Episode 46 of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley aired on June 6, 2024, with Jon McLachlan hosting. The guest was Polina Morozov, then a security recruiter at Grammarly, who came to Grammarly from Robinhood (Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify). Her LinkedIn now lists her as a staff technical recruiter at Rippling since June 2026. Before that she recruited at Grammarly from June 2022, and then at Superhuman, the new name of Grammarly’s parent company (LinkedIn). The episode is called “Polina Morozov, Security Recruiter at Grammarly on Navigating Careers and Culture in Cybersecurity.” It has no video version, and it was her first podcast.
The idea under the whole conversation came up a quarter of the way in, when Jon asked what’s different about recruiting for security.
“security is a really small world, and I did find that everyone knows everyone.”
Polina Morozov, at 10:07
This page follows the conversation in order: a section for each part of it, seventeen figures, eleven clips from the tape, a LinkedIn post, the full transcript, and five tools: a quiz, a scorecard for your security hiring loop, a calculator for how many interview loops one hire takes, a timeline, and a to-do list. Where the decodes of the tape disagree on a word, the transcript puts its best guess in brackets, and the page doesn’t quote those words.
Just Grammarly
Jon opened as a fan. When he first started using Grammarly, he was at Pure Storage, and co-workers came up to ask whether he had taken a communication class. His answer was that it was just Grammarly. Pure Storage’s CISO at the time, Andrew Gontarczyk, was the guest on episode 2, on building a security team. The company now goes by Everpure (Wikipedia).
Polina said she has used Grammarly since college. Recruiting, she said, “entails a lot of writing,” and that is one of the reasons she joined. Jon guessed that a recruiter communicates all the time.
“That’s basically the job.”
Polina Morozov, at 1:09
Nobody grows up wanting to be a recruiter
Jon asked how she got into recruiting.
“most of my colleagues will probably agree that no one grows up wanting to be a recruiter.”
Polina Morozov, at 1:16
She didn’t know the job existed. She fell into it.
“So I graduated from UCLA, and I studied international development studies.”
Polina Morozov, at 1:29
“I wanted to be a diplomat or go to law school, and it just wasn’t in the cards for me.”
Polina Morozov, at 1:37
Her LinkedIn lists one step on that road: an internship at UNICEF from June to September 2010. Wikipedia describes UNICEF as the United Nations agency “responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide” (Wikipedia).
Right after college she worked for a property management company. She loved her boss, who she said inspired her, but there wasn’t much room to grow, and jobs were scarce. Then she found a job at a startup of about 35 people, helping run its HR.
“And I did everything in HR, from payroll to planning our events to, like, moving offices once we grew, stocking kitchen, and then also recruiting.”
Polina Morozov, at 2:57
Shy by nature
She added one more thing about herself.
“And I am very shy by nature as well, and always try to push the boundary of my comfort zone.”
Polina Morozov, at 3:11
That, she said, is part of why she was on the show. Recruiting for the startup, she found she connected with its engineers.
“because they’re also, like, introverted, like myself, they maybe didn’t feel, like, very intimidated by me, ‘cause I wasn’t, like, very salesy in, like, my demeanor.”
Polina Morozov, at 3:32
She liked learning about computer science and what engineers could create, and she liked that it challenged her. So she gravitated to recruiting. A few minutes later Jon came back to the word she had used. Being an introvert is amazing too, he said, because
“we recharge better sometimes with less folks around us.”
Jon McLachlan, at 5:51
Polina said she loves her alone time, and Jon said he does too. Wikipedia links introversion with “introspection, reserve, and a preference for solitary activities,” and credits Carl Jung with bringing the terms into psychology (Wikipedia).
Contingency, then RPO
She left the startup for an agency, HireClout, which she called a regular contingency agency. Her LinkedIn lists her there as a technical recruiter and account manager from June 2015 to October 2016.
“And I spent about a year and a half there, just working as a recruiter, account manager, learning the ropes”
Polina Morozov, at 4:12
A contingency agency gets paid when a candidate it sends gets hired. Wikipedia’s article on executive search puts it this way: “Contingent recruiters are paid only upon the successful completion” of the search (Wikipedia). The firm she wanted to join worked another way.
“which was, like, an RPO recruiting firm out in the Valley that was consulting all the hot companies in the Bay Area, essentially.”
Polina Morozov, at 4:33
That firm was Binc, which she said no longer exists. RPO stands for recruitment process outsourcing, which Wikipedia defines as a company that “engages a third-party provider to manage all or part of its recruitment process” (Wikipedia). The description of Binc on her LinkedIn says its recruiting team “fully embeds themselves into your organization, systems, and culture.”
She wanted the exposure to those companies, and she wanted teachers.
“And then they had really great recruiters, and I wanted to be mentored by them.”
Polina Morozov, at 4:51
She got hired, and she called the rest history.
“I consulted many companies, from Airbnb to Ripple, Capital One, Instacart.”
Polina Morozov, at 5:01
She also worked with blockchain companies such as Protocol Labs, the company best known for creating the InterPlanetary File System (Wikipedia). Her LinkedIn dates each client. Airbnb came first, from November 2016, then Mya Systems, Instacart, Turvo, Capital One and Ripple, then Protocol Labs in 2020 and Zoox in early 2021. For her last couple of years at Binc, it says, her focus was scaling crypto and web3 startups.
“then we ended up getting acquired by Robinhood, and they absorbed the whole team.”
Polina Morozov, at 5:16
Wikipedia dates the deal to March 2021, and calls Binc “a recruiting firm” (Wikipedia). Robinhood went public on the Nasdaq four months later, on July 29, 2021. Her LinkedIn says she supported the growth of Robinhood’s crypto and security teams from March 2021 to March 2022. The roles it lists include cryptography engineers, security architects, a director of security architecture, an engineering manager for security, a technical program manager for security, a vice president of product security, and corporate security roles. She left while she was hiring for the engineering team of Say Technologies. Robinhood completed its $140 million purchase of Say in August 2021, and Wikipedia describes Say as a company that helps shareholders “vote proxies and ask questions of management.”
“And then I left because Grammarly actually reached out to me, and I couldn’t say no to them.”
Polina Morozov, at 5:25
Jon summed up the pattern as a common theme.
“always pushing yourself outside your comfort zone”
Jon McLachlan, at 5:36
A team called Trust
Jon asked what she does at Grammarly.
“So now I do also support our security team. We call it Trust.”
Polina Morozov, at 6:05
She works closely with the CISO, Suha, and with a number of hiring managers, each hiring for their own group. Suha Can was the guest on episode 52 two months later, where he described his first job at Grammarly as being “responsible for all aspects of trust in the company.” Polina had also supported other teams, from Grammarly for Developers to machine learning.
“But really, I do have a special place for security teams”
Polina Morozov, at 6:28
She likes the roles and the smaller community, so she gravitated back to it.
“I love how Grammarly calls that team Trust”
Jon McLachlan, at 6:52
“Like, we really want our users to be able to trust our product, and we do work on that really hard.”
Polina Morozov, at 6:58
Jon said he could imagine why.
“because the product, in order for it to be useful, it has to read things that you’re typing in.”
Jon McLachlan, at 7:06
It reads emails, he said, and the keyboard on the iPhone reads as you type. Trust matters if you’re going to use it. Suha made the same case for controls users can see on episode 52.
The roles are the easy part
Jon asked about the most challenging role she had ever filled. She had been turning the question over for a few weeks.
“there’s really not a role that’s, like, really challenging, in my opinion.”
Polina Morozov, at 7:45
“Like, you can always find someone, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 7:50
You can change your requirements, adjust and pivot to what the market tells you, and to the talent you’re attracting.
“So that’s actually the easy part”
Polina Morozov, at 8:02
She meant the roles themselves.
“What’s challenging in recruiting is when you have some, like, roadblocks and blockers in your process or in your hiring partners.”
Polina Morozov, at 8:07
She named the blockers. A new hiring manager may need a lot of training on how to interview and on the nuances of the process. The process itself can be missing pieces.
“like not having good rubrics, or maybe having the bar too high”
Polina Morozov, at 8:33
Then, she said, you start saying no to everyone. When she consulted for startups, the blocker was often money.
“maybe their comp is not as competitive, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 8:58
“It’s more about having that right team and the right processes in place.”
Polina Morozov, at 9:14
A method to this madness
After a polite round of “go ahead,” she finished the thought.
“there is a process and a method to this madness, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 9:27
Some steps have to happen for a search to end in a hire.
“when you deviate from, like, the process, that’s when you get yourself in trouble.”
Polina Morozov, at 9:41
Wikipedia’s article on job interviews says that structured interviews, with set questions in a set order, “are usually more accurate predictors” of who will do well, and that structured interviews with several interviewers and training may reduce the effect of things that have nothing to do with the job (Wikipedia). Her LinkedIn shows her doing that work at Grammarly. She “Standardized the interview process” across machine learning, security and enterprise, and “Led an interviewer training session for the Security team.”
Everyone knows everyone
Jon asked what is different where security and recruiting meet. Her answer is the quote at the top of this page. The consequence comes next.
“So, like, networking is really important, for example.”
Polina Morozov, at 10:14
That means making sure “you’re leaving positive, lasting impressions” in each role, she said, because the community is so close-knit.
“I guess if everyone knows everyone else, and, like, a reality TV show.”
Jon McLachlan, at 10:31
“Sometimes it does seem that way.”
Polina Morozov, at 10:35
“And that’s how you can also get your next job or get your next opportunity, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 10:41
“I do find that a lot of people follow each other as well”
Polina Morozov, at 10:46
In general software engineering she sees less of that, because there are more people and more openings. Security, she said, is a niche.
Jon tied it to the team’s name. Security is about trust, he said, and when you find people you work well with, “there’s a sense of trust that developed.” That may be why people follow each other.
“It’s just, like, that theme of trust all across.”
Polina Morozov, at 11:26
Thirty million a week
Jon knew Grammarly as a consumer product. He asked whether it had much of a business side, and whether Polina had ever hired for a compliance role because of it. She took the first question first.
“we do have over 30 million individual users using Grammarly, 30 million per week.”
Polina Morozov, at 11:54
“And then we actually also have over 70,000 teams connecting on Grammarly.”
Polina Morozov, at 12:00
The show used the same two numbers two months later, when it described Suha’s job as overseeing the security of “over 30 million users and 70,000 enterprise teams worldwide” (Apple Podcasts). One of Grammarly’s bigger focuses, Polina said, was its enterprise offering, so that more organizations could use it across their teams.
“It’s a very tailored experience”
Polina Morozov, at 12:20
There is a big generative AI component, she said. Grammarly could pull information from a company’s internal wiki pages and docs, and help with the company’s tone.
Wikipedia dates Grammarly’s first generative AI product to April 2023, built on GPT-3 models (Wikipedia). The goal she described was fewer hours spent on communication, and help digesting what gets sent to you. She pointed listeners to Grammarly’s commercials set in an office, on YouTube (YouTube). Suha picked up the move from consumers to enterprises on episode 52.
Then the second question.
“In terms of compliance roles, I personally haven’t worked on any compliance roles.”
Polina Morozov, at 13:18
As at Robinhood, she had focused on other security roles.
“product security roles, corporate security roles, some system engineering type roles.”
Polina Morozov, at 13:29
An AI security researcher
One search had just started.
“I do have an AI security researcher role that I’m working on.”
Polina Morozov, at 13:34
Grammarly wanted someone to lead security for its AI products, run research in that area and represent the company. She called it one of the “really niche, interesting” roles. Jon called it specific, and she agreed. Compliance was “not yet, at least,” she said. Later in the conversation she explained how she was looking for that person, in Matchmaking over volume. On episode 52, Suha described Grammarly’s dedicated responsible AI team.
The talent shortage
Jon joked that finding the right fit must always be easy, and Polina played along: “So easy.” Then he named the topic.
“People talk about this thing called, like, the cybersecurity talent shortage.”
Jon McLachlan, at 14:27
Her first answer was about the people who already have jobs.
“I feel like people are also more hesitant to maybe move right now, just ‘cause of the economy.”
Polina Morozov, at 14:34
If they have a good gig and are good at what they do, they don’t jump at a new opportunity.
“So it does take more time to warm them up to the idea of maybe leaving and exploring something else.”
Polina Morozov, at 14:49
“and then I think there’s probably a shortage of talent, especially when you’re looking at, like, top-tier talent.”
Polina Morozov, at 14:56
“Grammarly is in a unique position where we are making some, like, really big bets”
Polina Morozov, at 15:03
Those bets need people who can jump on problems and solve them now, without much time to get up to speed. So the work takes longer: more candidates to reach, more time to engage them, and more time to convince them to look outside their current job.
Layoffs hit recruiters first
Jon raised the layoffs in the Bay Area and asked whether they reached cybersecurity roles. He guessed companies weren’t letting go of their top talent.
“Right. I mean, sometimes they do, for sure, especially, like, larger organizations.”
Polina Morozov, at 15:44
Leaders make a decision, she said, or cut a business line, and that has nothing to do with performance. She had also been helping with general engineering roles, and she saw a difference.
Security teams, she said, were affected
“less so than all other teams, because obviously it’s, like, an important function for many organizations.”
Polina Morozov, at 16:21
She said she doesn’t come across
“many security engineers who have been laid off.”
Polina Morozov, at 16:31
She couldn’t think of anyone she was talking to then who had been laid off. Most were employed. Jon said that when layoffs do reach security, people ping him for leads and advice, because it can be hard emotionally. Polina sees the same messages from her side.
“and unfortunately we’re always the first ones to be let go”
Polina Morozov, at 17:29
When companies stop hiring, recruiters are the ones without work, she said, and a lot of recruiters had been laid off in the year and a half before the episode.
How to ask for a referral
People reach out to both of them when they’re looking. Jon asked for the best way to use your network. Polina answered with a list.
“Do your research. Really read, learn about the company, use the product, learn about the product.”
Polina Morozov, at 17:52
“Make sure you really align to the job that you’re asking to be referred to.”
Polina Morozov, at 17:59
Then write a short pitch about why you’re the right person for the role. She gets many pings about Grammarly roles from people whose backgrounds don’t fit.
“they just read the title of the role and they didn’t read the job description”
Polina Morozov, at 18:25
The more homework you do, she said, the easier it is for the person to refer you, and the more enthusiasm you show.
“Like, you want to tell them, yes, like, this is the company where I want to be”
Polina Morozov, at 18:44
People respond to that, she said. Wikipedia defines an employee referral as “a candidate recommended by an existing employee” (Wikipedia).
Matchmaking over volume
Jon asked whether she has a favorite role to hire for.
“I do enjoy, like, more senior roles, to be honest.”
Polina Morozov, at 18:59
Managers and above, directors, vice presidents, leads and staff engineers. She likes to learn their stories.
“And then the search allows me to slow down, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 19:14
She doesn’t need a high volume of candidates in the pipeline. The work is finding the right match for the role.
“it becomes more of a matchmaking game”
Polina Morozov, at 19:27
She tries to learn what matters to each candidate and to make sure they have what they need to decide. She loves building that trust with her candidates.
Jon said it sounds like networking for the recruiter as well, staying in touch with people even when a role isn’t the fit.
“Yeah, I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of people from Robinhood, for example, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 20:05
She checks in with people she hired. Then she came back to the AI security researcher search, which she said was teaching her a ton.
She likes to look for the needle in the haystack, and to try
“different strategies when it comes to sourcing, outside of just looking on LinkedIn, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 20:29
For that role, she was reading research papers. Jon asked whether she reached out to the authors, and she said that’s what she had been doing lately, and that it was fun.
“I like more niche, like, difficult roles.”
Polina Morozov, at 20:46
“You like a good challenge.”
Jon McLachlan, at 20:50
“I do like a good challenge, yes.”
Polina Morozov, at 20:52
Jon said many people come to security for the same reason.
“I think a lot of people in security get into security because they’re just really complex, intricate puzzles”
Jon McLachlan, at 20:55
A Ukrainian-founded company
Jon brought up Grammarly’s roots and the war, and asked whether it had touched the company’s culture.
“our company was founded in Ukraine. Our co-founders are from Ukraine, and we have many team members who call Ukraine home.”
Polina Morozov, at 21:50
Wikipedia says Grammarly was developed in Ukraine and launched in 2009 by Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn and Dmytro Lider (Wikipedia).
“So the war started in February of 2022, and then I started with Grammarly in June of 2022.”
Polina Morozov, at 22:00
She hadn’t seen the culture before the war, she said. She said the company’s roots were part of why she joined, and that she wanted to help support the Ukrainian people. Then she listed what Grammarly did. It supported its employees in many ways through the war, and helped some of them move out of Ukraine.
“we also opened an office in Germany”
Polina Morozov, at 23:20
A lot of people moved to Germany during the war, she said.
“We also donated over $5 million to various organizations supporting Ukrainian people.”
Polina Morozov, at 23:26
“And we offer Grammarly and all of our paid features in Ukraine for free to anyone who wants to use it.”
Polina Morozov, at 23:34
Grammarly’s own posts give the details. On April 26, 2022, it wrote that it had delivered $4.75 million and would complete a $5 million commitment, equal to all its net revenue from Russia and Belarus. It also wrote that it gave relocation and ongoing financial support, with “a year of paid leave to those joining Ukraine’s armed forces” (Grammarly). Wikipedia adds that Grammarly stopped all business in Russia and Belarus after the 2022 invasion (Wikipedia). The free offer was, in that post, Grammarly Premium for media organizations in Ukraine. The company’s page today lists free paid features for Ukrainian nonprofits, NGOs and media organizations (Superhuman).
“We just had an off-site in San Francisco for the people team at Grammarly”
Polina Morozov, at 25:37
Team members from Ukraine joined, including people who had to leave because of the war. They were still positive and living their lives, she said, with family still in Ukraine.
“it was just, like, incredible to witness their, like, strength and, like, life philosophy.”
Polina Morozov, at 26:06
Jon said it warmed his heart that Grammarly was playing an active role. Hard moments outside our comfort zone, he said, are when we learn and grow, and when you see
“people’s true colors come out.”
Jon McLachlan, at 26:27
“And for most of humanity, that’s really beautiful.”
Jon McLachlan, at 26:30
The best day
Jon asked for her best day at Grammarly. It was recent: that same off-site. The team had hired a new head of talent acquisition, and she had a new manager. When leadership changes, she said, you don’t know what to expect.
“I felt like my personal beliefs when it comes to this art of recruiting very much aligned”
Polina Morozov, at 27:12
Their philosophy matched hers, and that energized her. The team also put on some fun events, and she said they were wined and dined. The other kind of great day, she said, is when a candidate accepts an offer and is excited to join.
The hardest day
Then the hardest day. She has a few.
“our job is very much dependent on other people”
Polina Morozov, at 28:01
“and a lot of it is out of our control.”
Polina Morozov, at 28:10
One is when a candidate decides not to join for legitimate reasons.
“because they have to do what’s best for them, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 28:18
That’s fine, she said, but it’s a little sad, because she wanted to make it work. The other is when hiring partners don’t partner with her, or don’t see the value in her job.
Recruiters have a bad reputation, she said, because there are a lot of bad recruiters out there. People have had bad experiences with recruiting, so a candidate or a hiring manager may come in wary, and you really need to
“work extra hard on earning that trust”
Polina Morozov, at 29:07
You show your value, and you show them you’re there to help and know what you’re doing.
“And that becomes challenging, because it does take time, right?”
Polina Morozov, at 29:22
Her LinkedIn says that at Grammarly she was “the first escalation point for challenging situations involving candidates and hiring managers.”
Green flags
On a lighter note, Jon asked for a favorite interview question, or a green flag.
“Yeah, I don’t have one question.”
Polina Morozov, at 29:49
She loves it when a candidate doesn’t try too hard. You get on the phone, say hello, and they tell you a little about themselves.
“They ask you about you, and it’s casual, and that they’re, like, being themselves and being vulnerable.”
Polina Morozov, at 30:00
Her own questions are open on purpose. She asks why they’re looking, and what made them take the call.
“Why are you leaving? What’s missing for you?”
Polina Morozov, at 30:20
She also asks what the ideal next opportunity would be, because the answer may point somewhere else.
“maybe not this role, but maybe there’s a different role that would be better fit for you.”
Polina Morozov, at 30:29
She works the same way on pay and the rest of the offer.
“I try to be very transparent, as transparent as I can be about Grammarly, the role, anything in between.”
Polina Morozov, at 30:51
“I overshare, usually. So that typically makes them overshare as well, which I appreciate.”
Polina Morozov, at 30:57
When candidates stay closed off, she can’t tell whether they want the job. So she gets to know them through the process.
“I often tell people that they’ll become, like, my best friend for the next three weeks or, like, four weeks, however long the process takes.”
Polina Morozov, at 31:19
She likes learning about their families, their hobbies and where they’ve traveled, and how different and how alike everyone is. Andrew Gontarczyk shared his favorite question on episode 2: what will your first 90 days look like?
Red flags
Then Jon flipped it.
“What about red flags?”
Jon McLachlan, at 31:48
The first is a candidate who hasn’t looked at the company. Some get on a call having never heard of Grammarly.
“That’s a red flag, ‘cause, like, why are we talking?”
Polina Morozov, at 32:08
She’ll tell them more, but she expects some research, especially from senior people who have been around the block. The second is the way people talk about their last job.
“And people will sometimes start venting to me about, like, their co-workers, or, like, blaming the circumstances or their managers”
Polina Morozov, at 32:25
“not taking responsibility for anything that has happened”
Polina Morozov, at 32:38
They don’t talk about how they tried to fix it.
“you’re not there to take a therapy call, right?”
Jon McLachlan, at 32:55
“Right. It’s not a therapy call.”
Polina Morozov, at 32:57
She described a candidate who says they’re leaving because the team is terrible and everything is horrible. Jon suggested that may signal someone who runs away from problems, and she agreed. You can be honest with her, she said, and she is empathetic, but there’s a way to present it.
“It’s still an interview, so there’s an etiquette.”
Polina Morozov, at 33:28
Some of it, she said, is for friends over drinks. She wishes she could do more for people who interview badly, because there is an art to it.
“I could coach people on how to interview”
Polina Morozov, at 33:42
“Maybe they’ve been in, like, the same job for a really long time, and, like, they haven’t interviewed, and so they’re a little bit rusty.”
Polina Morozov, at 33:50
When she can, she gives feedback on the call, so that if a question comes up later in the process, they have a better answer ready. Jon called interviewing a skill you can improve with work, effort and practice.
Qualify people in
Jon closed with the question he asks for the founders who listen.
“Is there a pain point that you feel, and you feel it all of the time”
Jon McLachlan, at 34:43
She has two. The first is the tools.
“Everything from, like, ATS to sourcing tools to, like, data tools to scheduling.”
Polina Morozov, at 34:59
An applicant tracking system, Wikipedia says, is software that “enables the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring processes” (Wikipedia).
“Like, scheduling, for some reason, is always, like, a hurdle in all the companies I’ve ever worked with.”
Polina Morozov, at 35:05
She wants “one place for all of it.” Today it’s separate tools, plus spreadsheets to make sense of them.
“It’s just not very cohesive.”
Polina Morozov, at 35:26
The second is the interview. Engineering interviews could be unbiased, she said, and they are still biased. Companies assess technical skill in different ways.
“Even in the same interview loops, you look for different things.”
Polina Morozov, at 35:56
Much of it comes down to whether you know how to interview. Candidates who practice LeetCode exercises tend to do well, she said. LeetCode is an online platform for coding interview preparation, founded in 2015, and Wikipedia counts 26.3 million monthly visitors as of 2025 (Wikipedia).
“If you know how to communicate well, not make assumptions, right, ask the right questions, you’ll do well.”
Polina Morozov, at 36:09
“So, like, I feel like we need to disrupt the interview process itself”
Polina Morozov, at 36:16
She wants it more equitable, with less bias.
“to promote the way to qualify people into organizations versus look for the ways to disqualify them out.”
Polina Morozov, at 36:25
Her first podcast
Jon thanked her.
“This is my first podcast, so hopefully your listeners will find it useful.”
Polina Morozov, at 36:44
She said she enjoyed it. Jon thanked her for sharing her time and her insights, and thanked the listeners.
What happened after the tape
Grammarly became Superhuman. Grammarly agreed to buy Coda in December 2024, and Coda’s CEO, Shishir Mehrotra, became Grammarly’s CEO. In May 2025 it raised $1 billion in nondilutive funding from General Catalyst. In July 2025 it agreed to buy the email client Superhuman, and in October 2025 the parent company rebranded as Superhuman (Wikipedia). Episode 52 follows the same changes, including Suha’s move to DoorDash in March 2025.
Polina’s Grammarly years. Her LinkedIn says that over almost three years at Grammarly she helped scale the Security Engineering, ML, Enterprise and Growth teams, and was growing Infrastructure, Security and IT. She standardized the interview process, trained the Security team’s interviewers, and worked with the CISO and several engineering directors and vice presidents on hiring strategy (LinkedIn).
Hiring for an AI-native security team. On April 22, 2026, at Superhuman, Polina shared a hiring post by Kevin McDermott, Superhuman’s head of security. He wrote that security teams “are going to look meaningfully different 18 months from now.” His team had automated incident response investigations and security reviews, and was taking on automatic fixes for vulnerabilities next. The new hire would help “build and scale our AI-native security team.” Polina wrote that the hire would join “a fantastic team under Kevin’s leadership.”
Polina shares Superhuman's security hiring post: an AI-native security team.
Polina Morozov · April 22, 2026
Rippling. Her LinkedIn lists her as a staff technical recruiter at Rippling since June 2026, hiring managers and directors. Wikipedia describes Rippling as a software company whose cloud platform lets businesses manage HR, finances and IT, launched in 2017 (Wikipedia).
Support for Ukraine, since. Superhuman’s page now says the company “has donated more than $6.5 million” since 2022 to organizations supporting the people of Ukraine, up from the $5 million Polina cited, and that Grammarly blocked access to its products in Russia in 2022 (Superhuman).
More on this show. Andrew Gontarczyk, then the CISO of Pure Storage, said what he hires for on episode 2: the ability to execute and deliver. Kayne McGladrey answered when a startup should hire a CISO on episode 56. On the blog, Hiring a Fractional CISO? 7 Questions That Separate a Partner From a Logo turns interviews into a decision, In-House, On-Demand, or YOLO? covers how startups staff security, and Hiring Is Now an Attack Surface covers attackers who apply for your jobs.
Did you catch it? A seven-question quiz
Seven questions from the episode. Each answer links the moment in the transcript.
Quiz · seven questions
Did you catch it?
Pick an answer to see whether you caught it.
-
What did Polina study at UCLA?
b. "So I graduated from UCLA, and I studied international development studies." She wanted to be a diplomat or go to law school. Transcript, 1:29.
-
What does Grammarly call its security team?
a. "So now I do also support our security team. We call it Trust." Transcript, 6:05.
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What kind of firm was Binc, the company Robinhood bought?
c. "which was, like, an RPO recruiting firm out in the Valley that was consulting all the hot companies in the Bay Area, essentially." Transcript, 4:33.
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Which part of recruiting does Polina call the easy part?
a. "So that's actually the easy part" She meant the roles themselves. The hard part is the process and the hiring partners. Transcript, 8:02.
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How many people used Grammarly each week, by Polina's count in June 2024?
b. "we do have over 30 million individual users using Grammarly, 30 million per week." Transcript, 11:54.
-
Where was Polina looking for an AI security researcher, beyond LinkedIn?
c. "reading through research papers right now, for example." Transcript, 20:35.
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What does Polina want the interview process to do?
a. "to promote the way to qualify people into organizations versus look for the ways to disqualify them out." Transcript, 36:25.
Is your security hiring loop ready?
Eight questions on the interview loop for your next security hire, from the episode. Each tip quotes the tape or paraphrases it, and links its section.
Scorecard · eight questions
Is your security hiring loop ready?
Answer for the next security role you plan to fill. If two answers fit, pick the lower one.
-
Does every interviewer score against a written rubric?
- We have no rubric
- Some loops have one
- Every loop, every interviewer
Polina names "not having good rubrics" as a blocker. See The roles are the easy part.
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Have your hiring managers been trained to interview?
- No
- The senior ones
- Everyone who sits on a loop
A new hiring manager may need a lot of training on how to interview, she says. See The roles are the easy part.
-
Is the bar written down for the level you're hiring?
- No, each interviewer decides
- Roughly
- Yes, and the loop agrees on it before the first interview
A bar set too high ends with saying no to everyone. See A method to this madness.
-
Is your offer competitive for the people you want?
- We don't know
- We check sometimes
- We check each role against the market
"maybe their comp is not as competitive, right?" See The roles are the easy part.
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Where do you look for candidates?
- Inbound and job boards only
- Plus LinkedIn and referrals
- Plus research papers, communities and talks
For a niche AI security role, Polina read research papers. See Matchmaking over volume.
-
What do candidates learn about the role and the pay before they invest time?
- Almost nothing
- The basics
- Everything we can share, early
"I try to be very transparent, as transparent as I can be about Grammarly, the role, anything in between." See Green flags.
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Does your first call ask why the candidate is looking?
- No
- Sometimes
- Always, and we listen for what's missing
Her questions: why are you looking, why are you leaving, and what's missing. See Green flags.
-
Do all your loops for one role assess the same things?
- Each interviewer improvises
- Same questions, different scoring
- Same questions and the same scoring
"Even in the same interview loops, you look for different things." See Qualify people in.
Your loop depends on who happens to interview. Write a rubric for the next role, train the people on the loop, and agree on the bar before the first interview.
The basics are there. Next, check your offer against the market, look for candidates past the job boards, and tell candidates what you can, early.
Your loop qualifies people in. Keep the rubrics current as roles change, and recheck the bar each time a hiring manager is new.
How many loops before a yes
Polina’s point about a bar set too high is a pass rate. This calculator turns your pass rate into final loops, interviewer hours and weeks for one hire.
Calculator
How many loops before a yes
Four numbers: the percent of final loops that end in an offer, the interviewers on each loop, the hours each one spends, and how many final loops you can run in a week.
With 25% of final loops ending in an offer, one hire takes 4.0 final loops. At 5 interviewers and 1.5 hours each, that's 30 interviewer hours, and 2.0 weeks at 2.0 loops a week.
Every default here is a placeholder: put in your own numbers. A bar set too high shows up as a low first number. Polina tells candidates she'll be their best friend for three or four weeks, however long the process takes.
From UNICEF to Rippling
Polina’s path, Grammarly’s and Robinhood’s changes, and the episodes on this site that pick up the thread. Filter by topic.
Timeline
From UNICEF to Rippling
- Grammarly launches
Developed in Ukraine by Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn and Dmytro Lider (Wikipedia).
- UNICEF
An internship, through September (LinkedIn, on this page).
- Recruiter and HR manager
At Prodege, through December 2014 (LinkedIn).
- HireClout
Technical recruiter and account manager at a contingency agency (LinkedIn, on this page).
- Binc
Technical recruiter at an RPO firm, then lead technical recruiter from January 2019 (LinkedIn).
- Airbnb
Her first Binc client, through October 2017 (LinkedIn).
- Protocol Labs
A blockchain client, through December 2020 (Wikipedia, LinkedIn).
- Robinhood buys Binc
Polina joins Robinhood as a lead technical recruiter and supports its crypto and security teams (Wikipedia, on this page).
- Episode 2
Andrew Gontarczyk, then the CISO of Pure Storage, on building a security team (episode page).
- Robinhood goes public
On the Nasdaq, under the ticker HOOD (Wikipedia).
- Say Technologies
Robinhood completes a $140 million purchase (Wikipedia).
- The war
Grammarly stops all business in Russia and Belarus (Wikipedia, on this page).
- $5 million
Grammarly reports $4.75 million delivered toward a $5 million commitment (Grammarly).
- Polina joins Grammarly
Recruiting, with the security team called Trust (LinkedIn, on this page).
- Generative AI
Grammarly launches a product built on GPT-3 models (Wikipedia).
- Episode 46
Polina on the show (Podbean, transcript).
- Episode 52
Suha Can, then Grammarly's CISO (episode page).
- Episode 56
Kayne McGladrey on when to hire a CISO (episode page).
- Coda
Grammarly agrees to buy Coda, and Shishir Mehrotra becomes CEO (Wikipedia).
- $1 billion
Nondilutive funding from General Catalyst (Wikipedia).
- Superhuman
Grammarly agrees to buy the email client (Wikipedia).
- A new name
The parent company rebrands as Superhuman, and Polina's title moves with it (Wikipedia, LinkedIn).
- An AI-native security team
Polina shares Superhuman's security hiring post (LinkedIn, on this page).
- Rippling
Staff technical recruiter, hiring managers and directors (LinkedIn).
What to do this week
Five things, in the order of the episode.
- Write the rubric first. Before the next security search opens, write down what each interviewer scores and where the bar sits, as in A method to this madness. Then take the scorecard with your hiring managers.
- Train the people on the loop. A new hiring manager may need help with how to interview, as in The roles are the easy part.
- Ask for referrals the right way. Use the product, read the job description, and send a short pitch, as in How to ask for a referral.
- Look past LinkedIn for niche roles. For an AI security role, read the papers and write to the authors, as in Matchmaking over volume.
- Get help building the team. Our vCISO Services give you a CISO who builds a security roadmap around your goals, with a dedicated security team to carry it out. Our Counter Business Espionage & IP Protection work includes hiring diligence. If you want to talk it through, book 15 minutes with us.