Security Engineer
Security engineers in this role span multiple domains—application, infrastructure, and cloud security—while building the technical foundations that enable AI platforms to operate safely at scale. They write production code to automate detection and remediation, partner with engineering teams on authentication and access control design, and navigate the unique security challenges of AI systems handling sensitive customer data and agent workloads. These roles typically sit within dedicated security teams at growth-stage AI companies, working cross-functionally to embed security practices into development workflows while maintaining enterprise compliance standards like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
Measured across 40 of 41 open postings.
This role is advertised at 3 levels, so a single figure for the role would describe none of them. Experience and pay are the midpoints for each level on its own.
| Level | Share | Median years | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | 40%(16) | 5 | — |
| Senior | 30%(12) | 5 | — |
| Staff / Principal | 28%(11) | 8.5 | — |
A dash means too few postings stated it to report a midpoint. Most companies do not publish a salary band, so pay is indicative rather than a market rate. 1 level with fewer than 10 open postings is not shown.
“Develop AI-powered detection tooling, Build automation that leverages AI to accelerate detection creation”
“Strong grasp of AI security, particularly how AI agents change the threat model.”
“Secure AI tool usage at the endpoint, including governance of large language models, AI agents, and model context protocol (MCP) integrations”
“AI fluency—a working understanding of core AI concepts (LLMs, agents, copilots, tokens, credits, context windows, RAG, data governance, etc.), applied in the context of security engineering, with demonstrated enthusiasm for using AI tools to work faster and more effectively day to day”
Requirements are a share of every open posting, so a role missing from this list is one where almost nobody asks. Work mode is different: many postings never say, so that figure counts only the ones that do.
Skills
What companies are looking for in this role.
Security engineering
Cloud and infrastructure security
Identity and access management
Threat modeling and architecture review
Incident response and forensics
Security tooling and automation engineering
Detection engineering
Security policy and standards
Infrastructure automation and IaC
Endpoint and device management
Vulnerability management
Cryptography and key management
Compliance program management
Application and product security
AI/ML infrastructure security
AI safety and guardrails
AI red teaming and safety testing
Agent security controls
Technology
The tools and technologies that define this role.
Open Jobs
41 open Security Engineer jobs across 32 companies.
Other Security roles
Identifies and mitigates security vulnerabilities in applications and products.
Secures cloud infrastructure, networks, and systems.
Builds detection systems, investigates security incidents, and leads incident response efforts.
Conducts offensive security assessments including red teaming, penetration testing, and adversarial simulation.
Designs and maintains identity infrastructure, authentication systems, and access control policies.