VP - Engineering

Vice President of Engineering, Email & Collaboration Security

About Mimecast

Mimecast is a leading cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect their people, data, and communications from today's most sophisticated threats. With over 42,000 customers worldwide, we analyse more than 18 billion security events daily to stop attacks before they cause harm.

We are pioneers in Human Risk Management, recognizing that people are both an organization's greatest asset and its most significant security vulnerability. Our platform addresses the human element of cybersecurity by combining advanced threat detection, awareness training, and Incydr risk management to reduce the likelihood and impact of human-caused security incidents.

AI-First Engineering at Mimecast

Mimecast is an AI-First engineering organization. Our teams actively leverage AI-powered development tools across all facets of engineering, from code development to testing, documentation, and operations. We're looking for leaders who don't just use AI tools but champion their adoption and establish new ways of working.

Our AI leadership extends beyond how we build to what we build. Our Mihra AI agent delivers 7x faster threat response for customers, and we're recognized as "Agents of Change" in Human Risk Management. Engineers here work at the intersection of cutting-edge AI tooling and AI-powered security products that protect organizations worldwide.

The Opportunity

This is a pivotal leadership role owning Mimecast's largest product engineering pillar. Email & Collaboration Security protects organizations from the most prevalent attack vector in cybersecurity: email. Our products detect and block phishing, malware, business email compromise, and advanced persistent threats before they reach users.

You will lead approximately 95 engineers across multiple product lines including Secure Email Gateway, API Based Protection for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, MTA infrastructure, and DMARC authentication services. Your teams span London, Bangalore, and the US and Canada.

You will drive a significant transformation agenda including migrating our platform to AWS with a strong focus on FinOps, cost of goods sold (COGS), and overall cost optimisation. As we move to the public cloud, cost to serve and capacity planning are essential. You will also accelerate AI adoption across engineering practices, modernise legacy systems, and build the next generation of engineering leadership. Our MTA platform processes billions of emails daily; you'll ensure this critical infrastructure evolves while maintaining the reliability our customers depend on.

We operate with a sense of urgency. Cyber threats don't wait, and neither do we. You'll lead teams that move fast, make decisions with conviction, and deliver results. We expect leaders who thrive in this environment and instil the same urgency across their organizations.

What You'll Do

• Own the Pillar: Take full accountability for Email & Collaboration Security delivery outcomes, engineering quality, and team health across approximately 95 engineers with a strong focus on delivering results.
• Lead the Cloud Migration: Drive the transition to AWS over the next 12 to 18 months. Make pragmatic decisions about migration strategy and re-architecture, managing risk while maintaining service reliability.
• Drive FinOps Excellence: Own cloud cost management with a FinOps mindset. Understand and optimise cost of goods sold (COGS), implement cost to serve metrics, drive capacity planning, and ensure engineering decisions consider their financial impact. Build a culture where cost awareness is embedded in engineering practices.
• Champion AI-First Engineering: Establish AI-augmented practices across all engineering functions, not just development. Drive adoption, measure impact, and create new ways of working that leverage AI throughout the software lifecycle.
• Build and Develop Leaders: Assess and strengthen the engineering leadership team. Make difficult decisions where needed, develop high-potential leaders, and hire externally to fill gaps. Create a leadership culture of accountability, technical excellence, and psychological safety.
• Own Technical Strategy: Shape the architectural direction for Email & Collaboration Security. Make sound decisions about platform evolution, technical debt reduction, and technology investment. Drive modernisation initiatives including decomposition of monolithic systems.
• Drive Engineering Excellence: Establish and maintain high standards for code quality, architecture, testing, and operational reliability. Use data to measure and improve engineering velocity and quality.
• Stakeholder Partnership: Collaborate effectively with Product Management, Architecture, Security, Finance, and other engineering leaders to align priorities and deliver business value. Communicate with clarity and transparency at executive level.
• Operational Accountability: Own the reliability and performance of services processing billions of emails daily. Ensure robust monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement of operational practices.

What You'll Bring

Experience and Technical Depth

• 15+ years of software development experience with progressive leadership responsibilities.
• 10+ years in engineering management, with at least 5 years leading managers (second line leadership or above).
• Proven track record of building and scaling high-performing engineering organizations of 75+ people.
• Experience leading globally distributed teams across multiple time zones.
• Strong technical background with deep engagement in architecture and engineering decisions. You stay close to the technology and maintain credibility with engineers.
• Experience with high-scale, high-availability systems processing large volumes of data.

Cloud, FinOps and Platform Transformation

• Proven experience leading large-scale cloud migrations to AWS.
• Strong experience with FinOps practices, cloud cost management, and understanding of COGS in a cloud environment. You know how to optimise cost to serve while maintaining performance and reliability.
• Experience with capacity planning and forecasting in cloud environments.
• Strong experience with cloud-native development, microservices architecture, and modern engineering practices.
• Experience driving architectural evolution and platform modernisation in production systems while maintaining reliability.
• Strong experience with DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (Terraform), containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes), and monitoring/observability platforms.

AI Fluency (Required)

• Demonstrated experience in adoption/usage of AI-powered development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude, or similar assistants.
• Experience or strong vision for applying AI across the full engineering lifecycle, including testing, documentation, operations, and incident response.
• Ability to drive cultural change and establish new ways of working that leverage AI capabilities.

Leadership and Mindset

• Bias for action. You make decisions with conviction and move fast rather than waiting for perfect information.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You thrive when charting a course through uncertainty rather than following established playbooks.
• Transparent communicator. You share information openly, deliver difficult messages directly, and build trust through honesty.
• Directive leadership style balanced with coaching. You provide clear direction while developing your leaders.
• Data-driven approach to engineering excellence. You measure what matters and use data to drive improvement.
• Cost-conscious mindset. You understand the financial impact of engineering decisions and build teams that optimise for value.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in email security, cybersecurity, messaging infrastructure, or adjacent domains with high-throughput systems.
• Knowledge of email protocols (SMTP, IMAP), authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), or threat detection systems.
• Experience leading engineering transformation or platform decomposition initiatives.
• Background in SaaS product development with multi-tenant architecture.

Belonging at Mimecast

Cybersecurity is a community effort. That’s why we’re committed to building an inclusive, diverse community that celebrates and welcomes everyone – unless they’re a cybercriminal, of course.

We’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and we’d encourage you to join us whatever your background. We particularly welcome applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups.

We consider everyone equally: your race, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, marital status, nationality, or any other protected characteristic won’t affect your application.

Due to certain obligations to our customers, an offer of employment will be subject to your successful completion of applicable background checks, conducted in accordance with local law.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment.