Head of Public Sector Security

About Anthropic

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the Role

As Head of Public Sector Security at Anthropic, you will lead the development and implementation of security programs enabling Anthropic to work with government partners. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on program development, requiring both deep security expertise and the ability to build and lead high-performing teams. You will serve as a key interface between Anthropic and government agencies, building and maintaining relationships that are critical to our public sector initiatives. As the primary point of contact for the program; you will need to effectively navigate complex agency requirements while advocating for Anthropic's interests and capabilities. You will work closely with senior leadership to establish security frameworks that meet federal requirements while maintaining Anthropic's agile and innovative culture. 

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement comprehensive security programs meeting NISPOM and other federal requirements
• Build and lead the Public Sector Security team overseeing physical security, personnel security, and classified program management for government-related initiatives
• Establish and maintain relationships with government agencies, security partners, and industry stakeholders
• Develop security policies and procedures aligned with federal requirements and AI industry best practices
• Guide facility clearance process (FCL)  and oversee ongoing compliance
• Partner with corporate physical security teams and information security teams to ensure integrated security controls
• Provide strategic guidance to leadership on public sector security requirements and opportunities
• Develop and manage security education programs for classified information handling, government requirements, and public sector compliance for relevant personnel
• Oversee visitor control systems and classified material handling procedures
• Lead incident response and investigation processes for security matters in the program

You may be a good fit if:

• You have a proven track record of senior leadership experience, including building and developing high-performing teams
• You have experience building security programs from the ground up
• You excel at translating complex security requirements into practical, scalable solutions
• You're energized by building and leading teams in fast-paced environments
• You have strong relationships within the government security community
• You communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• You balance security requirements with business objectives
• You're passionate about AI safety and responsible technology development

Strong Candidates May Also:

• Have experience with AI/ML company security programs
• Bring expertise in emerging technology security frameworks
• Have led security programs during periods of rapid growth
• Have experience integrating physical and cyber security controls

Requirements:

• 15+ years of security program management
• Track record of building and leading security teams
• Experience with NISPOM compliance and classified program management
• Strong understanding of federal security requirements and processes
• History of successful engagement with government security agencies
• Must possess a current Top Secret clearance
• Experience presenting to and engaging with executive leadership and partners
• Demonstrated success scaling security programs in high-growth environments

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 

The expected salary range for this position is:

Annual Salary:$340,000—$400,000 USD

Logistics

Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed.  Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.

How we're different

We believe that the highest-impact AI research will be big science. At Anthropic we work as a single cohesive team on just a few large-scale research efforts. And we value impact — advancing our long-term goals of steerable, trustworthy AI — rather than work on smaller and more specific puzzles. We view AI research as an empirical science, which has as much in common with physics and biology as with traditional efforts in computer science. We're an extremely collaborative group, and we host frequent research discussions to ensure that we are pursuing the highest-impact work at any given time. As such, we greatly value communication skills.

The easiest way to understand our research directions is to read our recent research. This research continues many of the directions our team worked on prior to Anthropic, including: GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences.

Come work with us!

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues.