Director of Security Risk & Trust

Klaviyo•Boston, MA

3d•Remote

About The Position

Klaviyo is seeking a Director of Security Risk and Trust who will redefine traditional compliance leadership. This role focuses on engineering solutions for governance and compliance challenges at scale, building systems to make security and trust a competitive advantage, and leading a team at the intersection of security engineering, risk management, and regulatory compliance. The position involves owning the strategy and execution of Klaviyo's Risk and Trust program, collaborating with various departments to integrate compliance and risk management into the company's operations. The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical foundation and an engineering mindset, comfortable with technical details like Terraform configurations and architecture diagrams, as well as executive-level communication. This role reports to the CISO and is a key part of the Security leadership team.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in security, governance, risk, and compliance, with at least 5 years in a leadership role building and scaling programs at high-growth technology or SaaS companies.
Strong engineering and technical foundation—you've written code (Python, Go, or similar), built automation, worked in cloud-native environments, and can engage deeply with engineering teams on technical design and implementation.
Deep expertise across multiple compliance frameworks including ISO 27001, ISO 42001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and SOX IT controls, with a demonstrated ability to rationalize and unify controls across overlapping frameworks.
Demonstrated experience in AI/ML security and governance, including familiarity with AI-specific risk frameworks, responsible AI principles, and the unique security challenges of machine learning systems.
Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and security (AWS strongly preferred), including understanding of IAM, networking, encryption, logging/monitoring, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.).
Proven ability to build compliance-as-code and automated GRC capabilities, including evidence collection automation, continuous monitoring, and integration with engineering toolchains.
Exceptional cross-functional leadership skills—you've successfully partnered with Engineering, Product, Legal, and executive stakeholders to drive security and compliance outcomes without relying on authority alone.
Experience managing external audits and regulatory examinations end-to-end, with a track record of clean results and efficient audit processes.
Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical and regulatory concepts for diverse audiences—from engineers to board members.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a forward-looking strategy for the Risk and Trust program that scales with Klaviyo's growth, product evolution, and expansion into new markets and regulated industries.
Develop a risk management program that quantifies and communicates risk in business-actionable terms, using data-driven models for decision-making.
Own the compliance roadmap across frameworks including ISO 27001, ISO 42001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and emerging AI governance regulations, engineering unified control sets.
Translate regulatory and compliance requirements into clear, actionable engineering requirements for development teams.
Build and maintain compliance-as-code infrastructure, including automated evidence collection, continuous control monitoring, and policy-as-code implementations.
Design and implement tooling and integrations to connect GRC workflows with engineering systems (CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, identity platforms).
Partner with Engineering and Platform teams to embed security and compliance controls into the software development lifecycle, infrastructure provisioning, and deployment pipelines.
Evaluate, select, and optimize platforms and technologies to automate compliance into a continuous, real-time capability.
Develop and implement a comprehensive AI/ML governance framework aligned with ISO 42001, the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and emerging global AI regulations.
Partner with ML/AI and Data Science teams to establish security and compliance guardrails for AI/ML systems.
Conduct and oversee risk assessments specific to AI/ML systems.
Stay ahead of the evolving AI regulatory landscape and proactively position Klaviyo's governance posture.
Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to ensure security and compliance are built into product design.
Collaborate with Legal and Privacy teams to operationalize regulatory requirements.
Work with Sales, Customer Success, and Trust teams to support customer-facing security and compliance needs.
Engage with executive leadership and the Board to communicate risk posture, compliance status, and strategic GRC investments.
Conduct technical risk assessments, review architecture designs, write automation scripts, and troubleshoot control gaps.
Personally lead critical compliance initiatives, audit responses, and incident-driven governance activities.
Maintain deep technical currency by staying hands-on with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), infrastructure-as-code tools, security tooling, and modern software development practices.