---
title: 'Head of Security Engineering (DevSecOps & CISO) at Smarkets'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-security-engineering-devsecops-ciso-smarkets-london-5h7bhg941kz4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Head of Security Engineering (DevSecOps & CISO) at Smarkets

- **Company:** Smarkets
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/smarkets/1d8143b9-96fb-4a75-9f17-0642f7056cb5

## Job description

Head of Security Engineering (DevSecOps & CISO)

## ABOUT SMARKETS

Smarkets is a prediction market exchange for sports and political trading, having handled over $50 billion in volume since 2010. We're upending sports betting with the fairest prices, the best technology, and a superior customer experience — powered by attracting great people and building a high-performance environment where they thrive. We're looking for an atypical candidate with strong regulated-business experience to support our growing CFTC business.

## THE ROLE

This is our inaugural security hire, working alongside Infrastructure to protect the distributed, real-time systems behind our trading engine. You'll lead our information security programme across our core products and our DCM/DCO entities — a founding build, standing up security engineering from the ground up through go-live and maturing it as we scale. Reporting directly to senior leadership and the Board, you'll own security posture updates and ensure our risk management and incident response frameworks exceed regulatory and operational standards.

## ABOUT YOU

- Security expert with hands-on experience building security engineering/DevSecOps capabilities in a cloud-native, high-growth environment — ideally financial services or exchange infrastructure
- Excellent communication skills for executive, board, and regulatory audiences
- Familiarity with CFTC system safeguards expectations, including 17 C.F.R. § 38.1051 and § 39.18 or similar regulatory requirements
- Strong grasp of application security principles (OWASP Top 10, NIST) and secure SDLC practices
- Proficiency with CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, CircleCI) and security tools (Snyk, Aqua, Trivy, Checkov, Twistlock, Clair)
- Hands-on expertise securing AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, containers, and IaC
- Proficiency in Python, Bash, Go, or similar

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- First dedicated security engineering hire, working from within Infrastructure and Engineering teams to establish and evolve Smarkets' security capabilities
- Own regulatory/industry engagement (including CFTC), reflecting external expectations in internal practice
- Define a pragmatic, risk-based security strategy across cloud infrastructure, applications, trading systems, and corporate environment
- Lead or support the investigation, containment and remediation of security incidents, including post-incident root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Work with Engineering teams to build security into the SDLC — SAST, DAST, SCA, container/IaC scanning in CI/CD — without becoming a delivery bottleneck
- Implement controls across AWS, Kubernetes, containers, and IaC, hardening identity, secrets, and network access
- Establish security monitoring and detection across applications, APIs, and infrastructure
- Develop and maintain security policies, standards, and controls meeting DCM/DCO requirements
- Maintain evidence and documentation to support regulatory examinations and audits
- Act as a security partner to engineers, building a culture of ownership over security

## DESIRABLE

- Personal interest in sports, exchanges, or trading
- Certifications: DSOP, CKS, CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, or AWS/Azure/GCP Security Specialty
- Track record of security automation at scale in Agile/Scrum
- Direct experience with regulators/examiners on technology and system safeguards
- Familiarity with event contracts, prediction markets, or similar novel futures products under CFTC

## Our Values

Our values are at the heart of everything we do - guiding how we work, collaborate, and innovate. They reflect what we expect of ourselves and each other to deliver the best results, while fostering a positive, high-performing environment:

- Push to Win: We set ambitious goals and relentlessly pursue them, always striving for excellence.
- Make Others Better: We lift each other up, share knowledge, and celebrate team success over individual achievement.
- Give a Shit: We care deeply about our work, our users, and the impact we make.
- Be a Pro: We take ownership, act with integrity, and consistently deliver to a high standard.
- Bring the Energy: We bring positivity, curiosity, and enthusiasm to everything we do, inspiring those around us.

Culture Fit: These values define how we succeed as a team. If this isn’t you, this may not be the right place. We hire people who thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and ambitious environment.

## Perks & Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, alongside a dynamic, collaborative environment where your work truly makes an impact and your voice is heard. Our team is diverse, driven, and ambitious - united by a strong work ethic and a hunger to innovate and win. Our benefits are designed around Health, Wealth, and Development, supporting you both professionally and personally. These include:

- Stock Options: Vest over 4 years, your success is our success.
- Pension Scheme: Competitive plan via Aviva, with up to 6% matched contributions if you opt in.
- Health Insurance: Comprehensive coverage to keep you and your family healthy.
- Enhanced Parental Leave: Enhanced maternity and paternity leave to support you through life’s most important moments.
- Stay Fuelled: Enjoy fresh, chef-made breakfast and lunch every day, plus a constant supply of fruit, snacks, tea, coffee and soft drinks, because great work starts with great food.
- Cycle-to-Work Scheme: Support for sustainable commuting and staying active.
- Learning & Development: £1,000 annual education budget for courses, conferences, books, or training.
- Holiday: 25 days paid leave + bank holidays, with the option to carry over 5 days.
- Flexible Working: Hybrid model with 3 days in the office and 2 days from home to fit your lifestyle.
- Global Working: Work from anywhere in the world for up to 20 days a year.
- Team Energy: Regular socials, hackathons, and events — because collaboration and fun go hand-in-hand.

Smarkets is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to equality, inclusion, and a welcoming environment for all.

## About Smarkets

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Smarkets operates a peer-to-peer betting exchange and prediction market platform that allows users to back and lay outcomes on sports, politics, and current events with low commission and sharp pricing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (multiple funding rounds including Series B)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom
- **Founded**: 2008
- **Founders**: Jason Trost (CEO), Hunter Morris, Donald Trost

## Core Business
- Primary industries: Financial Services, Betting & Prediction Markets, Exchange Technology
- Target customers: B2C (retail traders and bettors) and B2B (institutional market makers, algorithmic traders via API)
- Mission or purpose: "To revolutionise the betting industry by building a more fair, customer-focused betting experience" and "to build the infrastructure for how the world prices uncertain events."

## Products & Services
- **Smarkets Exchange**: A peer-to-peer betting exchange where users bet against each other rather than a bookmaker. Charges a default 2% commission on net winnings only (no commission on losses). Covers sports, politics, current affairs, and entertainment. Offers a full REST/Streaming API for algorithmic traders.
- **SBK Sportsbook App**: A sportsbook product launched in 2022 that provides a traditional fixed-odds betting experience alongside the exchange model.
- **Prediction Market Infrastructure**: The underlying platform processes billions in annual volume and is built on a modern tech stack (Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes) with performance-critical systems in Rust and C++.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**: 
  - Annual Revenue: GBP 11.9 million (source: LeadIQ)
  - Total Funding: Conflicting reports – LeadIQ states USD 3.7 million (over 5 rounds), while Wellfound states USD 33.7 million (Series B led by Susquehanna Growth Equity in 2021). 
  - Lifetime matched volume: Over £20 billion (source: pm.wiki)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Passion Capital (seed), Susquehanna Growth Equity (Series B), SailGP (three-year sports trading partnership)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 20.2% YoY (76 employees per LeadIQ, but firm claims 100+ team)
  - Actively pursuing a US CFTC Designated Contract Markets license to enter American prediction markets (announced March 2026)
  - Operates in 6 countries (UK, Malta, US, Costa Rica, Brazil, Portugal)
  - 1M+ customers worldwide

## Competitive Advantages
- **Low commission model**: 2% on net winnings only – significantly lower than rivals like Betfair (5–7%).
- **Proprietary market-making technology**: Consistently delivers sharper prices through deep liquidity and proprietary algorithms.
- **Modern tech stack**: Built on Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes, with performance-critical components in Rust and C++20, and product surfaces in Python and React.
- **Longevity and resilience**: Founded in 2008, has survived multiple market cycles and competitors.

## Strategic Focus
- **US expansion**: Filing for CFTC license to enter the regulated US prediction market space.
- **Infrastructure for truth discovery**: Positioning itself as the infrastructure for pricing uncertain events across sports, politics, and emerging markets.
- **Continuous platform improvement**: Enhancing scalability, performance, and usability for both retail and algorithmic traders.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: "Intelligent, diverse individuals committed to making things better" – strong engineering culture with high autonomy for teams.
- **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Hybrid with a London HQ and Malta office; some roles listed as remote on Wellfound.
- **Notable perks**:
  - In-house chefs providing fresh, sustainable meals daily (rooftop kitchen, "lunch al fresco" encouraged)
  - Annual training budget of £1,000 per employee
  - Private health insurance (comprehensive)
  - Up to 6% pension match
  - Stock options
  - Enhanced parental leave
  - Cycle-to-work scheme
- **Engineering culture**: "High-performing teams that have control over the features they ship and the code they write" – modern tech stack and active hiring for senior engineers.

## Sources
1. [smarkets.com/careers](https://smarkets.com/careers/)
2. [linkedin.com/company/smarkets](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/smarkets)
3. [wellfound.com/company/smarkets](https://wellfound.com/company/smarkets)
4. [leadiq.com/c/smarkets](https://leadiq.com/c/smarkets/5a1d9348540000540077bdc2)
5. [pm.wiki/projects/smarkets](https://pm.wiki/projects/smarkets)

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