Security Engineer, Detection & Response - Global Security Organization

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 156,000 - 317,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Detection Engineer within the Global Security Organization to advance threat detection and response capabilities across our platform and infrastructure. You will analyze threats, build scalable detection pipelines, and drive cross-functional security controls across teams.

Responsibilities include researching threats, developing signals, and applying AI/ML techniques to improve detection.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or industry equivalent work experience in Cybersecurity with a focus on security analytics and incident response.
• Proficient in Python and related tools (numpy, pandas, sklearn, etc.) to analyse logs, identify anomalies, and propose detection strategies.

Responsibilities

• Research emerging cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits relevant to our infrastructure and products.
• Develop new methods and technologies to detect threats, identify attack surfaces, and design data-driven approaches that use these signals to identify security threats.

Skills

Security fundamentals

MITRE ATT&CK

NIST CSF

Threat modeling

Log analysis

AI/ML for security

Python

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Cybersecurity or equivalent

Tools

WAF

HIDS

NTA

EDR

DLP

Job description

Responsibilities

The mission of TikTok's Global Security Organization is to build and earn trust by reducing risk and securing our businesses and products. Also known as "GSO", this team is the foundation of our efforts to keep TikTok safe, secure, and operating at scale for over 1 billion people around the world. We work to ensure that the TikTok platform is safe and secure, that our users' experience and their data remains safe from external or internal threats, and that we comply with global regulations wherever TikTok operates.

Trust is one of TikTok's biggest initiatives, and security is integral to our success. In whatever ways users interact with us — whether they're watching videos on their For You page, interacting with a Live video, or buying products on TikTok Shop — GSO protects their data and privacy, so they can have a secure and trustworthy experience.

As part of the Threat Detection and Response function, the Detection Engineering team focuses on improving our detection capabilities to identify malicious threats. This can involve data engineering to enrich and scale the pipelines, or analyzing adversarial tradecraft and developing signals or creating tools to improve our Detection and Response capabilities.

Responsibilities:

• Research emerging cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits relevant to our infrastructure and products.
• Develop new methods and technologies to detect threats , identify attack surfaces, and design data-driven approaches that use these signals to identify security threats.
• Lead cross-functional projects to implement and design security controls or tools, that enable us to better protect & detect attack vectors.
• Conduct in-depth analysis of security incidents, supporting incident response teams during investigations.
• Perform gap assessment to identify and improve tooling capabilities and detection strategy.
• Develop and optimize automations to scale detection and response capabilities.
• Utilize threat modeling and log analysis to build behavioral based detections.
• Work with stakeholders to discover new detection capabilities and logging sources.
• Apply cutting-edge AI technologies/Machine Learning (ML) to develop innovative AI solutions for security

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Possess a strong understanding of security fundamentals across networks, hosts, applications, and containers, with the ability to comprehensively address various security threats.
• Proficient in at least one of the following security products: WAF, HIDS, NTA, EDR or DLP, with practical experience in strategy development and knowledge of industry best practices/ frameworks (MITRE ATT&CK, NIST CSF, etc).
• Proficient in using one or more coding languages to analyse logs, identify anomalies, and propose detection strategies.
• Familiar with Detection-as-Code pipelines, integrating with in-house security tools to scale custom detections.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors’ Degree or industry equivalent work experience in Cybersecurity with a focus on security analytics and incident response
• Proficient in using Python and related tools (numpy, pandas, sklearn, e.g.) to analyse logs, identify anomalies, and propose detection strategies.
• Familiar with common security offense/defense techniques, with hands‑on experience in developing and implementing detection rules at scale.
• Strong communication skills, ability to collaborate effectively with team members, self-motivated, and team-oriented.
• Preferred certifications - GCIA, GCIH, GREM, OSCP, OSCE³

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/RA-request

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $156000 - $316800 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.