Field CISO

The role

This Field CISO will be Illumio's most credible external voice on Zero Trust Segmentation and breach containment. The role combines executive advising and evangelism with hands-on architecture work, including demo environments and proofs of concept.

What you will do

• Serve as Illumio's foremost executive voice on Zero Trust Segmentation and breach containment, in the field and in public.
• Build and maintain analyst relationships with firms such as Gartner and Forrester.
• Engage CISO and CTO stakeholders directly on the most strategic opportunities.
• Partner with Sales, Product Marketing and Product Management on go-to-market strategy, positioning and roadmap.
• Own and evolve the Use Case Map, Demo Runbook and reference architectures used by the global SE organization.
• Build flagship demo environments and POC/POV frameworks.
• Lead or co-lead the most strategic and complex opportunities globally.
• Act as the final technical and executive escalation point for deals across regions.
• Design training and certification paths for the global SE team.
• Track the competitive landscape and give structured field feedback to Product Management.

Required qualifications

• Prior experience as a CISO, Deputy CISO or senior security executive (VP/Director of Information Security).
• 10+ years of experience leading enterprise security programs.
• Hands-on exposure to network segmentation, Zero Trust architecture, incident response and breach containment, or cloud security.
• Ability to speak credibly to engineering and executive/board audiences.
• Track record as an external-facing voice: conference speaking, analyst engagement, thought leadership or peer-community leadership.
• Proven hands-on architecture and build capability.
• Experience engaging CISO and CTO stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity or equivalent experience.
• Willingness and ability to travel 30–50% for customer, analyst and industry engagements.

Nice to have

• Prior title of CISO, Deputy CISO, Field CISO, or VP/Director of Information Security at an enterprise or mid-market organization.
• Direct operational experience running a segmentation, Zero Trust or breach containment program.
• Experience with microsegmentation, CNAPP, cloud security posture management, or hybrid cloud detection and response tooling.
• Existing relationships with analyst firms covering network security, Zero Trust or security operations.
• Experience building go-to-market plans around a new or acquired product line.
• Published thought leadership on breach containment, Zero Trust or cyber resilience.
• Familiarity with the Illumio platform, including Illumio Segmentation, Illumio Insights, container/Kubernetes segmentation, OT/ICS and hybrid cloud.

Before you apply

• The role is intentionally sourced from the CISO community, so a former or current CISO-level background is required.
• Background checks are carried out through an authorized third-party vendor before employment starts.
• Illumio will consider applicants with arrest and conviction records for roles in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

About the company

Illumio is a breach containment company that provides Zero Trust segmentation and AI-driven detection across hybrid, multi-cloud and on-premises environments. It was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2026.