Hiring a security leader
Executive roles.
If you're filling a senior security role, this is where I say what I'd bring to it and where I wouldn't fit. Recruiters and boards welcome.
- Hire a CISO who's run the response, not just reported on itA security leader who's led breaches, built operations, and briefed boards. Here's what I'd bring to the role and where I wouldn't fit.
- Hire a cybersecurity director who builds the operation, not the slide about itDirector-level leadership for security operations, engineering, or programmes, from someone who's done the work the team does.
- An adviser for the executive who has to decide, not the team that has to implementIndependent judgement for the person who signs: what to ask, what to believe, what to decide, and what to tell the board.
- For recruiters and search firms: what I'm a fit for, and what I'm notA straight answer for search firms: roles, fit, non-fit, and how to get a fast yes or no from me.
- A programme director who turns the strategy into things that happenOwnership of the security programme end to end: plan, money, people, dependencies, and honest reporting on what's actually done.
- Building a security team that can do the work, not just pass the interviewTeam design, hiring that tests ability rather than vocabulary, and the leadership habits that make security people stay.
- Transformation leadership for a security function that has to change, not just growLeading the rebuild: the operating model, the team, the tooling estate, and the governance, in an order that keeps the lights on while it changes.
- A director of security operations who measures containment, not alert countsLeadership of detection and response: the SOC, the engineers, the playbooks, and measures that would embarrass us if they were bad.
- Security leadership for government and the organisations that serve itSenior security leadership shaped by work with US and allied governments from the municipal level to the national, and the contractors that serve them.
- A fractional CISO who sets the rules and takes the hard callsSenior security leadership on a part-time basis: direction, the hard decisions, the board, and the questionnaires, with a capable person of yours running the day to day.
- An interim CISO who holds the line while you hire wellFull accountability for security for a defined period, so the search can take the time a good hire needs.
- A senior security leader who works remotely, and has for yearsSenior security leadership delivered remotely, with travel for the moments that need a person in the room.
Reading on this.
- Research How Can a Board Verify That Cyber Risk Is Improving?
- Research How Do You Set a Sustainable Workload for a Security Team?
- Research How Do You Test an AI Workflow That Says Done but Gets It Wrong?
- Research How Do You Turn a Cybersecurity Gap Assessment Into a Remediation Plan?
- Research Should You Buy a New Security Tool or Improve the Controls You Have?
- Research What Evidence Is Required to Close a Security Exception?