CISO - Global FinTech scaleup - £140,000 - £150,000 - fully remote

Are you a hands-on CISO or Security Director ready to lead, standardize, and scale the entire security posture for a hyper-growth, globally expanding FinTech? Can you urgently drive mission-critical PCI DSS compliance across multiple international environments while integrating disparate security practices from recent acquisitions?

A high-growth global FinTech, founded 4 years ago and backed by a major investor, specializes in providing seamless digital payment processing and banking solutions across Asia and the Middle East. With senior leadership split between Europe/UK and Dubai, they urgently seek their next CISO to unify and mature their security function. This is a critical leadership role reporting to the executive team, demanding a candidate who can balance strategic vision with technical delivery.

CISO Core Responsibilities:

• Mission-Critical Compliance (PCI DSS): Urgently own and successfully complete the certification for the third PCI DSS environment, ensuring continuous compliance across all card-touching payments infrastructure.
• Security Strategy & Standardization: Define, harmonize, and implement an enterprise-grade security framework across the entire group, integrating inconsistent practices following multiple acquisitions.
• Risk & Governance Leadership: Own the overall cyber risk posture, manage ISO certifications, and establish formal security governance to meet the demands of major institutional investment.
• Hands-On Technical Guidance: Provide technical expertise to navigate security tools (SIEM, Vulnerability Management) and architectural decisions, ensuring the move away from early-stage cost-cutting.
• Global Team Management: Lead and grow a small, focused security team (currently 2, planned for 3-5 total), overseeing the implementation of a 24/7 outsourced SecOps monitoring function.
• Incident Response & Reporting: Lead all major security incident response activities and provide high-level reporting on operational risk to the executive team and board.

CISO Must-Have Experience:

• Payments Security (Card-Touching): Mandatory hands-on experience in PCI DSS environments and security engineering for payments infrastructure, specifically dealing directly with card processing (not just merchant or wallet solutions).
• Technical Acumen: Proven ability to operate at both the strategic/GRC level and the technical implementation level; must be able to understand the tools and implementation details.
• Maturity & Scale Experience: Experience in moving a fast-growing company from a startup mentality to an enterprise-ready security posture, including modernizing device security and WAF implementation.
• Leadership & Autonomy: Senior leadership background that demonstrates independence in establishing and driving a security program without relying purely on high-level direction (i.e., not a pure strategy CISO from a massive bank).

CISO Key Outcomes (First 6–12 Months):

• Successfully complete the PCI DSS certification for the third, mission-critical payments environment going live in January 2026.
• Produce a comprehensive assessment of the current security state across all acquired group companies and establish a single, unified security standard.
• Harmonize security processes across the group, retiring inconsistent legacy tooling, and delivering immediate, visible improvements in enterprise readiness.
• Formalize the structure of the security team, successfully onboarding the SecOps hire, and establishing the 24/7 outsourced monitoring capability.

If you are an agile, technically capable CISO or security leader who thrives in an urgent, high-impact environment and is ready to establish the global security function for a major FinTech player, please apply immediately!

CISO - Global FinTech start-up - £140,000 - £150,000 - fully remote