§What You'll Do
- Own the technical direction and execution of Zealot's engineering organization.
- Lead, grow, and manage a team of world-class security researchers and engineers building AI-driven cyber capabilities.
- Set engineering standards, priorities, and culture across the company.
- Drive architecture decisions across firmware emulation, AI red teaming, and remediation validation.
- Work directly with founders to translate strategic objectives into engineering reality.
§Requirements
- Proven technical leadership in security R&D, vulnerability research, Windows internals, embedded security, or defensive instrumentation.
- Background in government security research, authorized red teaming, or critical infrastructure protection.
- Deep technical credibility, your team respects you because you've done the work, not because of your title.
- Ability to recruit, retain, and develop elite technical talent in a competitive market.
- Strong judgment on technical risk, prioritization, and resource allocation.
§Nice to Have
- Experience managing managers or team leaders, not just individual contributors.
- Experience scaling an engineering org from early-stage to growth-stage.
- Familiarity with AI/ML systems and how they integrate into security tooling.
- Prior experience building and shipping security tools or platforms at scale.
- Active security clearance or prior work in classified environments.
§You Are
- A technical leader who still thinks like a researcher.
- Someone who builds teams that punch far above their weight.
- Building something massive matters more to you than comfort, titles, or predictability.
- You want to be early at a company that will change an industry, and you're ready to do what that actually takes.
For Recruiters
Note to recruiting firms: We need someone with deep roots in cyber capabilities R&D who has also demonstrated they can lead and scale teams. The ideal candidate has built or led vulnerability research, red teaming, or defensive security engineering teams serving government or critical infrastructure organizations. Management experience is important but secondary to technical credibility.
Ready?
Apply for Head of Engineering
Email team@zealotlabs.com with a resume and a paragraph on what you want to build with us.
Apply now