VP of GRC

Zania•San Francisco, CA

12d•$260,000 - $320,000•Onsite

About The Position

Zania builds agentic AI for security governance, risk, and compliance. Its domain-specific AI agents support risk assessments, evidence collection, control testing, gap analyses, and end-to-end third-party risk management, with humans in control of every decision. Zania serves customers including Plaid, Grant Thornton, Stanford University, a Big 4 firm, and Fortune 500 enterprises, and is backed by NEA, Anthology Fund, and Palm Drive Capital. It partners with TCS and HCLTech. The VP of GRC will build and lead Zania's customer-facing GRC services organization, serve as the senior GRC voice for large customers and partners, and translate the company's agents into audit-ready outcomes across programs such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, NIST CSF, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and TPRM. The role owns delivery quality, customer success for GRC engagements, and the playbooks that enable agents and employees to scale together. This is a hands-on executive position reporting to the CEO and working in person with the team in San Francisco. The VP will build and manage the GRC team, lead customer engagements, advise senior customer and partner executives, develop repeatable agent-first delivery methods, collaborate with Product and AI Engineering, enable channel partners, support strategic sales, define services metrics, and represent Zania publicly. Compensation is $260,000–$320,000 base salary plus equity and benefits.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in GRC, IT audit, or security compliance.
At least 5 years leading client-facing teams.
Background at a Big 4 or top advisory firm, a GRC platform, or leading GRC at a high-growth company.
Hands-on expertise in SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and third-party risk management, including personally running audits and remediation programs.
Track record of executive presence with CISOs, audit committees, and enterprise buyers.
Experience building scalable services or delivery organizations, including methodology, staffing, and margin management.
Strong curiosity about AI and conviction that agents will change how GRC work gets done.

Nice To Haves

Certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CRISC, CISM, or ISO 27001 Lead Auditor.
Familiarity with AI governance, including ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, or the EU AI Act.

Responsibilities

Build, hire, coach, and scale the GRC services team, including GRC leads, solutions architects, and compliance specialists.
Own end-to-end delivery of customer GRC engagements, including scoping, onboarding, gap assessments, controls testing, audit readiness, and TPRM programs.
Serve as executive GRC advisor to CISOs, CROs, Chief Audit Executives, and Big 4 and advisory partners.
Design repeatable, agent-first delivery methodologies and playbooks for SOC 2, ISO 27001/42001, NIST CSF/800-53, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, DORA, and the EU AI Act.
Partner with Product and AI Engineering to translate field insight into agent capabilities, evaluation criteria, and human-in-the-loop guardrails.
Enable systems integrators and channel partners, including TCS, HCLTech, and audit firms, to deliver Zania services.
Support pre-sales by leading technical GRC discovery, solution design, and proof-of-value engagements for strategic deals.
Define and report services KPIs, including time-to-audit-readiness, assessment cycle time, vendor coverage, customer satisfaction, and expansion.
Represent Zania through thought leadership, conferences, customer advisory boards, and analyst briefings.