Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - Bank

The role:

You will be the operating second to the CISO and own the bank-entity scope of Mercury's 2LOD Information Security program. You'll be the person who keeps the program examiner-ready by default: coherent policy architecture, evidenced controls, a credible gap-remediation track record, and a tested incident response program with documented exercise history.

This is not a research or strategy role. It is a build-and-defend role. You will sit across the table from OCC examiners, FFIEC IT audit teams, our Chief Risk Officer, and the board's risk committee, and you will be expected to answer for every line in our policies and every status in our control inventory.

What you'll own:

• Bank-entity 2LOD InfoSec program. Governance, policy, risk, and oversight scoped to the chartered bank.
• Examiner posture. OCC, FFIEC, FDIC and FRB examiner inquiries; ownership of the examiner-ready narrative; coordination of the evidence.
• FFIEC control remediation. Lead remediation of identified FFIEC IT control deficiencies to charter readiness ahead of the OCC pre-opening examination
• Policy architecture. Carry the bank-scoped policy stack (Policy / Standard / Procedure), including ratification cycles, MRCC memos, and board approvals.
• BC/DR. Partner with the Chief Risk Officer on bank continuity, resilience, and recovery, including tabletop exercises and full-scale drills.
• Audit and assurance. Manage relationships with internal audit (3LOD) and external assessors (SOC 2, FFIEC CAT, regulator-led IT examinations).
• Third-party risk. Ensure TPRM evidence holds up to bank-grade scrutiny for critical service providers and material outsourcing arrangements.
• Team development. Coach and grow the GRC sub-team; run a recurring training cadence; build the bench depth a national bank requires.

What we need:

• 8+ years in Information Security, with 3+ years inside a regulated bank, trust bank, or de novo bank charter effort. Mercury is a startup chartering a national bank — this experience is non-negotiable.
• Deep FFIEC and OCC fluency. You have deep working knowledge of the FFIEC CAT, the FFIEC IT Examination Handbook, BSA/AML IT supervisory expectations, and the OCC Heightened Standards.
• Direct examiner-facing experience. You have defended a control to an OCC, FDIC, or Federal Reserve examiner. You know what good evidence looks like before it gets challenged.
• Policy and standards craft. You can draft a board-ratifiable policy and the supporting standards stack that operationalizes intent, not just satisfies a checklist.
• Operating discipline. You run cadences, write status that survives executive review, and maintain currency of controls, evidence, and risk registers.
• 2LOD instinct. You understand the three-lines-of-defense model and have served in the oversight role.

What we'd love:

• Prior Deputy CISO or equivalent senior 2LOD role at a national bank, trust bank, or large credit union.
• Charter or de novo bank experience — if you've stood one up before, that is a meaningful advantage here.
• Strong technical baseline, you don't need to be an engineer, but you should be able to challenge an architecture review and read an incident timeline credibly.
• CISSP, CISM, or CRISC

What success looks like:

• Successfully leading the bank-entity info security program through OCC pre-opening examination and beyond.