Lead Security Engineer

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth. Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world's toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About The Role

As the Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), you will serve as a key executive and thought leader driving the strategic evolution of Planet's information security landscape. You will architect a sophisticated, enterprise-wide security strategy that directly aligns with our broader business goals and anticipates the rapidly evolving AI threat landscape. As a visionary leader, you will ensure our defenses outpace both emerging technologies and sophisticated global threat actors while owning enterprise and third‑party cyber risk. You will balance the confidentiality, integrity, privacy, and recoverability of Planet's global assets with workforce productivity and agility. In this role, you will oversee departmental budgets and results while empowering a capable tier of front-line managers to execute your vision. This is a unique opportunity to build a predictive, future‑proof security organization at a rapidly growing company.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our San Francisco or Washington, DC office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own

• Spearhead the multi-year strategic plan for information and cloud security, integrating predictive AI defense strategies.
• Collaborate with business and technology teams to ensure security and compliance postures exceeding industry standards.
• Influence enterprise-wide strategic direction by blending functional security goals with broader business objectives.
• Empower front-line managers through delegation, selection, and continuous professional development.
• Resolve highly complex business problems, transitioning the department toward proactive, strategic forecasting.
• Manage departmental resources, policy, and personnel with full accountability for budget and performance results.
• Architect proactive, intelligence‑driven risk forecasting models and security risk management processes.
• Serve as the ultimate subject matter expert for security issues, including AI governance, secure machine learning pipelines, and space/ground‑station asset protection.
• Orchestrate incident response and business recovery plans to safeguard critical global services.
• Participate in external security certifications and manage customer security audits.
• Drive security awareness training programs, ensuring that all employees are trained on information security concepts, emerging social engineering vectors (such as AI‑driven phishing), and their role in safeguarding Planet.
• Partner with legal and procurement to ensure information security requirements are included in vendor contracts.
• Stay abreast of relevant security developments, industry‑wide events, regulations, geopolitical shifts, and emerging technologies.
• Coordinate development and implementation of incident response plans and procedures ensuring that business‑critical services are recovered in the event of a security event, and provides direction, support, and in‑house consulting in this area.
• Monitor the external threat environment for emerging threats, specifically looking around corners to implement early mitigations, AI‑driven counter‑measures, and controls where relevant.
• Act as a positive culture carrier who lives the company values and makes decisions that have a broad impact on both people and company financials.
• Build and nurture external networks consisting of industry peers, ecosystem partners, vendors, government intelligence agencies, and other relevant parties.
• Managing and maturing enterprise risk management frameworks and ISO 27001, ISO 42001, ISO 9001, and CMMC certifications.
• Manage and oversee safeguarding manufacturing facilities and R&D environments against physical threats while mitigating global supply chain risks.
• Oversee the establishment and scaling of an international industrial security program managed by your team to govern global clearance reciprocity, international Request for Visit (RFV) pipelines, and multinational contract compliance (including DD‑254 equivalents) in strict alignment with NDP‑1, ITAR, EAR, and GSIA regulations.

What You Bring

• Typically 10 years of relevant work experience and 8 years of leadership experience.
• Deep industry and commercial awareness, accompanied by a track record of thought leadership, public speaking, and published work in the information security industry.
• Ability to separate the genuinely important from the merely urgent, proactively soliciting ideas and information from multiple external and internal perspectives to forecast risk years in advance.
• Ability to cultivate an approachable leadership style that values patience, empathy, and vulnerability, while understanding the impact of your leadership wake.
• Experience leading a diverse group of people, setting clear expectations, and holding people accountable
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with a focus on explaining security topics, such as the OWASP Top 10, clearly and to a variety of audiences with varying technical sophistication.
• Deep understanding of networking and web application architecture.
• Experience with the operations and security facets of cloud environments (Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, primarily).
• Experience with common attack scenarios across the layers of our infrastructure (cloud infrastructure, web applications and interfaces, authentication and authorization, network flows, code quality, insider threat, and the like).
• Deep understanding of information security principles and common reconnaissance and exploitation frameworks.
• Occasional travel required for client and site visits.

What Makes You Stand Out

• Understanding of a wide range of vulnerability classes including modern adversarial AI attacks, model poisoning, and LLM supply chain vulnerabilities.
• Track record of architecting a multi‑year security roadmap that successfully anticipated future technology disruptions.
• Prior or current government security clearance.
• Government national security experience.
• Red team experience.
• Prior experience in a public company environment.

Benefits While Working At Planet

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution
• Generous Paid Time Off in addition to holidays and company‑wide days off
• 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness Program and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Home Office Reimbursement
• Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
• Tuition Reimbursement and access to LinkedIn Learning
• Equity
• Commuter Benefits (if local to an office)
• Volunteering Paid Time Off

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full‑time position at the commencement of employment is listed below. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary short‑term and long‑term incentives (bonus and equity). The final salary range is determined by job related experience, skills and location. The range displays our typical hiring range for new hire salaries in US locations only. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

San Francisco Salary Range

$260,500---$325,600 USD

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Why We Care So Much About Belonging.

We're dedicated to helping the whole Planet, and to do that we must strive to represent all of it within each of our offices and on all of our teams. That's why Planet is guided by an ultimate north star of Belonging---dreaming big as we approach our ongoing work. If this job intrigues you, but you're thinking you might not have all the qualifications, please... do apply! At Planet, we are looking for well‑rounded people from around the world who can contribute to more ways than just what is listed in this job description. We don't just fill positions, we aspire to fulfill people's careers, most excited about folks who are motivated by our underlying humanitarian efforts. We are a few orbits around the sun before we get to where we want to be, so we hope you're excited to come along for the ride.

EEO Statement

Planet is committed to building a community where everyone belongs and we invite people from all backgrounds to apply. Planet is an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Know Your Rights.

Accommodations

Planet is an inclusive community and we know that everyone has their own needs. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during the hiring process, please reach out to View email address on click.appcast.io or contact your recruiter with your request. Your message will be confidential and we will be happy to assist you.

Application Deadline

11:45pm PT on the date stated below. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. This posting may be removed earlier than projected if a suitable pool of applications has been received. For this reason, we recommend applying as soon as you are able to.

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