Head of Security

Head Of Security

San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

At Snorkel, we believe meaningful AI doesn't start with the model, it starts with the data.

We're on a mission to help enterprises transform expert knowledge into specialized AI at scale. The AI landscape has gone through incredible changes since 2015, when Snorkel started as a research project in the Stanford AI Lab, to the generative AI breakthroughs of today. But one thing has remained constant: the data you use to build AI is the key to achieving differentiation, high performance, and production-ready systems. We work with some of the world's largest organizations to empower scientists, engineers, financial experts, product creators, journalists, and more to build custom AI with their data faster than ever before. Excited to help us redefine how AI is built? Apply to be the newest Snorkeler!

Snorkel AI is the frontier AI data lab, helping teams build the data and environments behind high-performing frontier and agentic AI. We combine technology with research-driven AI data development to create datasets, benchmarks, evals, and custom solutions for real-world AI systems. Founded out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, Snorkel works with leading AI labs and enterprises to move from better data to better outcomes.

Excited to help us redefine how AI is built? Apply to be the newest Snorkeler!

About The Role

Snorkel is hiring a Head of Security to build and lead our security function end-to-end — infrastructure security, application security, and governance, risk & compliance (GRC). You'll own the security function end-to-end — strategy, team, and execution — and operate as the primary security voice with customers, auditors, and the exec team. You'll report to the CTO.

This is a builder's role: you'll take security from its current state to a mature, right-sized function as Snorkel scales, hiring and developing the team as needs grow.

Key Responsibilities

Security Leadership & Team Building

• Define Snorkel's overall security strategy, goals, and roadmap across infrastructure, application, and compliance domains
• Build, hire, and lead a high-performing security organization — starting lean and scaling deliberately as the company and its risk surface grow
• Establish the operating cadence for security (metrics, reporting, incident response, risk register) and represent security posture to the executive team and board

Infrastructure & Cloud Security

• Own cloud security architecture and posture across AWS (and other cloud providers as adopted) — IAM, network segmentation, encryption, landing zone design
• Direct detection & response capabilities, threat modeling, and vulnerability management programs
• Set standards for secure infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and secrets management

Application Security

• Embed security into the product development lifecycle — secure design reviews, threat modeling for new features, and AI/ML-specific risks (data protection, model/prompt security, training pipeline integrity)
• Partner with Engineering and Product leadership to build security into the SDLC without blocking velocity
• Own application security tooling and practices (SAST/DAST/SCA, pen testing, bug bounty)
• Design identity, access, and activity-monitoring controls that correctly handle Snorkel's non-employee marketplace workforce — external contractor (1099 or similar) experts accessing the platform. This population isn't in scope for standard employee compliance obligations, but provisioning, deprovisioning, access boundaries, and monitoring still need to work correctly for them

Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)

• Build and run Snorkel's compliance program (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, and customer-driven frameworks) — own audits end-to-end
• Establish enterprise risk management practices: risk register, third-party/vendor risk, policy framework
• Serve as the primary security point of contact for customer security reviews and questionnaires

Executive & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Act as a trusted advisor to the CTO and executive team on security risk and investment tradeoffs
• Partner cross-functionally with Legal, Sales, Operations, and Engineering to unblock enterprise deals and support customer trust requirements
• Communicate security posture, incidents, and roadmap clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Who You Are

Experience & Leadership

• 10+ years in technology security, including significant leadership experience; you've held director-level or above scope
• Track record building and scaling a security function from a founding stage (team of ~1) through a mature org (10–30+), ideally at a high-growth technology company
• Experience owning security budget, vendor selection, and board/exec-level reporting

Technical Depth

• Deep expertise across infrastructure/cloud security (AWS, IAM, network security, encryption) and application security (SDLC integration, threat modeling, AppSec tooling)
• Hands-on familiarity with modern security tooling: SIEM, EDR, CSPM, vulnerability management
• Experience working with AI/ML-specific security risks (model security, data pipeline protection, prompt injection)

Governance & Compliance

• Proven experience building and running compliance programs (SOC 2, ISO 27001, or equivalent) from the ground up
• Comfortable as the face of security to customers during security reviews/audits, and to auditors during certification cycles

General

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field; advanced degree a plus
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to flex between board-level summary and engineering-level depth

Why This Role

You'll have meaningful ownership over the infrastructure that determines how quickly Snorkel can experiment with, evaluate, and productionize new AI systems. This isn't a role focused on training a single model or maintaining traditional ML pipelines - you'll build the platform that makes large-scale AI experimentation possible.

You'll work on some of the hardest emerging infrastructure problems in AI: operating non-deterministic systems reliably, reproducing agent behavior across environments, evaluating long-running trajectories, scaling simulations and experiments, and turning rapidly evolving research workflows into robust production systems.

The architecture decisions made by this team will define how Snorkel builds and operates AI systems for years to come.

Snorkel is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Snorkel embraces diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment.

Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Be Your Best at Snorkel

Joining Snorkel AI means becoming part of a company that has market proven solutions, robust funding, and is scaling rapidly—offering a unique combination of stability and the excitement of high growth. As a member of our team, you'll have meaningful opportunities to shape priorities and initiatives, influence key strategic decisions, and directly impact our ongoing success. Whether you're looking to deepen your technical expertise, explore leadership opportunities, or learn new skills across multiple functions, you're fully supported in building your career in an environment designed for growth, learning, and shared success.

Snorkel AI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Snorkel AI embraces diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Snorkel AI prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, performance, merit, and business need.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

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