Head of Engineering & Security

Sphere is a company focused on providing climate-friendly investment options for retirement savings. They are seeking a Head of Engineering & Security to lead the development, reliability, and security of their technology platform, ensuring high standards of performance and regulatory compliance.

Responsibilities:

• Assess Sphere’s cybersecurity protocols and develop a roadmap to ensure best-in-class security as Sphere’s suite of platforms grows
• Define and execute Sphere's engineering roadmap aligned with company strategy and product priorities
• Work with external consultants and internal teams to develop new products
• Establish engineering processes, development standards, and technical best practices that enable rapid, reliable delivery. Monitor platform reliability, uptime, and operational metrics, continuously improving system performance
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to the executive team on engineering investments, technology risks, and scaling strategy
• Manage engineering budgets, vendor relationships, and key technology partners
• Provide technical direction on platform architecture decisions, tooling choices, and engineering standards. Drive architectural decisions that prioritize scalability, maintainability, and long-term platform resilience
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering organization while fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Oversee the development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of Sphere’s platform and internal systems that support product delivery and ensure an effective cohesion with the design
• Partner closely with the product, design, and operations teams to deliver delightful, customer-centric experiences with speed and quality
• Improve developer productivity through modern tooling and automation practices
• Own Sphere's information security strategy and security roadmap
• Build, own, and continuously improve programs for security incident management, vulnerability management, penetration testing, network security, authentication and authorization, system access control, data privacy and governance, encryption and certificate management, and threat detection
• Promote a culture of security across the organization, ensuring all individuals understand and follow security policies and appreciate why they matter
• Partner with legal & the rest of the team to establish a comprehensive security and compliance program, ensuring appropriate processes, regulatory requirements, documentation, and staffing are in place with no single points of failure
• Embed secure software development practices throughout the engineering lifecycle

Requirements:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a focus in back-end development, including 5+ years leading engineering teams
• Experience building and scaling modern SaaS or fintech platforms in cloud-native environments
• Strong familiarity with best in class tools and platforms such as AWS, React, React Native, Storybook (or similar), Node/Python, API and event architecture, Object-Relational Mapping like Redis (or similar)
• Demonstrated experience with multi platform apps across Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and browser-based apps
• Experience with Claude Code and/or other AI development tools and how it has reshaped and improved your process
• Best practices in component based app development with a strong cohesion to the brand system and consistent code component library
• Experience with security systems such as SOC 2, CIS Benchmarks, DDos mitigation, and other best practices
• Successfully hiring, mentoring, and leading high-performing engineering organizations
• Implementing security programs, cloud infrastructure, and engineering operational excellence working within regulated or security-sensitive environments
• Mission-aligned and excited to build technology that accelerates climate-positive investing
• Strong technical leader capable of balancing strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Deep understanding of modern software architecture, cloud infrastructure, APIs, and distributed systems
• Strong knowledge of application security, cloud security, identity management, and secure software development practices
• Excellent cross-functional communicator who builds trust across engineering, product, design, operations, and leadership
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, collaborative startup environment with a bias toward action and ownership
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• Strong preference for experience working in cybersecurity for financial services firms
• Advanced degree or relevant security certifications are a plus
• Experience in finance or fintech is a plus