Job Description for Security Engineer - EMEA - Remote at Pencil - Remote (EMEA)
Job Description
At Pencil, we are driving innovation in advertising technology through our state-of-the-art SaaS product, which harnesses Generative AI to redefine content creation. Our mission is to make AI the default in advertising without replacing creative people. To achieve this, we need to make sure that our technology isn’t just in the hands of big brands - we need to try to help small businesses and creative individuals too.
We're looking for a Security & Trust Specialist to join Pencil at a pivotal moment of growth. This is a hands-on, technical role for someone with a background in desktop support, IT systems administration or a similar technical operations role who is now building a career in security. You'll own the day-to-day security operations that keep Pencil safe — endpoints, identity and access, cloud and SaaS security — and you're happy to lend a hand with practical IT and device issues where needed. You'll work directly with our Head of Security & Trust, who will support your growth into the audit, compliance and vendor-risk side of the role over time.
Key responsibilities:
Administer and secure endpoints (MDM/Intune, patching, encryption, device compliance), and be willing to pitch in on practical desktop support and device issues when the team needs a hand.
Own day-to-day identity and access management — joiner/mover/leaver processes, least-privilege access and quarterly access reviews across Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, GCP and other SaaS tools.
Monitor security alerts and logs, escalate promptly, and help investigate and document security events (suspicious logins, compromised credentials, device loss, cloud misconfiguration).
Support compliance evidence collection in Vanta for SOC 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001, working alongside the Head of Security & Trust rather than owning audit strategy yourself.
Help gather evidence for vendor and customer security questionnaires, and flag anything that needs escalating.
Identify and implement practical improvements to monitoring, alerting and access control across cloud and endpoint tooling.
Your background:
A background in desktop support, IT systems administration or a similar technical operations role, now moving into (or already doing blended IT/security) work.
Hands-on experience with endpoint management (Intune or similar MDM) and Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 administration.
Comfortable with cloud basics (GCP, AWS or Azure IAM) — you don't need deep cloud engineering experience, but you're curious and capable of learning fast.
Some exposure to compliance or audit evidence gathering (Vanta or similar) is a bonus, not required.
A security certification such as CompTIA Security+, ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity or Microsoft SC-900 — or clear evidence of self-directed learning if you don't have one yet.
A genuinely helpful, practical approach — you don't mind switching between security work and helping a colleague with their laptop.
You’ll Thrive Here If You…
You enjoy being hands-on and don't mind switching between strategic security work and practical, in-the-moment IT problems (Human).
You're hungry to grow a career in security and want to learn from the audits and questionnaires you'll be exposed to (Owners).
You take ownership of problems end-to-end and don't wait to be told what to do (Owners).
You can explain technical issues simply to non-technical colleagues (Simple).
KPIs & Success Measures
Access reviews and joiner/mover/leaver tasks completed within SLA, with zero access-control audit findings.
Endpoint compliance rate (encryption, patching, MDM enrolment) across the device fleet.
Time-to-close on security incidents and IT/device issues you support.
Quality and completeness of evidence you contribute to Vanta and vendor reviews.
Benefits:
25 days PTO plus public holidays, although we operate a Flexible Time Off scheme
Health insurance / private medical cover
Monthly stipend towards wellness, fitness, and learning and development
Remote - work from anywhere in your home country
Enhanced parental leave policies, whether you become a parent through birth, adoption or surrogacy
Access to our Pencil office in The Shard, London for UK employees
Flexible working hours
Deep Dive About Pencil
Pencil uses AI to make ads. Our mission is to make marketing effective and effortless. We want to become the default way ads get made - because AI ads are 10x faster and cheaper to make, and 2x better performing, than making them without AI.
We’re called Pencil because we believe AI will be a tool for creative people, not a replacement - it may even be as fundamental a tool in the future as the pencil was in the past.
Pencil was founded in 2018 with a team from Google, Facebook and Uber with backing from Sequoia and Entrepreneur First. We were acquired by The Brandtech Group in 2023 to pursue a shared vision of bringing GenAI to the Fortune 500.
About The Brandtech Group
The Brandtech Group’s mission is to be the best company in the world at helping leading global brands drive growth by connecting content, data and media using technology.
It was founded in June 2015 (as You & Mr Jones) by former Havas Global CEO David Jones, with a simple mission to help brands do their marketing better, faster and cheaper using technology. It was renamed The Brandtech Group in January 2022.
Today it generates more than $1BN in revenue and is the largest global digital content partner for many of the world's biggest brands and companies, often using its unique in-housing model. It works with eight of the world's top 10 global advertisers and 49 of the world's top 100. Clients include Banco Itaú, Danone, Google, Intuit, LVMH, Microsoft, Morgan-Stanley, Netflix, Reckitt, Renault-Nissan, PayPal, TikTok, Uber and Unilever.
In addition, the Group invests in cutting-edge technology companies relevant to and with potential in marketing and has been investing in the AI, AR and the metaverse space since 2015. The Group was the first external investor in Niantic (creators of Pokémon Go), alongside investments in AI Foundation (AI digital twins, personalized AI, and deep-fake detection 2018), Automat (AI chatbots, 2016), Elsy (AI media planning, 2016), Jivox (dynamic automated content,, 2016), Crossing Minds (deep learning AI recommendation system, 2017), CreativeX (AI-driven content optimization, 2022), Zappar (AR, 2017), Provenance (blockchain, 2022) and GGP (the world's largest gaming fund).
The Group is one of the most prominent marketing industry voices on the prediction and movement to AI-driven marketing, including Generative AI. It was named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies 2021 by Fast Company, and by CB Insights as one of the World's Most Valuable Private Unicorns.
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