Governance, Risk and Compliance Lead

Thinking Machines Lab•San Francisco, CA

15h

About The Position

Thinking Machines is hiring a Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Lead to personally drive certifications—including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP—from scoping through audit close, while running compliance processes day to day. The role works closely with security, legal, safety, and engineering, applying technical understanding of the company's systems to answer compliance and risk questions directly. The Lead will manage audits, controls, and risk assessments while building a roadmap for the GRC function as the company grows.

Requirements

At least 7 years of related experience across technology and cybersecurity Governance, Risk, and Compliance, with demonstrated breadth across all three disciplines.
Experience leading a SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, or comparable certification from scoping through audit close.
Hands-on experience collecting audit evidence and writing control documentation.
Experience managing a recurring compliance process, such as control testing, risk register maintenance, or policy attestations.
Ability to learn new technical domains quickly and translate them for non-technical stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Background as a software engineer or in a technical engineering role, subsequently applied to GRC, evidenced by personally built scripts, tools, or automations for evidence collection, control testing, or audit workflows.
Experience translating complex compliance requirements into scalable automation using AI agents and custom-built tooling.
Experience growing a GRC function's capabilities, such as adding certifications, tooling, or processes, as a company scaled.

Responsibilities

Own the certification roadmap end to end: scope certifications, build control sets, collect and organize evidence, and represent Thinking Machines to auditors through audit close.
Manage recurring compliance processes, including control testing, audit preparation and response, risk register maintenance, and policy attestations.
Build technical fluency across infrastructure, model deployment, and data handling to answer compliance and risk questions from engineering, security, and product teams directly.
Track regulatory and framework requirements relevant to an AI company, including GDPR and the EU AI Act, and translate them into actionable controls.
Identify gaps in compliance coverage as products, infrastructure, or jurisdictions change, and propose changes before gaps become blockers.
Build and maintain tooling and documentation to make future audit cycles faster.
Plan a multi-quarter roadmap for the GRC function while continuing to personally run existing certifications and audits.