The Senior Security Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for independently driving security initiatives across multiple services and teams. This role requires deep technical expertise in application security, threat modeling, and secure system design, combined with the ability to influence engineering teams and deliver high-impact security outcomes with minimal guidance.
Key job responsibilities
Security Reviews & Assessments: Lead end-to-end security reviews for complex, high-priority services including design reviews, threat modeling, and penetration testing scoping and readout
Technical Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert for assigned affinity teams, providing architectural guidance and security consultation to service teams throughout the development lifecycle
Threat Modeling: Independently perform and guide threat modeling exercises for complex distributed systems, identifying risks and recommending mitigations
Manual Code Review: Conduct targeted manual code reviews of security-critical components, identifying vulnerabilities and insecure patterns that automated tools miss
Penetration Testing: Scope, coordinate, and oversee penetration testing engagements; analyze results and drive remediation with service teams
Findings Management: Identify, document, and track security findings to resolution; escalate critical issues to leadership when appropriate
Mentorship & Influence: Mentor junior engineers, contribute to team processes and tooling improvements, and raise the security bar across the organization
Design & Build Security Tooling: Design and build security automation, tooling, and processes that improve operational efficiency and scale the team's impact
AI-Powered Security Automation: Leverage generative AI and machine learning to build intelligent security automations that streamline review workflows, enhance vulnerability detection, and reduce manual toil
Builder Engagement: Partner with service teams to improve security posture proactively, including developing self-service guidance, documentation, and readiness frameworks
Metrics & Reporting: Define and track security metrics that measure risk reduction, operational efficiency, and builder experience improvements
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 4+ years of non-internship background in troubleshooting systems issues, analyzing logs, or automating complex tasks using command line tools experience
- 5+ years of work in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans experience
- 4+ years of (non-internship) scripting, programming, and security code review in common programming languages experience
- Knowledge of at least two of the following programming languages: Scala, Java, Python, C/C++, or Go
- Experience working in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience applying threat modeling or other risk identification techniques or equivalent
- Experience with security in service-oriented architectures/microservices and web services
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, WA, Seattle - 178,400.00 - 226,700.00 USD annually
