Senior Detection and Response Engineer New San Francisco, CA

Altruist; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive total compensation

Premium healthcare, dental, and vision

401k with 4% match

16 weeks parental leave

Professional growth & L&D budget

Employee mobility program

One month work from anywhere policy

Job summary

Altruist in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Senior Detection and Response Engineer to build and refine detections and response capabilities spanning cloud, endpoints, and identity providers.

You will tune detections, investigate alerts, lead incident response, and automate playbooks while collaborating with MDR/IR partners. This role offers a hybrid schedule with 3 days onsite in SF or Culver City and a competitive compensation package.

Qualifications

• Hands-on authoring of detections in a modern SIEM.
• Investigations across cloud (AWS), endpoint, and identity data sources.
• Scripting and automation with Python.
• Independent work capability.
• Experience in detection and response engineering in security operations.
• Familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK framework is a plus.
• Comfort working in regulated fintech/financial services environments is a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Build, tune, and maintain high-fidelity detections as code across SIEM, cloud, endpoint, and identity telemetry.
• Triage and investigate alerts, lead response on security incidents, and proactively hunt threats.
• Operationalize threat intelligence and IOC ingestion into detections and edge/WAF rules.
• Develop response playbooks and automation to reduce toil and speed containment.
• Partner with MDR and IR teams and conduct purple-team exercises with red team engineers.
• Improve logging coverage and detection efficacy against MITRE ATT&CK.

Skills

Detections engineering

Incident response

Threat hunting

SIEM

AWS

Kubernetes

Datadog/Splunk

Endpoint security tools

Python

Automation

Education

B.A./B.S. in CS / CE / InfoSec

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Datadog

Splunk

SentinelOne

CrowdStrike

Terraform

Job description

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Senior Detection and Response Engineer

San Francisco, CA

About Altruist

Altruist is transforming the multi-trillion dollar wealth management industry by building an AI platform for wealth professionals. We partner with financial advisors nationwide, empowering them to grow, optimize time and resources, and deliver superior outcomes for their clients.

We're looking for exceptional talent to help us achieve our mission of making financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to all. If you're passionate about challenging the status quo and want to do the most important work of your life, we'd love to meet you!

But first, our values

Kindness - Kindness doesn’t just equal niceness. We listen to understand. We embrace, and encourage healthy debate and diverse perspectives. We approach conflict openly, honestly, and respectfully.

Brilliance - Humility is the skill we’re most proud of and possessing a growth mindset is always top of mind. We take ownership in everything we touch; regularly using our unique superpowers to reach a common goal as a team. We succeed and fail as one.

Grit - When challenges arise, we stay laser focused on achieving our mission and finding a way forward, even when it’s hard. We are nimble and maintain a sense of urgency, swiftly adapting to change and overcoming obstacles.

About the position

Altruist is in the midst of an exciting phase and we’re excited to hire a Senior Detection and Response Engineer to join our growing Security team. You’ll build the detections and response capability that find and stop threats across our cloud, endpoints, and identity providers.

This role follows a hybrid schedule, with three days per week onsite in our San Francisco FiDi or Culver City office.Your impact

• Build, tune, and maintain high-fidelity detections as code across SIEM, cloud, endpoint , and identity telemetry.
• Triage and investigate alerts, lead response on security incidents, and proactively threat-hunt for "low and slow" and insider activity.
• Operationalize threat intelligence and IOC ingestion into detections and edge/WAF rules.
• Develop response playbooks and automation (SOAR) to reduce toil and speed containment.
• Partner with our MDR and IR partners and run purple-team exercises with our red team security engineers.
• Continuously improve logging coverage and detection efficacy, measured against MITRE ATT&CK.

What you’ll bring

• Experience - 4+ years of experience in detection engineering, incident response, or threat hunting:
  • Hands-on authoring of detections in a modern SIEM
  • Investigations across cloud (AWS), endpoint, and identity data sources
  • Comfort scripting and automating (e.g., Python)
  • Strong ability to work independently
• Education - A B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or Computer Engineering or Information Security or relevant experience
• Technical aptitude - You’re technologically savvy and can easily get up to speed on modern tech stacks (i.e., AWS, Kubernetes, Datadog/Splunk, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, Terraform, etc.)
• Ownership - The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable
• Superb communication - Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others.
• Resilience - We’re inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way.
• Assurance - Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives.
• Creative problem solving - Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You’re instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks.

Bonus points if you bring

• Experience working in regulated environments (fintech / financial services)
• Cyber threat intelligence or insider-threat detection experience

San Francisco, CA salary range

$200,000 - $240,000 USD

What we bring

Attracting and retaining top-tier talent is a priority. We are proud of the culture we’ve built and are cognizant of the ever-changing professional landscape. Our dynamic offering of perks and benefits are tailored for you to feel your best while doing your best.

• Stunning, amenity-filled office spaces in Culver City, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Dallas, TX. Our offices are intentionally designed for comfort, collaboration, and productivity.
• Competitive total compensation.
• Premium healthcare, dental, and vision insurance plans (HMO and PPO).
• 401k savings plan with a 4% match and immediate vesting.
• 16 week paid parental leave after one year of employment.
• Professional growth and development opportunities including an employee mobility program and an annual L&D budget allocation for each employee.
• Company perks program (includes discounts on pet insurance, fitness, cell phone plans, and travel, etc.).
• Financial guidance program (includes counseling on navigating debt, tracking personal spend, saving and planning goals, home-purchasing preparedness, etc.).
• One month work from anywhere policy (with the exception of a few countries).

Total compensation includes a competitive benefits package, along with a bonus program for eligible roles. For salaried positions, a salary offer will be determined by a number of factors including experience, skill level, internal pay equity, geographic location, and other relevant business considerations. We review all employee pay and compensation programs regularly to ensure fair, equitable, and competitive pay. At Altruist, we are committed to providing fair, equitable, and competitive compensation by leveraging market data to inform our pay bands. Base salaries will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year, typically in conjunction with performance review cycles. By evaluating compensation on a regular basis, we are able to reward high performance and ensure all employees have opportunities for growth.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Altruist we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.