Remote Principal Platform Security Engineer

Upstart; San Mateo, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 191,000 - 264,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company match

Equity grants (annual)

ESPP (US only)

Health coverage

Wellness resources

Job summary

Upstart is seeking a Principal Platform Security Engineer to define and drive the technical strategy for securing production infrastructure and developer platforms. You will lead cross-functional efforts to reduce systemic risk, influence roadmaps, and build durable security controls that scale across teams.

This senior role requires deep infrastructure security expertise, strong engineering judgment, and the ability to translate complex risks into practical improvements for the business.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in security/infra/software engineering or related role.
• 4+ years in infrastructure, cloud, platform, or production security.
• Experience securing cloud-native infrastructure in AWS or similar.
• Experience with multiple infra security domains: cloud IAM, Kubernetes, network security, secrets management, IaC, CI/CD security, vulnerability management.
• Experience coding or automating in Python, Go, Java, Ruby, or similar.
• Experience leading security architecture reviews or risk assessments for complex systems.
• Experience designing preventative security controls and guardrails for large engineering teams.
• Experience leading cross-functional security initiatives with multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive Upstart’s infrastructure security strategy, aligning secure-by-default with business priorities.
• Own the security roadmap for cloud, platform, compute, and deployment environments across organizations.
• Lead security architecture reviews for critical infrastructure initiatives and influence architectural decisions.
• Identify and reduce systemic infrastructure security risks with durable preventative controls and automation.
• Establish standards for production access, service identity, workload trust, and secure operations.
• Partner with engineering to improve security of AI-assisted developer workflows and GenAI systems.
• Act as senior technical authority during high-severity incidents, driving root cause analysis and long-term fixes.
• Mentor engineers and elevate security maturity across Upstart.

Skills

Security engineering

Infrastructure security

Cloud security

Programming (Python/Go/Java/Ruby)

Security architecture reviews

Preventative security controls

Cross-functional initiatives

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD security

AWS

Job description

Upstart is seeking a Principal Platform Security Engineer to define and drive the technical strategy for securing production infrastructure and developer platforms. You will lead cross-functional efforts to reduce systemic risk, influence roadmaps, and build durable security controls that scale across teams.

This senior role requires deep infrastructure security expertise, strong engineering judgment, and the ability to translate complex risks into practical improvements for the business.