Fractional VP - Information Security

Carbon3 develops, owns and operates AI infrastructure across the UK, powered by renewable energy. Converting legacy industrial and energy sites into modern data centre facilities, Carbon3 is combining brownfield regeneration opportunities with cleaner, efficient, scalable compute capacity for healthcare, research, finance, enterprise, and public sector organisations.

We are considering both permanent and fractional hires.

The VP, Information Security is accountable for the day to day security posture and execution across all Carbon3.ai assets, physical, digital, and operational, whether owned, operated, or managed on behalf of customers and partners.

This role establishes the initial security operating foundation for Carbon3.ai and serves as the beachhead for a security function that will scale in scope and responsibility as the business grows.

Reporting to the CTO, and partnering closely with the CTO and COO, the role combines hands on operational execution with senior, customer facing credibility, supporting Carbon3.ai sovereign and sustainable AI mission.

Key responsibilities: Security leadership and execution:

• Own and operate the Carbon3.ai security program across infrastructure, platforms, networks, and data.
• Build and run a scalable security operating model, tooling, and core processes.
• Embed secure by design practices into architecture, engineering, and delivery.
• Establish security governance, metrics, and reporting for executives, customers, and regulators.

Infrastructure, platform, and data security:

• Own security architecture for AI and HPC platforms, including GPU infrastructure, Kubernetes, and orchestration layers.
• Lead cloud, network, identity, and platform security using zero trust principles.
• Define and enforce data centric security and sovereignty controls.
• Oversee monitoring, incident response, key management, and threat detection.
• Own security across the physical to digital boundary, including data centre adjacent environments.

Risk, compliance, and assurance:

• Maintain the cyber risk management framework, including threat modelling and risk registers.
• Lead audit, certification, and customer due diligence readiness.
• Ensure compliance with UK data protection, sovereign AI expectations, and customer requirements.
• Act as the accountable executive for security incidents and external engagement.

Customer, strategy, and culture:

• Partner with commercial and delivery teams to support sales, onboarding, and assurance.
• Act as the senior security authority with customers, partners, and regulators.
• Advise the CTO and COO on security risk, priorities, and trade offs.
• Shape the roadmap for the future security organisation and build a pragmatic security culture.

Qualifications and experience:

• Current or previously held, UK security check clearance or higher. (Would consider someone eligible)
• Senior security leadership experience in infrastructure, cloud, platform, or regulated environments.
• Exposure to AI, HPC, GPU platforms, or large scale infrastructure.
• Proven ownership of security architecture and operations.
• Strong grounding in cloud, network, identity, monitoring, and incident response.
• Experience in sovereign, defence, government adjacent, or critical infrastructure contexts.
• Able to translate security risk into clear business decisions.
• Comfortable operating without a large existing team and representing security externally.
• Experience with secure by design and zero trust architectures.
• Exposure to sustainability led technology or energy aware infrastructure.

Personal attributes:

• Accountable, pragmatic, and delivery focused
• Hands on leader with strong technical credibility
• Trusted partner to executives, customers, and regulators
• High integrity and aligned with the Carbon3.ai sovereign and sustainable AI mission

Why Join Carbon3.ai:

You'll be joining a mission-driven start up building critical national infrastructure, where operational excellence directly enables growth. This role offers high visibility with leadership, real autonomy, and the chance to shape how a next generation company operates at scale.