned over to operations cleanly. You will lead the regional vendor portfolio such as integrators, guard‑force providers, and general contractors with meaningful budget and SLA ownership. You will author and maintain the policies, standards, and SOPs that govern physical security in the region, keeping them aligned with company‑wide frameworks. You will lead physical security incident response and investigations, and you will represent the region in cross‑functional forums that shape infrastructure, compute, and real estate decisions. You may be a good fit if you Have extensive experience operating physical security at hyperscale or at a major colocation operator across multiple sites, with direct ownership of the operating model, vendors, and on‑call. Have personally led the security scope on new‑build data center projects from design through construction, commissioning, and turnover to operations. Have worked across both owned data centers and colocation space, and understand how the operator/tenant dynamic changes your controls, vendors, and incident response. Can author physical security policies, standards, and SOPs that get adopted and followed. Drive security outcomes through cross‑functional partners (infrastructure, construction, real estate, compliance, legal) by shaping decisions, not by blocking them. Manage a real vendor portfolio, integrators, guard force, general contractors with SLAs, budget, and performance accountability. Adapt well when design and strategy shift mid‑stream and can re‑scope a program without losing momentum. Calibrate security to business reality and explain when you chose not to apply a control and why. Strong candidates may have CPP (Certified Protection Professional) or PSP (Physical Security Professional) certification. Experience standing up a data center security function from 0→1 (not just running an established one). Background in a regulated environment, critical infrastructure, financial services, federal/defense, or similar. Direct experience leading an external audit or customer security review of data center physical controls. Strong candidates need not have A specific university, credential, or prior employer. We care about what you've built and operated, not where. Prior people‑management experience, this role is an IC lead today. If you've led matrixed or virtual teams, that's enough. Experience in AI or machine learning infrastructure specifically; we'll teach you how our workloads shape the security posture. Logistics Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position Location‑based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices. Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this. Annual Salary: $405,000 – $405,000 USD #J-18808-Ljbffr Anthropic