Staff Infrastructure Security Engineer Location: San Ramon, CA | Reno, NV |
Ridgeline is on the hunt for an experienced Staff Infrastructure Security Engineer. As a Staff Infrastructure Security Engineer at Ridgeline, you will drive secure-by-default cloud architecture across product areas and set the technical direction for securing Ridgeline's cloud environments. You are a recognized expert on AWS security and most cloud security specialties, and you drive the security roadmap for those areas. You are a force multiplier for your team and the organization, and a primary security representative for your specialty areas. You will ensure that our cloud development, deployment, and methodologies comply with industry standards and regulations.
This position requires close collaboration and partnership with our Infrastructure and Product organizations. Your role is just as much teaching and bringing those around you on the cloud security journey as it is doing the work. We believe in a culture where security is everyone's responsibility and an integral part of our engineering philosophy.
What You'll Do- Drive secure-by-default cloud architecture across product areas. Threat model new infrastructure designs and service adoptions, and define security requirements that eliminate risk classes before systems are built.
- Identify complex cloud security risks that tooling misses, such as identity chaining, cross-account lateral movement, control plane and data plane separation failures, and supply chain risks. Perform variant analysis to eradicate risk classes across the cloud environment.
- Design AI-augmented analysis workflows that combine manual expertise with automated detection to find risks at scale.
- Lead high-impact cloud incidents as technical lead or incident commander.
- Drive findings to remediation instead of only reporting them: assess real-world exploitability, calibrate risk honestly, and build systemic fixes that reduce the risk rate over time. Use AI to find patterns across historical findings that reveal systemic weaknesses.
- Own or lead development of advanced cloud security platforms that scale across the organization, including guardrails and controls in AWS (e.g., SCPs, IAM boundaries, AWS managed security services, custom-built solutions, and policy-as-code).
- Architect AI-powered detection and posture management pipelines that reduce manual effort while maintaining accuracy. Relentlessly reduce false positives so engineering teams trust the tools.
- Embed security into CI/CD and infrastructure automation, ensuring reproducible, testable, and auditable deployments.
- Lead the strategy for access management, least-privilege enforcement, encryption/key management, and runtime protections across the platform.
- Build and champion frameworks for secure platform integrations with third-party cloud services and internal tools.
- Shape cloud security decisions across multiple engineering organizations. Partner with Staff+ engineers and platform teams on design, not only audit sign-off, and influence through technical credibility rather than policy mandates.
- Define and execute complex cross-functional projects from planning to production, deliver within deadlines, manage expectations when plans change, and prioritize work that spans multiple cycles.
- Set team standards for effective and responsible use of AI in cloud security workflows, including responsible experimentation and data use. Build lightweight agents and automations that accelerate team outcomes.
- Think creatively, own problems, seek solutions, and communicate clearly along the way.
Who You Are & What Makes You Qualified:- 8+ years of relevant experience in cloud security or platform engineering, including independently defining and executing complex projects from planning to production and leading initiatives across multiple teams.
- Expert proficiency in at least one language (Python strongly preferred; Go, Kotlin or TypeScript a plus).
- Experience with AWS, especially in the following areas:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM, Orgs & SCPs, Identity Center)
- Networking (VPC, Security Groups, Transit Gateway, Load Balancers)
- Compute (EKS)
- Data Persistence (S3, Aurora, DynamoDB)
- Logging & Monitoring (CloudTrail, CloudWatch)
- Recognized expert on security in AWS and in most cloud security specialties, with expert knowledge of identity, detection, networking, data security, container and serverless, and governance.
- Demonstrated success in designing, implementing, and scaling access management strategies and policy frameworks (IAM/SCPs).
- Deep understanding of cloud workload protection, infrastructure monitoring, and threat detection in AWS-native environments, including how to find risks that tooling misses (identity chaining, cross-account lateral movement, control plane and data plane separation failures, supply chain risks).
- Fluency with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform) and CI/CD practices.
- Experience leading high-impact cloud security incidents as technical lead or incident commander, and driving findings through to remediation.
- Experience building cloud security platforms, detection pipelines, or posture management at organizational scale, with a track record of reducing false positives.
- Experience designing AI-augmented security workflows or lightweight agents and automations, with sound judgment on responsible AI experimentation and data use.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain security tradeoffs clearly to engineers, product partners, and executive stakeholders. Trusted to challenge decisions and influence through technical credibility.
- Demonstrated ability to make sound architectural tradeoffs across multiple services, improve long-term code and system health, and align stakeholders when changes have cross-team impact.
About RidgelineThe typical starting salary range for this role is: $186,000-$256,000.
Final compensation amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amount listed above.
As an employee at Ridgeline, you'll have many opportunities for advancement in your career and can make a true impact on the product.
In addition to the base salary, Ridgeline employees can participate in our Company Stock Plan subject to the applicable Stock Option Agreement. We also offer rich benefits that reflect the kind of organization we want to be: one in which our employees feel valued and are inspired to bring their best selves to work. These include unlimited vacation, educational and wellness reimbursements, and $0 cost employee insurance plans. Please check out our Careers page for a more comprehensive overview of our perks and benefits.
Ridgeline is headquartered in Lake Tahoe, with offices in New York, Reno, the Bay Area, Dublin Ireland. Ridgeline is recognized by Fast Company as a "Best Workplace for Innovators," by Frost & Sullivan as a "Technology Innovation Leader," and by The Software Report as a "Top 100 Software Company."
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