Julia Lake

Julia Lake is the Chief Information Security Officer of 6sense, promoted into the newly created role in April 2026. In the position she leads the company's global security and trust strategy, spanning security operations, cloud and application security, AI security and risk governance, compliance, and third-party risk management.

Career path

Before joining 6sense, Lake held senior security leadership roles at GitLab, where she led Security Assurance for the globally distributed, publicly traded DevOps platform through its IPO in October 2021. At GitLab she partnered closely with engineering and product teams to align security, privacy, and compliance with rapid innovation in a remote-first operating model. While at GitLab, she also contributed position papers to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's call for input on software supply chain security standards.

Lake joined 6sense roughly three years before her 2026 promotion and built the company's security program from inside the organization, previously serving as Vice President of Security. Her promotion to Chief Information Security Officer was described by 6sense as recognition of that program-building work.

Remit and public statements

As CISO, Lake's work is aimed at embedding security into how 6sense builds, operates, and scales its AI-driven platform rather than treating it as an afterthought. She describes herself as a pragmatic, business-aligned security leader who believes security functions best as an enabler, helping the organization move with confidence while maintaining customer trust. She is particularly focused on the responsible use of AI, working across teams so that governance, transparency, and risk management keep pace with the company's expanding AI capabilities.

That focus extended to 6sense's AI Management System, which earned ISO 42001 certification, the first international standard for managing AI systems. Commenting on the certification, Lake said: "Achieving ISO 42001 certification affirms our commitment to structured governance and rigorous risk management across all AI systems." She added that the certification gives customers and partners confidence that 6sense prioritizes alignment with emerging AI compliance standards.

6sense describes Lake as bringing extensive experience securing cloud-native SaaS environments and building security programs that scale with high-growth businesses. CEO Chris Ball has said the company created the CISO role specifically for her, citing her role in building 6sense's security program from the inside and in earning customer trust in how the company handles data.