Senior Product Security Engineer

Plaid; United States; Remote; USD 190,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Restaurant-like snacks

Job summary

Plaid is seeking a Lead Security Architect to drive security for core products, collaborating with engineering and product teams from early development through launch.

You will conduct threat modeling, assess authentication/authorization, review code, and guide risk-based mitigations, including AI-enabled features. This role requires strong security background and independent work in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in product or application security.
• Experience leading security design reviews and threat modeling for complex applications, APIs, or distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of authentication, authorization, trust boundaries, data protection, and vulnerabilities.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including reading code, analyzing vulnerability paths, and evaluating fixes.
• Experience securing cloud-native applications and understanding architecture implications.
• Ability to communicate complex security risks and influence engineering and product leadership.
• Ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments and collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead security architecture and design reviews for high-priority products from development through launch.
• Conduct threat modeling and security assessments of applications, APIs, and distributed systems.
• Evaluate authentication, authorization, data flows, and business logic for vulnerabilities and abuse cases.
• Review application code and validate proposed fixes address underlying risks.
• Assess security implications of new technologies, including AI-powered capabilities.
• Partner with engineering leadership to prioritize risks, mitigations, and risk acceptance.
• Develop reusable security requirements and secure design patterns with engineering teams.
• Leverage AI-assisted security analysis to improve assessments and validate assumptions.

Skills

Threat modeling

Secure architecture

Application security

Authentication

Authorization

Security reviews

Code review

Vulnerability assessment

AI security considerations

Security risk communication

Job description

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. the company powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. the company’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., Raleigh, London, and Amsterdam.

The mission of the company's Product Security Team is “Improve our customer’s trust by assuring secure development and delivery of products and services, minimizing risk to the ecosystem, and preventing security incidents.

the company's Product Security team helps engineering teams build secure products and continuously identify and reduce security risks. Our work spans security architecture and design, application security, vulnerability management, supply chain security, and security automation.

We work directly with product and engineering teams to identify risks early, influence secure architecture, and define security requirements. We build and leverage automated security capabilities to expand testing coverage, validate fixes, and reduce recurring vulnerabilities. As AI accelerates software development, our goal is to help the company maintain strong security without relying on manual reviews for every change.

This role is perfect for you if:

• You enjoy understanding complex products and systems and finding security risks that are not immediately obvious.
• You have strong application security fundamentals and are comfortable working directly with code and architecture.
• You enjoy working closely with engineers and product teams to solve security problems early in development.
• You can evaluate technical and business tradeoffs and influence architectural decisions.
• You are excited about how AI is changing software development and how we approach product security.

About the role:

Lead security architecture and design reviews for high-priority the company products, working directly with engineering and product teams from early development through launch.

• Conduct threat modeling and technical security assessments of complex applications, APIs, distributed systems, and product workflows to identify material security risks.
• Evaluate authentication, authorization, trust boundaries, sensitive data flows, and business logic to identify potential vulnerabilities and abuse cases.
• Review application code, investigate security weaknesses, and validate that proposed fixes address the underlying risks.
• Assess security implications of new technologies and product capabilities, including AI-powered applications and agentic workflows.
• Partner with engineering leadership to prioritize material security risks, agree on mitigations, and track them through remediation or approved risk acceptance.
• Identify recurring security weaknesses, define reusable security requirements and secure design patterns, and partner with engineering teams to implement preventive controls.
• Leverage AI-assisted security analysis and testing to continuously improve security assessments and validate important security assumptions.

Must haves:

5+ years of experience in product or application security, with strong expertise in secure architecture, application security fundamentals, and technical risk assessment.

• Experience leading security design reviews and threat modeling for complex applications, APIs, or distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of authentication, authorization, trust boundaries, sensitive data protection, and common application security vulnerabilities.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including the ability to read application code, analyze vulnerability paths, and evaluate security fixes.
• Experience assessing security risks in cloud-native applications and understanding the security implications of system architecture and implementation decisions.
• Ability to communicate complex security risks, recommend practical mitigations, and influence engineering and product leadership.
• Ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments and collaborate effectively across teams.

Nice to have:

• Experience securing AI-powered applications or agentic systems.
• Experience with penetration testing, vulnerability research, or security testing of complex business logic.
• Experience securing financial technology products or systems handling sensitive or regulated data.

Our mission at the company is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to the company!

the company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. the company is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at [e-mail].

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. the company provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.