Senior Security Engineer, Human Access Security (AHAS)

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

Job summary

Amazons Services LLC is seeking a Senior Security Engineer embedded with the AHAS team to own the security design decisions for operator-access tooling used across AWS production systems. You will 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.

You will mentor engineers, drive measurable risk reductions, and design auditable controls that keep critical systems secure while

Qualifications

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

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.

Skills

Troubleshooting

Security risk analysis

Scripting / coding

Programming languages

Mentorship / leadership

Job description

Amazons Services LLC is seeking a Senior Security Engineer embedded with the AHAS team to own the security design decisions for operator-access tooling used across AWS production systems. You will 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.

You will mentor engineers, drive measurable risk reductions, and design auditable controls that keep critical systems secure while