IT Security and Data Privacy Specialist
Summary
Our operations team exists to build the organisation and systems that keep 80,000 Hours on track to achieve our mission of getting talented people working on the world’s most pressing problems, especially on mitigating risks from advanced artificial intelligence.
We’ve grown to 35 staff, are responsible for managing several SaaS services, and are exploring various ways to use LLMs to automate our products. We need someone to ensure we’re continually improving our data protection standpoint while enabling our team to work effectively. This role combines hands-on security implementation with strategic thinking about privacy compliance — which is especially important as we ramp up our use of AI tools.
The right person in this role will:
- Protect sensitive user data
- Enable our team to work securely without unnecessary friction
- Help us navigate the evolving landscape of AI governance and data protection
- Build security practices that scale with our ambitious growth plans
- Support the team in safely adopting AI tools that enhance our impact
We think this role is highly impactful because security incidents or privacy breaches could undermine our programme’s ability to function and seriously damage trust in 80,000 Hours. You’ll also be setting standards for how mission-driven organisations can responsibly use AI while protecting user privacy.
This hiring round is part of a coordinated effort to grow our operations function. We’re hiring for several specific roles across different teams, and while each has its own focus, the skill sets we’re looking for are largely overlapping, so we’re running a unified hiring round. You can find more information about the other roles here.
Location: London, England (preferred). We’re also open to remote candidates whose working hours overlap with at least four hours between 9AM–6PM UK time.
Salary: Approximately £55,000 to £80,000, depending on the role and your experience.
To apply, please complete this application form by 11PM GMT on Monday, September 1 2025.
About 80,000 Hours
80,000 Hours’ goal is to get talented people working on the world’s most pressing problems. After more than 10 years of research into dozens of problem areas, we’re putting most of our focus on helping people work on positively shaping the trajectory of AI, because we think it presents the most serious and urgent challenge that the world is facing right now.
We’ve had over 10 million readers on our website, have \~600,000 subscribers to our newsletter, and have given one-on-one advice to over 6,000 people. We’ve also been one of the largest drivers of growth in the effective altruism community.
The operations team oversees 80,000 Hours’ HR, recruiting, finances, governance operations, org-wide metrics, and office management, as well as much of our fundraising, tech systems, and team coordination.
Currently, the operations team has ten full-time staff and some part-time staff. We’re planning to significantly grow the size of our operations team this year to stay on track with our ambitious goals and support a growing team.
The role
As our IT Security and Data Privacy Lead, you would:
Evaluate and implement security controls
- Research and make recommendations on security tools (endpoint protection, email security, etc.)
- Lead the rollout of chosen solutions across our distributed team
- Balance security needs with operational efficiency
- Initially, you’ll make recommendations to leadership, but as you grow in the role, we expect you to implement solutions with increasing independence
Manage data privacy compliance
- Ensure GDPR compliance, including around our use of AI/LLMs
- Develop policies for responsible data handling
- Coordinate responses to data subject requests
Reduce security risks
- Conduct regular audits of our SaaS permissions and access controls
- Design and implement security awareness training
- Develop incident response procedures
Oversee security-related vendor management
- Manage procurement and renewals for security tools and services
- Build relationships with key security vendors
- Evaluate and negotiate contracts for security-related SaaS products
Enable safe AI adoption (optional but valuable)
- Help staff identify high-impact ways to use AI tools securely
- Develop guidelines for responsible AI tool usage
- Balance innovation with security considerations
Provide strategic oversight
- Advise our leadership on security/privacy risks and tradeoffs
- Work with teams to build security into new initiatives from the start
- Keep us ahead of evolving threats and regulations
- Over time, own more security decisions independently as you build context and trust
Who we’re looking for
We’re open to different backgrounds — whether you’re a technical person who wants to do more strategy, or an operations person excited to get more technical. The key is having the judgement to make good security decisions and the drive to implement them.
We’re looking for someone who has:
Required:
- A practical, risk-based approach to security
- Strong communication skills — able to explain technical concepts to non-technical staff
- Good judgement about tradeoffs between security and usability
- Excitement and ability to learn
- Ability to work independently and drive projects forwards
Ideally, you’d also have:
- 2–5 years experience in IT security, data privacy, or related operations roles
- Hands-on experience with security tools and implementations
- Understanding of GDPR and data protection principles
- Experience with cloud/SaaS security
- Some technical skills (even if self-taught)
- Interest in AI safety and effective altruism
- Experience with vendor management or procurement
- Familiarity with AI tools and their security implications
Previous experience
Candidates would ideally have at least two years of previous experience. This doesn’t have to be directly relevant to operations — it might be in another generalist role such as consulting, communications, project management, or community building. We’re excited to hear from both generalists and people who are interested in one particular element of operations.
Logistics
This is a full-time role, ideally based in London, England, and we can sponsor visas for this position. We’d also consider remote candidates who can work at least four hours per day between 9AM–6PM UK time.
The start date for this role is flexible. Ideally, our chosen candidate would start as soon as possible.
You’d report to Eli Nathan, our Head of Business Operations, and work closely with other operations team members. While you’ll start by making recommendations, we envision this role growing to have significant autonomy over security decisions as you build expertise in our context.
Salary and benefits
The salary will vary based on skills and experience, but to give a rough sense, we expect starting salaries to be between £55,000–80,000.
Our benefits include:
- 25 days of paid holiday, plus public holidays
- Private medical insurance
- Long-term disability insurance
- Pension scheme/retirement plan with employer contributions
- Up to 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave and childcare allowance for children under five
- £5,000 annual mental health support allowance
- £5,000 annual self-development budget
- The option to use 10% of your time for self-development
- Gym, shower facilities, and unlimited free food provided at our London office
How to apply
To apply, please complete this application form by 11PM GMT on Monday, September 1 2025. We expect the application to take approximately one hour to complete.
We’re aware that factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can affect people’s willingness to apply for roles for which they meet many but not all the suggested attributes, and would especially like to encourage people from under-represented backgrounds to apply, even if you don’t meet all the suggested criteria.
The application process will vary depending on the candidate and role, but is likely to include 1–3 written work tests, an interview, and a multi-day in-person trial. We offer payment for work tests and trials, conditional on your location and right to work in the UK.