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A customer-service AI company that has grown into a high-profile, globally distributed firm with prominent founders is now building a formal physical security function, a sign that it is treating its own visibility and risk exposure as a company-level concern rather than a startup afterthought.
Sierra is the leading platform for customer-facing AI agents, working with many of the world's biggest brands — including The GAP, Rocket Mortgage, SoFi, Sutter Health, and SoftBank — to transform how they serve customers and grow their businesses. We are primarily an in-person company based in San Francisco, with growing offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.
We are guided by a set of values that are at the core of our actions and define our culture: Trust, Customer Obsession, Craftsmanship, Intensity, and a commitment to balancing Family along the way. These values are the foundation of our work, and we are committed to upholding them in everything we do.
Our co-founders are Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor. Bret currently serves as Board Chair of OpenAI. Previously, he was co-CEO of Salesforce (which had acquired the company he founded, Quip) and CTO of Facebook. Bret was also one of Google's earliest product managers and co-creator of Google Maps. Before founding Sierra, Clay spent 18 years at Google, where he most recently led Google Labs. Earlier, he started and led Google’s AR/VR effort, Project Starline, and Google Lens. Before that, Clay led the product and design teams for Google Workspace.
As Sierra's first Physical Security Lead, you will build and own our global physical security program from the ground up, protecting our people, offices, events, and information as we grow across North America, Europe, and Asia. You'll partner closely with Workplace Technology, IT Engineering, Workplace, Security Engineering, People, and Legal, and set the strategy, standards, and operating model for the function as it scales.
Program strategy and standards: Assess risk across every Sierra site and set a global baseline for physical security, including policies, standards, and site-tier requirements, prioritized into a practical roadmap with a budget and clear metrics.
Access control and security systems: Own the strategy and governance for badge access, video, intrusion detection, and visitor management, in partnership with Workplace Technology, who operate our office access and network systems. Make sure access follows least privilege, is reviewed regularly, and is removed promptly when people leave. Make sure these systems are monitored and have backup power.
Office openings and build-outs: Define security requirements for new offices and build-outs as we open new sites, and partner with Workplace, landlords, architects, and integrators from design through commissioning.
Sensitive spaces, insider risk, and threat assessment: Secure executive areas, boardrooms, and conference rooms where confidential customer and company discussions happen, including technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) sweeps, recording-device policies, and controls for hosting visitors and guests. Build a workplace violence prevention and behavioral threat assessment program with People and Legal, and partner with Security Engineering and IT Engineering on insider risk so that physical and digital signals are reviewed together.
Policy, compliance, and customer trust: Own Sierra's Physical Security Policy and the physical controls behind our compliance programs. Represent physical security in customer security assessments and audits, and drive findings to closure.
Incident response and emergency preparedness: Own physical security incident response, investigations, and emergency plans for every office. Run drills and tabletop exercises, and set up monitoring and escalation through an in-house function or a GSOC partner. Issue safety advisories and coordinate with building security and local authorities when employees are at risk near our offices.
Events, executives, and travel: Plan security for all-hands meetings, customer events, and off-sites. Coordinate executive protection and travel risk management with trusted vendors, and own guard and security services contracts across our sites, including post orders, staffing, and performance.
Experience: 8+ years in corporate physical security, global security, or security operations, including building or substantially scaling a program at a fast-growing technology company. Law enforcement, military, or government experience is valued alongside corporate experience.
Program building: A track record of standing up a physical security function at an early stage, including policies, vendors, budget, metrics, and team, with sound judgment about what to tackle first.
Security systems: Hands-on experience with modern, cloud-based access control, video, and visitor management platforms (for example Verkada, Brivo, Avigilon Alta, Genetec, or Envoy), and how they integrate with identity systems such as Okta.
Risk and threat assessment: Experience conducting site risk assessments, threat assessments, and investigations, and handling sensitive matters with discretion alongside People and Legal teams.
Incident leadership: Calm, decisive leadership during incidents and emergencies, including serving as incident lead and running after-action reviews.
Multi-site and international: Experience securing offices across multiple regions, including Europe and Asia, and managing guard, integrator, and executive protection vendors.
Partnership and communication: Able to build security programs that employees welcome rather than work around, and to explain risk clearly to executives, engineers, and building partners.
Work model: This role is based in our San Francisco office, with regular travel to our other offices.
Professional certifications such as ASIS PSP or CPP.
Experience running TSCM programs or protecting sensitive R&D or AI research environments.
Experience with GSOC operations, mass notification, or travel risk management platforms.
Trust: We build trust with our customers with our accountability, empathy, quality, and responsiveness. We build trust in AI by making it more accessible, safe, and useful. We build trust with each other by showing up for each other professionally and personally, creating an environment that enables all of us to do our best work.
Customer Obsession: We deeply understand our customers’ business goals and relentlessly focus on driving outcomes, not just technical milestones. Everyone at the company knows and spends time with our customers. When our customer is having an issue, we drop everything and fix it.
Craftsmanship: We get the details right, from the words on the page to the system architecture. We have good taste. When we notice something isn’t right, we take the time to fix it. We are proud of the products we produce. We continuously self-reflect to continuously self-improve.
Intensity: We know we don’t have the luxury of patience. We play to win. We care about our product being the best, and when it isn’t, we fix it. When we fail, we talk about it openly and without blame so we succeed the next time.
Family: We know that balance and intensity are compatible, and we model it in our actions and processes. We are the best technology company for parents. We support and respect each other and celebrate each other’s personal and professional achievements.
We want our benefits to reflect our values and offer the following to full-time employees:
Flexible (unlimited) paid time off
Medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your family
Life insurance and disability benefits
Retirement plan dependent on country of employment
Parental leave
Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot
Lunch, as well as delicious snacks and coffee to keep you energized
Discretionary benefit stipend giving people the ability to spend where it matters most
Free alphorn lessons
These benefits are further detailed in Sierra's policies, may vary by region, and are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefits plans. Eligible full-time employees can participate in Sierra's equity plans subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies.
We're working to bring the transformative power of AI to every organization in the world. To do so, it is important to us that the diversity of our employees represents the diversity of our customers. We believe that our work and culture are better when we encourage, support, and respect different skills and experiences represented within our team. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. We strive to evaluate all applicants consistently without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.
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