Application Security Engineering Lead

Athene; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 161,000 - 242,000; Full time

Job summary

Athene in California is seeking an Application Security Engineering Lead to shape how secure software is built across the enterprise. You will engineer reusable security capabilities and developer-friendly tools to raise the bar for protection.

You will drive cloud identity engineering across AWS and Azure, embed secure practices throughout the SDLC, and push AI-enabled security innovations to strengthen Athene's defenses at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Deep secure software engineering practices including OWASP Top 10, SAST/DAST, SCA.
• Experience securing AWS/Azure, IaC, CI/CD pipelines, and security automation.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve reusable application and identity security capabilities.
• Partner with engineering to embed secure authentication, API security, and secure software design throughout the SDLC.
• Lead cloud identity engineering across AWS and Azure with scalable identity solutions and guardrails.
• Drive security engineering innovation through automation and AI-enabled solutions, mentoring, and continuous improvement.
• Define enterprise security patterns for machine identities, secrets management, and workload authentication.

Skills

OAuth/OpenID Connect

API security

Threat modeling

Secure SDLC

AI fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Python

Go

JavaScript/TypeScript

Job description

We are driven to do more. More for our customers and the financial professionals who offer our products. If you are driven to do more and love the challenge of pursuing more, Athene is your kind of company. You will find we offer more than the basics to create an inclusive and dynamic work environment at our various locations.

Purpose:

At Athene, security is an enabler of innovation. As our Application Security Engineering Lead, you'll help define how secure software is built across the enterprise by engineering scalable security capabilities that empower developers while protecting our business, customers, and partners.

Working at the intersection of Application Security, Cloud Security, and Identity Engineering, you'll collaborate with Software Engineering, Cloud Platform Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, and Information Security to design reusable security platforms, automation, and developer-first capabilities. You'll also help shape how Athene securely adopts emerging technologies—including AI-powered applications and autonomous workloads—while solving complex engineering challenges at enterprise scale.

Backed by Apollo Global Management, Athene combines financial strength, innovation, and a collaborative culture built on our BEAM values—Believe in your co-workers, Engage actively, Act like owners, and Make it happen. You'll have the opportunity to influence enterprise security strategy while helping one of the fastest-growing retirement services organizations continue to innovate securely.

Accountabilities:

Key Deliverables

• Design, build, and evolve reusable application and identity security capabilities, including identity-as-code, policy-as-code, developer self-service tools, security libraries, and platform integrations that make secure development the default.
• Partner with engineering teams to embed secure authentication, authorization, API security, and secure software design throughout the SDLC using modern standards including OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, JWT, mTLS, and PKI.
• Lead cloud identity engineering across AWS and Azure by developing scalable identity solutions, Infrastructure as Code guardrails, security automation, and modern workload identity capabilities.
• Drive security engineering innovation through automation, AI-enabled solutions, developer enablement, technical mentorship, and continuous improvement while advancing Athene's Security Guardians program.
• Define and implement enterprise security patterns for non-human identities, machine identities, AI agents, secrets management, certificate lifecycle management, and workload authentication to support the next generation of cloud-native applications.

Qualifications and Experience:

What You Need To Bring

• 6+ years of relevant experience in application security, software security engineering, cloud security, identity security, or relevant experience.
• Deep expertise in secure software engineering practices, including OWASP Top 10, threat modeling, secure architecture, SAST, DAST, Software Composition Analysis (SCA), API security, and secure SDLC methodologies.
• Strong technical expertise implementing modern identity and authentication technologies, including OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, JWT, mTLS, PKI, certificate management, and secure service-to-service authentication.
• Hands-on experience securing AWS and Azure environments, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and/or CloudFormation), CI/CD pipelines, and developing security automation using Python, Go, JavaScript, TypeScript, or similar languages.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions through collaboration, innovation, critical thinking, adaptability, creativity, a bias for action, and AI fluency to improve developer experience and strengthen enterprise security.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.

$161,164.00 - $241,746.00 USD Annual

Annual Salary for this role is market competitive. Actual salary for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer. Depending on the role, a discretionary bonus plan or variable sales incentive may be included.

Drive. Discipline. Confidence. Focus. Commitment. Learn more about working at Athene.

Athene is a Military Friendly Employer! Learn more about how we support our Veterans.

Athene is committed to inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.