At Algolia, we’re proud to be a pioneer and market leader in AI Search, empowering 17,000+ businesses to deliver blazing-fast, predictive search and browse experiences at internet scale. Every week, we power over 30 billion search requests — four times more than Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, and DuckDuckGo combined.
In 2021, we raised $150 million in Series D funding, quadrupling our valuation to $2.25 billion. This strong foundation enables us to keep investing in our market‑leading platform and serving incredible customers like Under Armour, PetSmart, Stripe, Gymshark, and Walgreens.
Algolia is a leading AI Search platform, serving more than 18,000 customers in more than 150 countries, in 80 languages. Today, Algolia powers almost 2 Trillion searches a year – that’s four times more than Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu and Yandex combined! Our amazing technology is used by one in eight online users. Our largest use case, and install base, is Product Discovery for retailers; after that it’s Media & Entertainment, other SaaS companies, and then a long tail of customers in many different sectors.
We serve SMB, Mid‑Market, and Enterprise segments, with the Enterprise segment representing over 70% of our revenue today. Even some of our SMB customers have enterprise requirements like speed and resiliency given the mission critical role search plays in online retail in particular. As we scale toward our vision to lead in AI‑powered product discovery, enterprise readiness, and platform extensibility, the security and trust of our customers, partners, and internal teams is paramount.
Vice President, Information Security
This role will define and lead Algolia’s global security strategy, champion a proactive security culture, and ensure we stay ahead of evolving threats across our systems, operations, and products.
Your Role Will Consist Of
* Serve as Algolia’s most senior authority on information security and cyber risk, owning the vision, strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of our company‑wide security program.
* Advise the CEO and Executive Leadership Team (ELT) directly, translating complex technical risks into pragmatic, clear business impacts and choices, and communicating candidly in both routine and high‑pressure situations.
* Partner across Engineering, Product, Legal, IT, and GTM leadership to design, implement, and enforce policies, controls, and procedures that safeguard our infrastructure, data, and applications.
* Enable business growth through security by informing the ELT in plain English and crafting well‑engineered, pragmatic, business‑first, risk‑informed solutions that enable Algolia to take bold, well‑managed risks.
* Lead incident response and resilience, ensuring Algolia is prepared for and can withstand cyber threats, data breaches, and systemic risks across the business.
* Inculcate and embed a security‑first mindset across the company, working with the CEO, CTO, CPO, and the rest of the ELT to instill proactive, pragmatic, business‑first risk awareness into product architecture, development practices, go‑to‑market, customer onboarding and lifecycle, and internal operations.
* Shape and lead the security posture of AI initiatives by establishing clear, adaptable processes to assess threats, model risk, ensure policy alignment, and enable executives to make informed, high‑confidence, business‑transformative decisions around AI adoption.
* Recruit, inspire, and lead a globally distributed security organisation, building teams across information security engineering, security software engineering, and compliance, while fostering continuous growth and career development.
* Lead continuous improvement programs for the Information Security organisation’s training, skills development, and career progression, ensuring the team grows alongside emerging threats and technologies.
* Represent Algolia externally with enterprise customers, regulators, auditors, industry groups, and at conferences — establishing trust and demonstrating our commitment to enterprise‑grade security and compliance.
* Create force multipliers by establishing objective, well‑shared security data, intelligence, and knowledge that accelerate detection, response, and executive decision‑making.
* Define and deliver measurable success by ensuring that within the first year, Algolia demonstrates clear improvements in resilience, embeds AI risk management frameworks, and strengthens customer trust in our security posture.
You Might Be a Fit If You Have
* A blunt, clear, and high‑integrity communication style and board‑level communication skills; the ability to translate complex technical issues into business risk clearly and persuasively, to speak truth to power and rally stakeholders in urgent situations.
* A strong track record of building and scaling security programs in high‑growth, cloud‑native tech environments ($50–200 M+ ARR).
* Experience leading security in multi‑cloud‑native, SaaS, or API‑first environments, and in data centres.
* A leadership style that emphasises accountability, risk prevention and mitigation, and long‑term resilience, combining deep technical excellence with pragmatic business judgment to give senior executives clearly defined choices.
* Proven track record of building security culture across engineering, product, sales, and finance teams.
* Strong knowledge of DevSecOps practices, secure software development, and modern CI/CD pipelines.
* Hands‑on experience with incident response and crisis management in global settings.
* Vision for AI governance and ethical risk management, beyond just technical security.
* Familiarity with threat modelling for AI systems (prompt injection, model poisoning, data leakage).
* Experience building security culture in engineering‑heavy organisations (developer‑first security).
* Experience supporting international teams and operations across multiple regions, and the cultural requirements of these operations.
* Experience leading Security teams across disciplines: application security, infrastructure, incident response, compliance, business continuity, and secure software development lifecycle management.
* A strong background in data privacy and compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, C5).
* The ability to lead through ambiguity and scale processes for a global, remote‑first organisation.
* Engagement in security communities, open‑source contributions, or standards bodies.
* A collaborative, mission‑driven mindset aligned with Algolia’s values of Grit, Trust, Candor, Care, and Humility.
Nice To Have
* Familiarity with search infrastructure, distributed systems, or high‑scale platforms.
* Exposure to regulatory engagement and shaping security programs to meet evolving global standards.
* Multilingual, preferably French, Romanian.
* Strong external presence — e.g., public speaking, industry participation, or community contributions.
* Experience interfacing directly with large enterprise customers or regulators.
* Experience reporting to a CEO.
Flexible Workplace Strategy
Algolia’s flexible workplace model is designed to empower all Algolians to fulfil our mission to power search and discovery with ease. We place an emphasis on an individual’s impact, contribution, and output, over their physical location. Algolia is a high‑trust environment and many of our team members have the autonomy to choose where they want to work and when.
We have a global presence with offices in Paris, NYC, London, Sydney and Bucharest, however we also offer many of our team members the option to work remotely either as fully remote or hybrid‑remote employees. Positions listed as “Remote” are only available for remote work within the specified country. Positions listed within a specific city are only available in that location – depending on the role it may be available with either a hybrid‑remote or in‑office schedule.
WE’RE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN LIVE OUR VALUES
* GRIT – Problem‑solving and perseverance capability in an ever‑changing and growing environment.
* TRUST – Willingness to trust our co‑workers and to take ownership.
* CANDOR – Ability to receive and give constructive feedback.
* CARE – Genuine care about other team members, our clients and the decisions we make in the company.
* HUMILITY – Aptitude for learning from others, putting ego aside.
We’re looking for talented, passionate people to help build the world’s best search and discovery technology. We value autonomy, diversity, and collaboration. We’re committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone is respected and supported—regardless of race, age, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, color, veteran status, disability, or socioeconomic background.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR CANDIDATES – Recruitment Fraud Notice
* Our open positions may appear on third‑party job boards, but the best way to apply safely is directly through our careers page.
* All genuine communication from Algolia will come from an @algolia.com email address. If you receive an email from someone claiming to work at Algolia who does not have an @algolia.com email address, please do not respond or share any personal information.
* We’ll never ask for payments, purchases, or financial details during the hiring process.
READY TO APPLY?
If you share our values and our enthusiasm for building the world’s best search & discovery technology, we’d love to review your application!
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