Partner 20, Staff Engineer, Security Automation

P2P; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 243,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401K plan

Paid vacation

Sick leave

Job summary

P2P is hiring a Staff Engineer, Security Automation, in San Francisco, CA. The role involves building AI-native automation tools across the security team and centralizing data from various security platforms to enhance operational efficiency.

The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in security engineering, a strong foundation in Python, and the ability to integrate AI into workflows. The anticipated salary range for this position is $243,000–$284,000 with additional benefits, including health and 401K plans.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of security engineering experience with automation.
• Experience building production-quality security tooling.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs or AI APIs.

Responsibilities

• Build frameworks for unifying asset inventory and vulnerability posture.
• Integrate AI into workflows for enhanced operational efficiency.
• Centralize data from multiple security tools.

Skills

Security engineering experience

Python programming

AI and LLM integration

Cloud security fundamentals

Collaboration skills

Job description

The Role

We're hiring a Staff Engineer, Security Automation to anchor automation across a16z's security org. The role focuses on leveraging key security tools, centralizing data, and building dashboards and AI-native automations that enable the Security Engineering and Incident Response teams to operate at scale.

This is an AI-native role. You will build LLM‑augmented workflows, agentic automations, and AI‑assisted analysis as first‑class building blocks and help the rest of the security team gain leverage from AI in their own work.

a16z's security stack spans cloud telemetry, SIEM, identity, endpoint, vulnerability scanning, ticketing, and more. You will stitch these tools into a single integrated picture and workflow.

The work protects the firm, LPs, and portfolio companies from sophisticated threats such as wire fraud, vishing, and targeted social engineering.

In‑office presence is required two days per week in the San Francisco, CA office.

What You'll Do

• Build the connective tissue across the security tools—SIEM, vulnerability scanners, EDR, identity, asset management, ticketing—centralizing the data they generate into a single actionable picture.
• Use AI as a first‑class building block—including LLM‑augmented analysis, agentic automations, and AI‑assisted summarization—designed for compounding leverage, not one‑off scripts.
• Build frameworks and dashboards that unify asset inventory, vulnerability posture, exposure reviews, and compliance evidence across systems.
• Take larger automation problems off the team’s plate—vulnerability management at scale, asset hygiene, access reviews, and cross‑tool workflows.
• Raise the rest of the security team’s leverage with AI—share patterns, ship tooling others use, and make it easy for security and incident response engineers to add AI to their own work.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of security engineering experience with automation and tool building as a core part of your work.
• Builder mindset—comfortable shipping production‑quality security tooling with strong Python or similar skills.
• Hands‑on experience building with LLMs or AI APIs—integrating AI into workflows, not just using AI‑powered products.
• Broad security fundamentals across cloud security, detection engineering, identity, and vulnerability management; depth in one area is fine, but breadth across many is required.
• Understanding of AI security risks: prompt injection, data exfiltration from LLM workflows, agent identity boundaries, and model risk.
• Experience translating technical security concepts, decisions, and trade‑offs into terms non‑technical audiences across the firm can act on.
• Low ego, high empathy, and the capacity to collaborate across security, engineering, and IT without creating friction.

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $243,000 – $284,000; actual starting pay may vary based on experience, skills, and scope.

This role is eligible to participate in the a16z carry program and various discretionary bonus programs, as well as benefit and perquisite plans including health, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401K plan, vacation, and sick leave.

At a16z we are always looking to hire the absolute best talent and recognize that diversity in our experiences and backgrounds is what makes us stronger. We hire candidates of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, Veteran status, and any other status. These differences enable us to work toward the future we envision for ourselves, our portfolio companies, and the world.

Our organization participates in E‑Verify.