About Us:
ISTARI is a strategic cybersecurity advisory company with a bold vision: to curate the defining cybersecurity ecosystem of our time -uniting enterprise, academia, government, and innovators to build collective resilience. At the heart of this mission, ISTARI helps clients achieve lasting organisational cyber resilience by convening and applying world-class talent, expertise, and innovation through a uniquely powerful network - with ISTARI as the central orchestrator.
The Opportunity:
As a Partner at ISTARI, you are more than a senior leader; you are a practice owner and a market maker. We are seeking world-class, entrepreneurial leaders to own the commercial success and strategic direction of our business, helping us scale up ISTARI’s global presence and brand.
This is an opportunity to operate at the intersection of cybersecurity, strategy, and innovation across our ecosystem. You will build our most critical C-suite relationships and develop new markets. You will be at the forefront of helping us scale our Advisory practice. You will serve as the primary engine of revenue generation while simultaneously owning the end-to-end delivery and commercial success of the engagements you sell.
For this role, we are looking for a particular strength in Governance and Strategy.
What You’ll Do (Key Responsibilities)
You will hold accountability for driving performance across four core pillars:
1. Commercial Leadership & Building Market Presence
* Ownership: Take accountability for the strategic direction, financial health, and commercial success of your area, owning revenue and margin targets.
* Strategic Origination: Move beyond transactional sales to orchestrate large-scale, multi-year transformational deals. Leverage ISTARI’s ecosystem by integrating advisory expertise with our portfolio company solutions to create differentiated client value propositions.
* Land & Expand: Drive the systematic expansion of strategic accounts, turning initial engagements into long-term, high-value partnerships that span the full breadth of ISTARI’s capabilities.
2. Client Value & Delivery Oversight
* CxO Intimacy: operate as a peer to C-suite executives and Board members, serving as their strategic counsel on complex cyber risk imperatives rather than just a service provider.
* End-to-End Delivery Governance: Maintain quality assurance and oversight for complex cyber programs. Ensure engagements not only meet contractual deliverables but generate measurable business value for the client.
* Client Advocacy: ensuring ISTARI’s innovation pipeline and service offerings evolve to meet our customers’ future needs.
3. Practice Development & Thought Leadership
* Intellectual Capital Creation: Pioneer new methodologies, blueprints, and service lines that define the market standard for cyber resilience. Lead the development of specific practice capabilities that differentiate ISTARI globally.
* Market Eminence: actively build ISTARI’s reputation by defining the industry agenda. Represent ISTARI through high-profile speaking engagements, published white papers, and active participation in elite industry forums.
4. Talent Stewardship & Culture
* Start-up / Ownership Mentality: Bring experience, energy, creativity and resourcefulness to help scale ISTARI in your own area and beyond.
* Talent Pipeline Development: Sponsor the next generation of leadership. Mentor Principals and Directors, providing the coaching and opportunities necessary for them to advance to Partner.
* Inclusive High-Performance Culture: Foster an environment that balances high commercial demands with collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous learning.
What You'll Bring (Candidate Profile)
We are looking for established leaders who have operated at the highest levels of the cybersecurity and professional services industries.
Target Backgrounds:
* Start-Ups / Scale-Ups: Senior leaders from early-stage, specialised strategic cyber firms.
* Strategy Consulting and Big 4: Partners / Senior Directors from Cybersecurity practices who have led major sectors or territories.
* Industry Leaders: Former CISOs or CSOs of Global 2000 companies who have successfully transitioned into commercially focused advisory roles.
* Proven Commercial Track Record: Demonstrated success in originating and leading multi-year, multi-million dollar transformation programs. Must be able to evidence a personal established network of C-suite and Board relationships within the Global 2000.
* Practice Leadership: Experience not just in delivering work, but in building a practice—hiring teams, defining methodologies, and managing a P&L.
* Expertise in Governance and Strategy: within various industry backgrounds (Financial Services less critical for this role).
* Former practitioner: ideal candidate would have spent some time (perhaps seconded) in a practitioner role.
Core Competencies
* Board and C-Suite-Level Fluency: The ability to translate complex technical cyber risks into strategic business imperatives for non-technical Boards and Audit Committees.
* Commercial Orchestration: Mastery of complex deal shaping. The ability to integrate diverse capabilities—advisory, technical, and portfolio solutions—into a cohesive, high-value client proposition.
* Start-up/Ownership Mentality: resourceful, creative and accountable, you’ll roll up your sleeves and help us build and scale.
* Recognised Expertise: You shape trends through published thought leadership and active participation in industry forums.
* Talent Attraction: A reputation that attracts top-tier talent. Proven ability to mentor Principals and Directors into future Partners, creating a leadership pipeline.
Education & Professional Recognition
* Education: Bachelor’s/Master’s degree is required. An advanced degree (MBA or equivalent) is preferred to ensure broad business acumen beyond cyber.
* Recognition: Recognised Fellow status in leading industry bodies (e.g., ISC2, ISACA) or equivalent industry awards/recognition is preferred.
How We Measure Success (KPIs)
Commercial (Financial):
* Sales Origination (Total revenue booked).
* Managed Revenue (Revenue recognized within your team).
* Engagement Gross Margin (Profitability of delivered work).
Client (Quality & Growth):
* Client Net Promoter Score (NPS) / CSAT.
* Account Expansion Rate (Cross-sell/Up-sell penetration in owned accounts).
People (Talent & Culture):
* Retention and promotion rates within mentor group.
* Team engagement scores.
Eminence (Market Impact):
* Measurable contribution to recognized thought leadership (tier-1 publications, keynote speaking).
See our latest COMPASS Summit as an example of our events.
See our NAVIGATOR programme with Cambridge Judge Business School.
See examples of our Thought Leadership pieces
If you are a builder and ready to be part of a team shaping the future of a growing global practice, we encourage you to apply.