Founding Security Engineer

Raydar; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive equity

Visa sponsorship possible

Job summary

Raydar is seeking a senior security engineer to define and implement the security program for a fast-growing AI platform. You will architect the security stack across LLM pipelines and cloud infra, collaborate with engineering on threat modeling, and lead audits for enterprise customers.

You will report to the CTO as the first dedicated security hire, with opportunities to scale into a team as the company grows, including potential visa sponsorship for the right candidate.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of security engineering experience.
• Strong architecture, application, and cloud security judgment.
• Experience shaping a security program in fast-moving tech.
• Ability to work with engineers on remediation and secure design.

Responsibilities

• Define and build security architecture across LLM pipeline, cloud infrastructure, and customer products.
• Partner with engineering on threat modeling, vulnerability discovery, and secure design before ships.
• Harden multi-tenant isolation and support multi-region data residency with infra teams.
• Own penetration tests, vulnerability scans, remediation programs, and security policies.
• Manage internal device, access, identity, and security operations.
• Serve as technical authority for audits, customer questionnaires, and enterprise reviews.
• Build roadmap for durable security program scalable to Fortune 500 customers.
• Report directly to co-founder and CTO; role starts as senior IC with growth potential.
• Comfort operating independently while communicating clearly with technical leadership.

Skills

Security engineering

Cloud security

Application security

Threat modeling

Penetration testing

Vulnerability management

Communication with leadership

Education

Software engineering or Computer Science degree

Tools

TypeScript

IAM

Job description

Our client is a fast-growing, Sequoia-backed AI research platform used by leading technology companies and major enterprises. Its product autonomously designs customer interviews, recruits participants, and analyzes responses, helping teams turn complex research questions into useful insight in hours rather than weeks.

This is the company’s first dedicated security engineering hire. You will report directly to the co-founder and CTO, define the security architecture, and build a practical security program for a platform that holds sensitive voice, face, and device data at significant scale. The role begins as a senior individual contributor position with the opportunity to build a team as the company grows.

What you’ll do

• Define and build security architecture across the LLM pipeline, cloud infrastructure, and customer-facing product.
• Partner with engineering pods on threat modeling, vulnerability discovery, and secure design before features ship.
• Harden multi-tenant isolation and support multi-region data residency with the infrastructure team.
• Own penetration tests, vulnerability scans, remediation programs, and practical security policies.
• Manage internal device, access, identity, and security operations.
• Serve as the technical authority for audits, customer questionnaires, and enterprise security reviews.
• Build the roadmap for a durable security program that can scale with Fortune 500 customers.
• 7+ years of security engineering experience.
• A software engineering or computer science foundation before moving into security.
• Strong application, infrastructure, and cloud security judgment.
• Demonstrated ability to find vulnerabilities in code and system designs, then work directly with engineers on practical remediation.
• Experience building or materially shaping a security program in a fast-moving technology company.
• Comfort operating independently while communicating clearly with technical leaders and enterprise customers.

Bonus points

• Experience as the first or founding security engineer at a high-growth startup.
• Familiarity with LLM security, sensitive research data, multi-tenant SaaS, or regional data-residency systems.
• Experience with TypeScript, identity and access management, penetration testing, or enterprise security reviews.
• Interest in growing from a senior individual contributor into a security leader who can build a team.
• $230K-$300K base salary.
• Competitive equity.
• Visa transfers and new visa sponsorship may be available, including H-1B and TN cases.
• High-impact ownership as the founding security hire.

This role is on-site five days per week in San Francisco, California.