Head of Security Engineering

January•New York, NY

8d•$200,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

At January, we're transforming the lives of consumers by bringing humanity to consumer finance. Our data-driven products help financial institutions streamline their collections, offering borrowers straightforward and compassionate solutions to regain financial stability and control over their lives. We're not just expanding access to credit – we're restoring dignity and giving millions of people the chance to achieve financial freedom. About the Role As our Head of Security, you'll help us maintain and radically improve a proactive security posture that ensures compliance with industry standards, mitigates real risks, and enhances client confidence in how we handle sensitive data. This role will report directly to the VP of Engineering; expect to drive strategic security initiatives, implement effective monitoring and response systems, and foster a culture of security awareness and excellence within the organization.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in security, including 2+ years in a leadership role.
Hands-on software or security engineering background. You've built and run cloud security, identity and access, and detection systems yourself.
Prior experience working in a regulated industry (financial services, healthcare, payments, etc.).
Track record of setting security strategy and driving it to execution at an early- or growth-stage company, where you build the playbook yourself.
Strong communicator and collaborator, with a track record of building trust across Engineering, Product, and other teams.

Nice To Haves

Strong understanding of how AI/ML systems work and where they introduce risk.

Responsibilities

Define and own the strategy for security engineering, deciding where the real risk is and what we do about it.
Hire, mentor, and grow the security engineering team as the function scales.
Lead identity and access management across our systems.
Direct security monitoring, detection, and incident response.
Own our security posture for AI, in both our products and internal tools.
Manage cloud security architecture and guardrails, including data isolation across our multi-tenant platform.
Own vulnerability management end to end, partnering with Engineering to build security into the development lifecycle.
Partner with our compliance function to support SOC2, PCI, and other audit and regulatory work.