Application Security Engineering Lead

Athene; West Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Athene is seeking an Application Security Engineering Lead to shape how secure software is built across the enterprise. You will design reusable security capabilities and partner with Software Engineering, Cloud Platform Engineering, and Information Security to enable developers while protecting our business, customers, and partners.

You will work at the intersection of Application Security, Cloud Security, and Identity Engineering, driving automation, AI-enabled solutions, and developer

Qualifications

• 6+ years in application or cloud security
• Expertise in OWASP Top 10, threat modeling and secure SDLC
• Strong knowledge of modern identity and authentication tech
• Experience securing AWS and Azure environments, IaC and CI/CD
• Ability to influence decisions and work with AI fluency
• Bachelor's degree in CS, Cybersecurity, IS, Engineering, or equivalent

Responsibilities

• Design reusable security capabilities across enterprise
• Embed secure authentication, authorization, API security in SDLC
• Lead cloud identity engineering across AWS and Azure
• Drive security innovation via automation and AI-enabled solutions
• Define enterprise security patterns for machine identities and secrets

Skills

Secure software engineering

Threat modeling

Collaboration & influence

AI fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Cybersecurity/IS/Engineering

Tools

OAuth 2.0

OIDC

SAML

JWT

mTLS

PKI

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

• 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

• 6+ years of relevant experience in application security, software security engineering, cloud security, identity security, or relevant experience. (Final years of experience should be confirmed against the approved job grade.)
• 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.

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.

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.