Lead Security Engineer

The role

This Lead Security Engineer will build a repeatable security operating system for Salient. You will own compliance operations, boundary testing, access and vulnerability management, detection and response, and security automation.

What you will do

• Manage operating procedures for SOC 2, PCI, enterprise security questionnaires, and bank-specific security requirements
• Perform security testing across cloud/IAM, application, payment, and AI boundaries
• Investigate access anomalies
• Implement stronger IAM/PAM controls and monitoring
• Conduct network and vulnerability scanning
• Track findings through service-owner remediation and retest
• Develop incident runbooks, detections, and handoffs
• Build automation for security controls and evidence

Required qualifications

• Software engineer first who writes production-quality code and builds tested tooling and automation
• Hands-on experience securing cloud infrastructure and identity and access (IAM/PAM)
• Experience investigating suspicious access
• Ability to prioritize by real risk and explain tradeoffs to leadership

Nice to have

• Experience operating SOC 2, PCI, or bank security controls and producing audit evidence
• Experience leading SOC 2 or PCI audits with external auditors
• Experience with detection engineering, incident response, or vulnerability management
• Interest or experience in threat-modeling AI systems, LLM tool use, or data flows through model providers
• Clear writing for runbooks, questionnaires, and customer security reviews
• Track record of partnering with engineering teams
• Experience with financial services, payment data, or other regulated consumer data

Benefits

• Medical coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• Generous 401(k)
• Catered lunches

About the company

Salient builds AI agents for regulated financial services. The company is backed by a16z and Y Combinator and is building in person in San Francisco.