Security Third Party Risk Management Lead

About this role

About Us

At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.

At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in.

Available Location: Austin, US

Overview

The Security Third Party Risk Management Lead is a senior individual-contributor role. You will be the technical and operational leader for our Third Party Risk function — owning the execution and continuous improvement of vendor & data center security reviews, serving as the go-to subject matter expert for the team, and mentoring Third Party Risk Management Specialists as they deliver high-quality assessments at scale.

This role leads through expertise, coordination, and influence. You will set the operational bar for how the program runs day to day and make sure the team's work gets across the finish line. You will lead projects to improve our Security Third Party Risk Program, including setting the strategy, overseeing the project execution, and navigating roadblocks. You will represent the team and interface with Procurement and other key cross-functional partners.

You will also play an essential role in developing our Third Party Risk Management Specialists. While people-management responsibilities sit with the Director of Information Security GRC, you will mentor the team on assessment methodology, risk decisions, and best practices.

Key Deliverables

• Own and drive the operational execution of our third party risk management program — vendor risk assessments, security contract terms, and continuous monitoring — ensuring work is completed efficiently and to a consistently high standard.

• Serve as the subject matter expert and go-to technical resource for vendor security review methodology, vendor tiering, and risk treatment decisions.

• Lead the vendor risk assessment process day to day, applying and refining the security policies and standards that govern different types of vendor engagements (e.g. cloud, contractor, software, hardware, data centers).

• Proactively identify inefficiencies in vendor security workflows and propose and implement improvements that increase effectiveness, quality, and scalability.

• Coordinate the team's operational work — running check-ins with the specialists to drive assessments, escalations, and projects across the finish line.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Third Party Risk Management Specialists on assessment methodology, risk decisions, tooling, and best practices.

• Make timely, well-reasoned decisions on risk findings and policy exceptions — assessing risk, compensating controls, and acceptable risk thresholds — and act as the escalation point for complex or ambiguous cases.

• Support negotiation of security contract terms with vendors by maintaining guidance for Contracts/Legal teams and helping resolve contract escalations.

• Act as a primary point of coordination with Sourcing, Contracts, Legal, Privacy, and Security teams across the vendor lifecycle — onboarding, implementation, monitoring, and offboarding — influencing how vendor security integrates into their processes.

• Support the design, implementation, and improvement of Procurement/GRC tools and AI workflows

• Report on third party risk posture and program operations to the Director, Information Security GRC, and security leadership.

Examples of skills, knowledge and experience

• Experience typically gained in 8+ years working in Security GRC

• Deep, hands-on expertise operating a third party / vendor risk program end to end.

• Subject-matter expertise across security control frameworks — ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI, NIST 800-53.

• Solid understanding of security contract terms and vendor negotiation support.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor peers and provide technical guidance.

• A track record of identifying process inefficiencies and driving operational improvements at scale.

• Strong ability to influence and coordinate across cross-functional teams.

• Strong organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills.

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.

Project Galileo : Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost.

Athenian Project : In

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