VP of GRC

Location: San Francisco, CA (in person) Department: GRC Services Employment type: Full-time Compensation: $260,000 – $320,000 base salary + equity + benefits ABOUT ZANIA Zania builds agentic AI for security governance, risk, and compliance. Our domain-specific AI agents run risk assessments, collect evidence, test controls, run gap analyses, and perform end-to-end third-party risk management, with humans in control of every decision.

Customers including Plaid, Grant Thornton, Stanford University, a Big 4 firm, and Fortune 500 enterprises use Zania to finish compliance work in days instead of months. We are backed by NEA, Anthology Fund (Menlo Ventures and Anthropic), and Palm Drive Capital, and partner with TCS and HCLTech. THE ROLE As VP of GRC, you will build and lead Zania's customer-facing GRC services organization. You'll be the senior GRC voice in front of our largest customers and partners, turning Zania's agents into audit-ready outcomes: SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, NIST CSF, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and TPRM programs delivered faster and with higher coverage than any traditional team.

You'll own delivery quality, customer success for GRC engagements, and the playbooks that let our agents and our people scale together. This is a hands-on executive role reporting to the CEO, working in person with our team in San Francisco. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Build and lead the GRC services team: hire, coach, and scale GRC leads, solutions architects, and compliance specialists - Own end-to-end delivery of customer GRC engagements: scoping, onboarding, gap assessments, controls testing, audit readiness, and TPRM programs - Serve as the executive GRC advisor to CISOs, CROs, Chief Audit Executives, and Big 4 / advisory partners - Design repeatable, agent-first delivery methodologies and playbooks across SOC 2, ISO 27001/42001, NIST CSF/800-53, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, DORA, and the EU AI Act - Partner with Product and AI Engineering to turn field insight into agent capabilities, evaluation criteria, and human-in-the-loop guardrails - Enable systems integrators and channel partners (e.g., TCS, HCLTech, audit firms) to deliver on Zania - Support pre-sales: lead technical GRC discovery, solution design, and proof-of-value engagements for strategic deals - Define and report services KPIs: time-to-audit-readiness, assessment cycle time, vendor coverage, customer satisfaction, and expansion - Act as a public voice for Zania: thought leadership, conferences, customer advisory boards, and analyst briefings WHAT YOU BRING - 12+ years in GRC, IT audit, or security compliance, including 5+ years leading client-facing teams - Background at a Big 4 / top advisory firm, a GRC platform, or leading GRC at a high-growth company - Deep, hands-on expertise in SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and third-party risk management; you've run audits and remediation programs yourself - Track record of executive presence with CISOs, audit committees, and enterprise buyers - Experience building scalable services or delivery organizations, including methodology, staffing, and margin management - Strong curiosity about AI, and the conviction that agents will change how GRC work gets done - Certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CRISC, CISM, or ISO 27001 Lead Auditor are a plus - Familiarity with AI governance (ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act) is a strong plus WHY ZANIA - Shape the category: define how AI agents and GRC experts work together at Fortune 500 scale - Executive seat at a well-funded Series A company with real enterprise traction - Meaningful equity, competitive salary, and comprehensive benefits - In-person collaboration with a team that has led AI and security at Microsoft, Deloitte, Bain, Airbnb, Instacart, Brex, and PwC Zania is an equal opportunity employer.

We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.