Staff Security Engineer

SmarterDx

$230K — $250K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in security and software engineering with hands-on AWS and cloud-native infrastructure experience.
  • Deep understanding of AI and agentic security in LLM applications and defenses.
  • Proficient in threat detection engineering with experience in modern SIEM.
  • Incident-response experience including planning and execution.
  • Ability to write production-level code in Python, Go, or TypeScript.
  • Strong writing and communication skills to publish standards and explain designs.
  • Knowledge of SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance requirements.
  • Experience mentoring junior engineers.

Responsibilities

  • Own AI and agentic security strategies and implementation.
  • Publish and drive adoption of AI-security standards across teams.
  • Manage the detection platform (Panther) and ensure detection strategy effectiveness.
  • Establish and maintain incident-response readiness, including playbook testing.
  • Lead complex cross-team security projects from initiation to completion.
  • Act as a senior resource for security reviews and high-stakes decision making.
  • Mentor teammates and enhance team standards for security practices.
  • Develop security automation for increased team efficiency.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision plans covering 75% of premiums.
  • Generous Paid Parental Leave of up to 12 weeks for parents.
  • Remote-First Team environment with work flexibility across the U.S.
  • Unlimited PTO & 10 Holidays to ensure work-life balance.
  • 401(k) with Traditional & Roth Options and a 4% match.
  • Minimal Bureaucracy to enhance workflow efficiency.
  • Opportunity to work with smart, supportive teammates.
Full Job Description
Role

SmarterDx Security Engineering has a broad scope: AI, cloud, and enterprise security, plus reviews of new designs and code across the company. We are a small team, and each engineer owns a domain. This role is our senior technical anchor for the two areas where we most need depth as the team grows: AI security and threat detection and response.

On the AI security side, you will own how SmarterDx adopts AI and agentic tooling safely. That includes the guardrails for agentic access to our cloud and data, the security of the AI and ML workloads in our product, and the standards other engineering teams follow so that most AI adoption can happen without a security engineer in the room. On the detection side, you will own our detection platform (Panther), our detection strategy and coverage, and our incident response readiness. As the most senior security IC on the team, you will also be a resource across cloud and code security reviews, and you will mentor teammates who are still building their security depth.

**This role is fully remote within the US**

What You'll Do
  • Own our approach to AI and agentic security: guardrails for agentic access to cloud and data, and the security of the AI and ML workloads in our product.
  • Publish the org's AI-security standard and drive its adoption by other engineering teams.
  • Own our detection platform (Panther): detection strategy and coverage across cloud, container, and SaaS log sources, and the standards that keep detections high-signal as we grow.
  • Own incident-response readiness: the plan, the playbooks, and tested tabletops tied to the HIPAA breach-notification timeline, and help lead response when a real incident happens.
  • Lead complex security work across teams from start to finish, resolving ambiguity and coordinating with Platform, Engineering, and Compliance.
  • Act as the senior security resource across cloud security and security reviews, and the security expert other engineering teams seek out for guidance on high-stakes decisions.
  • Mentor teammates who are growing their security depth, set team standards for detection authoring and code review, and help raise our interview and hiring bar.
  • Build and grow security automation that gives a small team more reach, and contribute to the tooling the team runs on.
  • Take part in architecture reviews and threat modeling on our highest-risk designs, and communicate the resulting security architecture so the whole team can understand it and build on it.

What You Bring
  • 8+ years in security and software engineering, with deep hands-on experience in AWS and cloud-native infrastructure, including working competence with containerized workloads (EKS) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform).
  • A track record of leading complex security work across teams and making other engineers more effective.
  • Depth in AI and agentic security: securing LLM applications, agentic frameworks, and MCP, plus prompt-injection and agentic-access defenses.
  • Depth in threat detection engineering: designing, authoring, and tuning detections in a modern SIEM, and reasoning about coverage against real threats.
  • Incident-response experience, including building the plan and running the response.
  • The ability to write production code (Python, Go, or TypeScript) and build security tooling, not only configure products.
  • Strong writing and communication; you can publish a standard other teams adopt and explain a hard design to a non-security audience.
  • Working knowledge of SOC 2 and HIPAA, and the judgment to design controls that hold up without stalling delivery.
  • Experience mentoring and leveling up other engineers.

Nice To Haves
  • Recognized AI-security work: published standards or research, contributions to AI-security tooling, or red-teaming of AI/LLM systems.
  • Startup experience, especially in health tech or another regulated, data-sensitive environment.
  • Deeper specialization in container security (Kubernetes/EKS, Helm) or in infrastructure-as-code and policy-as-code, beyond working competence.
  • Experience consolidating or retiring a security platform with a measurable cost or coverage result.

Our Tech Stack
  • Cloud and infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes (EKS), Terraform, Postgres
  • Detection and security tooling: Panther (SIEM), GuardDuty, AWS Config, Wiz, Snyk, GitHub Advanced Security, CrowdStrike, Nightfall, Drata
  • Languages: Go, Python, TypeScript
  • AI and automation: Claude, MCP, and agentic tooling used across engineering
Compensation

$230k to 250k base salary

#LI-Remote

Benefits
  • Medical, Dental & Vision - Comprehensive plans with leading insurance providers, covering 75% of your premiums, depending on the plan.
  • Paid Parental Leave - Generous paid leave to support families through birth or adoption: Up to 12 weeks for parents.
  • Remote-First Team - Work from anywhere in the U.S.
  • Unlimited PTO & 10 Holidays - So you can relax and recharge.
  • 401(k) with Traditional & Roth Options - Tax-advantaged retirement savings through Fidelity with a 4% match.
  • Minimal Bureaucracy - A fast-moving, high-impact environment where you can focus on what matters.
  • Incredible Teammates! - Work alongside smart, supportive, and mission-driven colleagues.

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