Senior Cyber Security Engineer

At Compass, we're on a mission to transform the school day for everyone - from staff and students to families and administrators. We build smart, seamless technology that empowers schools to focus on what really matters: learning, growing and thriving.

That mission has fuelled our growth into a global scale-up, now supporting 5,000+ schools across three countries, backed by a team of 300+ people. Our all-in-one school management platform is redefining how education communities connect, communicate and operate.

We're now looking for a Senior Cyber Security Engineer to work closely with our Head of Technology to help build and shape the security roadmap at Compass.

You'll play a key role in how the organisation approaches risk, and be a trusted voice on platform, infrastructure and application.

This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to work closely with senior leadership, help build a security function from the ground up, and make a real difference to the safety of a platform used by schools every day.

• Work alongside the Head of Technology to build the security roadmap, set standards and be a trusted voice on security risk and posture.
• Build and maintain a formal risk register covering vulnerabilities, remediation progress and residual risk.
• Advise the Head of Technology and senior leadership on security risks, incidents and investment priorities.

• Lead and conduct penetration testing across web applications, APIs, infrastructure and cloud, including managing third-party pen test engagements.
• Identify and remediate security gaps including access control, database security (MongoDB, Redis, SQL), secrets management and cloud IAM.

• Assess and improve GCP security configuration including VPC architecture, IAM policies, audit logging and Cloud Security Command Centre.
• Work with DevOps and platform engineers to harden infrastructure and review Terraform and CI/CD pipelines.
• Oversee application security including OWASP Top 10, code review involvement and secure SDLC guidance for the development team.

• Oversee and quality-assure security investigations, including school-facing audit and access cases handled by junior team members.
• Ensure investigation processes are documented, consistent and legally defensible under Australian privacy law and, where relevant, UK/EU data protection requirements.
• Own data access governance - who can access what, under what conditions and with what audit trail.

• Lead incident detection and response across the platform.
• Design, maintain and continually test Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) to ensure rapid restoration of critical services and mitigate operational impact during disruptions.
• Define, oversee and validate backup rotation strategies, ensuring strict data integrity, retention compliance and reliable restoration procedures.

• Manage and mentor junior team members, including setting workload, providing direction and supporting their development.

You will bring:

• 5+ years of hands-on cyber security experience with depth in both application and infrastructure security.
• Strong penetration testing skills across web applications, APIs, network and cloud, including managing third-party engagements.
• Solid cloud security knowledge, particularly GCP or AWS (IAM, network security, audit logging, secrets management and posture tooling).
• Proven ability to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in production environments.
• Practical experience with security risk management - building a risk register, prioritising remediation and communicating risk to non-technical stakeholders.
• Familiarity with database security across relational and NoSQL systems - access control, encryption and audit logging.
• Understanding of Australian SaaS compliance obligations and privacy frameworks.
• Clear communication skills - able to translate technical risk for leadership and turn security requirements into practical guidance for engineers.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior security staff.

Highly regarded:

• Relevant certifications such as OSCP, CISSP, CISM or equivalent.
• Familiarity with UK/EU data protection requirements including GDPR.
• Prior experience in EdTech, SaaS or a high-growth scale-up environment.

If you're excited about helping build our security function and keeping a platform used by thousands of schools safe, we'd love to hear from you.

Find out more about Compass on our website - www.compass.education.