Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

Job description

**Stand Together** is a philanthropic community that helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’s biggest problems, from education to the economy, broken communities, and toxic division, among dozens of other pressing [issues](https://standtogether.org/issues). We provide our partners with access to resources including funding, thought leadership, a network of peers, and a playbook for applying proven principles to transform lives and society. We are seeking a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) who will shape the future of cybersecurity across a dynamic, mission-driven organization. This is an opportunity for an entrepreneurial, forward-thinking security executive to build and lead a modern, enterprise-wide security strategy that protects our people, platforms, data, and partners while accelerating innovation. The ideal leader sees cybersecurity as more than risk management — it is a strategic capability that builds trust, enables growth, and creates competitive advantage. You will challenge conventional approaches, anticipate emerging threats, and leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence to build scalable, intelligent security capabilities. This role calls for a bold thinker and hands-on strategist who thrives in complexity, can influence the executive level, and knows how to translate security investments into meaningful business value. ### How You Will Contribute - Set the strategic direction for enterprise cybersecurity, developing and executing a forward-looking security strategy aligned with organizational priorities, evolving technologies, and business objectives. - Build a culture of security that enables innovation, embedding risk-informed decision-making, shared accountability, and practical security practices across technology and business teams. - Lead enterprise security architecture, protecting critical systems, sensitive information, cloud environments, digital products, and third-party ecosystems while balancing protection with speed and agility. - Champion AI-driven security innovation, leveraging automation, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies to strengthen threat detection, improve operational efficiency, and establish responsible governance for AI and autonomous agents. - Drive operational resilience, overseeing threat intelligence, vulnerability management, incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity capabilities to anticipate, prevent, and respond to evolving threats. - Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to executive leadership, translating complex cybersecurity risks into actionable insights, investment priorities, and informed business decisions. - Build and inspire a high-performing security organization, developing exceptional talent, strengthening cross-functional partnerships, and fostering an entrepreneurial culture of ownership, continuous learning, and measurable contribution. - Establish meaningful measures of success, demonstrating how cybersecurity investments reduce risk, strengthen organizational resilience, improve customer and partner trust, and enable greater business value. ### What You Will Bring - Significant progressive leadership experience in cybersecurity, information security, or technology risk, including responsibility for enterprise-wide security strategy and execution in complex organizations. - Demonstrated success building, transforming, or scaling cybersecurity programs while aligning security priorities with business strategy and organizational growth. - Deep expertise across cybersecurity architecture, cloud security, identity and access management, threat management, incident response, data protection, and security governance. - Strong understanding of modern technology ecosystems, including cloud-native architectures, DevSecOps, zero-trust principles, AI security, and emerging cyber threats. - Executive presence and business acumen, with the ability to influence senior leaders, communicate complex risks clearly, and make sound decisions amid uncertainty. - An entrepreneurial mindset with a track record of challenging assumptions, identifying opportunities, and developing innovative, practical solutions rather than relying solely on traditional security playbooks. - Proven ability to attract, develop, and lead exceptional teams while creating an environment of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. - A principled, intellectually curious leadership approach grounded in sound judgment, humility, integrity, and a commitment to creating value for others. - Enthusiasm to contribute to Stand Together's [vision and principled approach](https://standtogether.org/our-vision-and-principles) to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding [our culture](https://standtogether.org/careers/our-culture), which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect. ### Standout Candidates Will Bring - Recognized cybersecurity thought leadership, with a demonstrated ability to anticipate industry shifts, challenge conventional thinking, and influence modern security strategies. - Experience leading significant security transformations in high-growth, digitally sophisticated, or highly distributed organizations. - A track record of applying AI, intelligent automation, and advanced security engineering to fundamentally improve security capabilities and operational effectiveness. - Experience securing customer-facing digital platforms, complex partner ecosystems, and emerging technologies while enabling rapid product development and innovation. - A builder's mentality — someone who has created new capabilities, modernized legacy approaches, and delivered measurable business outcomes in environments where the path forward was not always defined. - The ability to operate at both strategic and technical levels, engaging credibly with executive teams while remaining close enough to the technology to challenge assumptions and guide architectural decisions. - A genuine connection to Stand Together's mission and an appreciation for how principled leadership, innovation, and individual initiative can drive meaningful change. This is an opportunity to do more than lead a security function. You will help shape how a mission-driven organization approaches trust, resilience, and innovation — building the security capabiliti