Senior Application Security Architect

IBM; Boston (KY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM is seeking a Staff Application Security Engineer to shape the security posture across on‑premises and cloud platforms, guiding architecture and security reviews for large distributed systems.

You will lead threat modeling, secure-by-design practices, and security automation, partnering with Engineering and Product leadership to embed security into the lifecycle and CI/CD pipelines, advancing our AI and data streaming capabilities.

Qualifications

• 10+ years hands-on application security experience across large-scale, distributed systems.
• Comprehensive knowledge of security fundamentals for modern web apps and cloud-native platforms.
• Ability to partner with Engineering and Product leadership to embed security into core architecture.
• Ability to lead technical investigation and response to security incidents and drive preventive improvements.
• Experience evolving the SDLC to embed security by default, including CI/CD pipelines and automated guardrails.
• Interest in applying AI/LLMs to automate security workflows and reduce manual toil.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Engineering, Product, and Platform teams to identify security risks early and influence secure-by-design practices.
• Lead threat modeling frameworks and security design reviews for complex distributed systems.
• Oversee security code reviews and API security testing, providing remediation guidance.
• Architect and drive security automation to scale security operations and vulnerability management.
• Design and lead deployment of automation frameworks that integrate security into cloud-native pipelines.
• Identify new vulnerabilities, lead research initiatives, and run tabletop exercises to stay ahead of threats.
• Deploy advanced controls to maximize observability and harden attack surfaces across the ecosystem.

Skills

Security architecture

Threat modeling

Secure coding practices

Security reviews

Automation tooling

CI/CD security

Cloud security

Go/Python/Java

Cross-functional leadership

Data-driven decisions

Education

Master's Degree

Job description

IBM is seeking a Staff Application Security Engineer to shape the security posture across on‑premises and cloud platforms, guiding architecture and security reviews for large distributed systems.

You will lead threat modeling, secure-by-design practices, and security automation, partnering with Engineering and Product leadership to embed security into the lifecycle and CI/CD pipelines, advancing our AI and data streaming capabilities.