Darktrace, a global leader in behavioral security, announced the appointments of Issy Richards as Chief Product Officer (CPO) and Stephen Pickman as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Both have joined Darktrace’s Executive Leadership Team and report directly to President and CEO Ed Jennings.
Richards will lead Darktrace’s global product organization, while Pickman will lead research and development. Their appointments expand leadership capacity and deepen focus across product strategy, engineering, and research as Darktrace strengthens its core behavioral security platform and advances its capabilities for securing enterprise AI and agents.
Both are based in Cambridge, UK, where Darktrace was founded and which remains at the heart of its innovation. They will help accelerate product innovation and bring Darktrace’s 13 years of experience in AI to bear on a rapidly changing market and threat landscape. To support that work, the company is also increasing headcount across its global R&D centers.
Richards and Pickman were central to the development and launch of Darktrace / SECURE AI™, which helps security teams discover AI use across the enterprise, understand how people and agents are behaving, and act when risk emerges. Together, they shaped the product’s direction and aligned teams across Darktrace around the emerging challenge of securing enterprise AI. By combining new capabilities with technology from Darktrace’s existing product portfolio, they accelerated delivery to customers and rapidly refined the product in response to early access feedback.
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“Issy and Stephen know what our technology and people are capable of and have the expertise to address the challenges our customers face as AI changes how businesses operate,” said Ed Jennings, President and CEO of Darktrace. “Issy has strengthened our product team and sharpened our strategy, while Stephen has led by example in bringing new technology to market at speed and embedding that approach across the organization. Together, they give us the leadership and alignment needed to accelerate innovation, strengthen our platform, and deliver value for our customers.”
Richards joined Darktrace in May 2025 and most recently served as Interim Senior Vice President of Product, bringing greater alignment and transparency to priorities across the Darktrace Behavioral Defense Platform™. She has nearly a decade of senior leadership experience at some of the UK’s leading AI-driven software companies, including Ocado Technology and Faculty AI, and has served as an advisor for several start-up accelerators. At Ocado, she led teams responsible for developing and launching its smart grocery platform and helped scale the technology organization during a period of significant growth, including establishing three new AI and robotics research centers in the UK.
“Few companies have the depth of expertise Darktrace has in running AI at scale over more than a decade. Darktrace’s approach – understanding the unique behavior of every organization – is a crucial part of how we solve the problems of cybersecurity as businesses and attackers rapidly adopt new tools,” said Richards. “As CPO, my job is to stay focused on the problems that matter most to customers and to identify the highest impact places to bring Darktrace’s AI expertise.”
Pickman has spent the last nine years at Darktrace, progressing from Software Engineer to Product Development Lead and, most recently, Senior Vice President of Engineering. He led the development of Darktrace / EMAIL™ and created several proofs of concept that have become part of the company’s wider product portfolio.
“Over the past nine years, I have been continually impressed by the R&D team’s deep technical talent, desire to solve challenging problems and drive to deliver ideas into production quickly,” said Pickman. “My focus as CTO is to strengthen that foundation and ensure R&D remains at the forefront of innovation as we help customers secure their enterprise across people, infrastructure, and AI.”
Richards and Pickman succeed Darktrace co-founder Jack Stockdale, who has transitioned from day-to-day leadership into a part-time role and will continue to contribute to the company’s strategic product direction.
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