FINTECH & SAAS

Cyber security recruitment for fintech and SaaS

In fintech and SaaS, security is part of the product and part of the sales process. The first security hire usually has to build controls, pass a SOC 2 audit and answer enterprise due diligence questionnaires in the same quarter, and that combination narrows the field sharply.

What these teams hire

PRODUCT & APPLICATION SECURITY: Secure SDLC, threat modelling and design partnership with engineering teams shipping weekly.
CLOUD SECURITY: Cloud and DevSecOps engineers working in infrastructure as code from day one.
FIRST SECURITY HIRE: The generalist who builds the function: controls, compliance, customer assurance and the roadmap behind all three.
COMPLIANCE FOR SALES: SOC 2, ISO 27001 and customer due diligence — GRC hired because it unblocks revenue.
SECURITY ENGINEERING: Detection, identity and platform security as the estate outgrows its first controls.
SECURITY LEADERSHIP: Heads of security and CISOs who can hold a board conversation and read a pull request.

What is different about hiring here

The screen is for range and pace. We ask what someone built at what stage of company, and what they deliberately did not do. Strong candidates for this market can name the controls they postponed and why; candidates from large enterprises often cannot, because someone else made that call.

Compliance literacy matters more than in most engineering-led environments. A security hire who cannot run a SOC 2 readiness exercise or answer an enterprise questionnaire will hand that work back to the founders, which is usually the reason the role was opened in the first place.

The market, honestly

South Africa has a real fintech and SaaS cluster, concentrated in Cape Town, and it competes for candidates directly with offshore remote employers. Equity arguments carry less weight locally than in the UK, so package and genuine flexibility do more of the work.

In the UK, competition for product security engineers is intense and mostly won on interesting work and remote flexibility rather than salary alone. The scarcest profile in both markets is the credible first security hire who can operate technically and commercially at once, and we are direct about the trade-off when a compromise is needed.

A first security hire who must build controls, pass an audit and own customer assurance needs the audit budget and the engineering support agreed in advance. Without both, the role becomes unfillable within six months.

Where we recruit

Cape Town and Johannesburg across South Africa, and London and the wider United Kingdom.

Common questions

Can you help us make our first security hire?

Yes, and it is one of the most common briefs we take from this sector. We usually spend the first conversation on scope, because getting that right matters more than the shortlist.

Do you recruit GRC people for SOC 2 and ISO 27001?

Yes. Compliance hired to unblock enterprise sales is a distinct brief, and the useful candidate has run a readiness programme rather than only maintained a certified system.

How do you compete with offshore remote offers for South African candidates?

By being honest about it. Where a client cannot match an offshore package, we position scope, ownership and flexibility, and we tell the client early if the brief is not competitive.

Do you place fractional or part-time security leadership?

We can, though most of our leadership work is permanent or interim full-time. Tell us the shape you need and we will say whether we can source it credibly.

Explore further

Talk to us about your search

A short conversation is usually enough to tell you whether we can help.

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