Senior Security Engineer, AWS Human Access Security

Amazon; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 178,400 - 226,700; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon AWS AHAS is seeking a Senior Security Engineer embedded with the AHAS software development team to own security design decisions for operator-access tooling. You will identify high-risk access patterns, quantify risk with data, and partner with teams across AWS to move access to lower-risk patterns or remove it.

You will mentor engineers, drive remediation, and build measurement and detection capabilities to show where risky access exists and whether it is trending down.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of troubleshooting systems issues and log analysis.
• 5+ years identifying security risks and developing mitigation plans.
• 5+ years scripting, programming and security code review.
• Knowledge of at least two of Scala, Java, Python, C/C++, or Go.
• Experience mentoring, tech lead, or leading an engineering team.

Responsibilities

• Define high-risk human access and risk patterns for production systems.
• Drive design decisions to lower access risk with scoped credentials and auditable access.
• Partner with AWS engineering teams to reduce risky access and measure reductions.
• Build measurement and detection capabilities to show risky access and trends.
• Investigate security issues and turn findings into durable tooling improvements.
• Mentor software and security engineers and represent security posture to leadership.

Skills

Troubleshooting & automation

Security risk identification

Scripting & programming

Security code review

Scala

Java

Python

C/C++

Go

Mentoring/leadership

Job description

Senior Security Engineer, AWS Human Access Security

Job ID: 10486476 | Amazon.com Services LLC

AHAS reduces the risk of human and operator access to AWS production systems and customer environments. As the Senior Security Engineer embedded with an AHAS software development team, you own the security design decisions for the operator-access tooling this team builds — tooling that engineers across AWS depend on to request, scope, and audit their access. You define what constitutes the highest-risk operator access, quantify it with data, and partner with teams across AWS to move that access to lower-risk patterns or remove it.

Key job responsibilities

• Define what counts as high-risk human access to production systems and the data they hold. You identify the access patterns (standing credentials, broad emergency access, unscoped remote sessions, unreviewed privilege elevation) that carry the greatest risk, and you rank them with data rather than opinion.
• Drive design decisions that lower access risk by default: scoped and time-bound credentials, reviewed privilege elevation, and auditable emergency access, so systems stay secure without depending on operator discipline.
• Partner with engineering teams across the organization to reduce risky access. You turn your risk model into concrete remediation, negotiate adoption, and measure the reduction over time.
• Build the measurement and detection capabilities that show where risky access exists and whether it is trending down, and use that data to prioritize the work.
• Investigate security issues involving human access and turn each one into a durable improvement in the tooling or the risk model, not a one-off fix.
• Mentor software and security engineers, raise the bar through design and code review, and represent your team's security posture to leadership and partner teams.

A day in the life

Most days come down to one question: who can reach critical production systems, and how do we make that access safer? You dig into the data, find the access patterns that carry the most risk, and decide what to tackle first. Then the part that matters most: you take each finding to the software engineers you work with and build the fix into the tooling, so the identification becomes automatic instead of something you teams have to discover. You'll also win over teams across the company to build tools and mechanisms to remove the risk completely. Find the problem, then automate it away.

About the team

AWS Human Access Security (AHAS) is a security and engineering team with one mission: make it safe for people to operate the systems that run AWS. Every engineer who touches production is our customer, and we build the tools they use to understand their access and reduce their risk. We pair security engineers with software engineers so good security is built into the product, not bolted on afterward. We care about measurable impact, clear thinking, and shipping fixes that stick. If you want your work to lower real risk across a huge fleet, join us.

Diverse Experiences

Amazon Security values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why Amazon Security?

At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores.

Inclusive Team Culture

In Amazon Security, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices.

Training & Career Growth

We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, training, and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance

We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship background in troubleshooting systems issues, analyzing logs, or automating complex tasks using command line tools experience
• 5+ years of work in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans experience
• 5+ years of (non-internship) scripting, programming, and security code review in common programming languages experience
• Knowledge of at least two of the following programming languages: Scala, Java, Python, C/C++, or Go
• Experience (non-internship) in scripting, programming, and security code reviewing in a common programming language
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience applying threat modeling or other risk identification techniques or equivalent
• Experience with security in service-oriented architectures/microservices and web services

Equal Opportunity Statement

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Base Salary Range (USA, VA, Arlington)

178,400.00 - 226,700.00 USD annually

Base Salary and Benefits

• The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location.
• Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage).
• 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off.
• Parental leave.