Cybersecurity Director

About Knightscope

Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP) is a security technology company building the nation's first Autonomous Security Force — autonomous machines, AI-driven software, and elite security professionals operating as one integrated managed service. The Company is on a mission to make the United States of America the safest country in the world. One Team. One Force.

Location: Onsite / Sunnyvale, CA HQ (this is not a remote role)

About the Role

Knightscope seeks a hands-on Director of Cybersecurity to build and lead a practical, company-wide security program supporting our “Federal Grade for All” strategy. Reporting directly to the Chairman and CEO, this leader will turn federal security requirements into working technical controls alongside software, firmware, hardware, IT, and infrastructure teams—not simply issue policies or audit findings. The role combines strategic security leadership, proven FedRAMP delivery experience, and the technical ability to help teams design, implement, troubleshoot, and validate secure solutions across autonomous robotics, cloud services, AI systems, and enterprise environments.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Security Governance

• Define and execute a company-wide cybersecurity strategy, risk framework, and measurable multi-year roadmap aligned to business and product priorities.
• Establish pragmatic policies, secure-by-design standards, risk acceptance and exception processes, third-party risk management, and executive/board reporting.
• Lead security program maturity, including intelligent automation and AI-assisted security operations where appropriate.

Hands-On Engineering Partnership

• Work directly with software, firmware, hardware, robotics, IT, and DevOps teams to design, implement, debug, and verify security controls; provide actionable technical solutions, not policy-only directives.
• Lead collaborative threat modeling, architecture reviews, vulnerability triage, remediation planning, penetration-test follow-through, and secure development practices across cloud, edge, AI, and connected devices.
• Define control objectives and independently validate outcomes while Engineering retains ownership of product architecture, AWS development and production infrastructure, application implementation, CI/CD, DevSecOps, and release execution.
• Partner with IT, which retains day-to-day operational ownership of corporate identity, endpoints, networks, and enterprise systems, to implement and assess enterprise security controls.

Federal Security & Compliance Delivery

• Apply direct, demonstrated FedRAMP implementation and authorization experience to guide control design, evidence collection, assessments, remediation, and continuous monitoring for applicable federal cloud-service obligations.
• Translate NIST and relevant federal requirements into practical engineering work; coordinate with technical owners on implementation and maintain independent compliance assurance.
• Partner with Engineering on federal-ready cloud deployments and integrations, including FedStart where applicable; Palantir FedStart-specific experience is not required.
• Assess applicability of CJIS, DoD, and other public-sector security obligations for specific products and deployments.

Incident Preparedness & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Establish and exercise incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, and security escalation processes; coordinate executive response to material incidents.
• Define meaningful metrics for vulnerabilities, remediation, control effectiveness, incident readiness, and federal compliance evidence.
• Build and mentor a lean security function over time; advise executive leadership and represent Knightscope in client, partner, and government security discussions.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years in cybersecurity, including 5+ years in senior technical or security leadership roles and a track record of building security programs.
• Demonstrated hands-on FedRAMP delivery in U.S. federal cloud environments, including substantive responsibility for implementing controls, preparing for authorization or assessment, and sustaining compliance; framework familiarity alone is insufficient.
• Ability to work at implementation depth with engineers across cloud security, AWS, application security, network architecture, identity/Zero Trust, and secure SDLC/CI/CD practices.
• Experience translating security findings into implementable solutions and personally helping teams resolve complex technical issues.
• Strong knowledge of NIST security controls, risk management, incident response, and security architecture; executive communication and cross-functional influence.
• Experience applying security automation or AI/ML-enabled security techniques in production or operational settings.

Preferred (Pluses)

• Security experience with autonomous robotics, embedded firmware, connected hardware, IoT, or edge computing.
• Experience in government, public safety, defense, or other regulated mission-critical environments.
• Experience with Palantir FedStart, CJIS, DoD standards, AI-driven platforms, or product security at scale.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $250,000 – $325,000 DOE (anticipated hiring target: approximately $285,000 – $300,000, based on qualifications).
• Equity: Stock options.
• Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off.
• Location Requirement: Full-time, on-site at Sunnyvale HQ.