Senior Security Engineer, Proactive Security

Amazon; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 178,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon is seeking a Senior Security Engineer in Austin, TX to drive security initiatives across multiple services. The role demands deep expertise in application security, threat modeling, and secure system design, with the ability to influence engineering teams and deliver high-impact outcomes.

You will lead security reviews, mentor engineers, and build tooling to automate security tasks while pushing for continuous risk reduction across the organization.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in troubleshooting, security issue analysis, or automating complex tasks using command line tools.
• 5+ years identifying security issues, risks, and mitigations.
• Experience in at least two languages: Scala, Java, Python, C/C++, or Go.
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead, or engineering team lead.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end security reviews for high-priority services, including threat modeling.
• Provide architectural security guidance to service teams.
• Independently perform threat modeling for distributed systems and mitigations.
• Conduct targeted manual code reviews to find vulnerabilities.
• Scope and oversee penetration testing engagements with teams.
• Identify, document, and track security findings to resolution.
• Mentor junior engineers and influence team processes.
• Design and build security tooling to increase efficiency and scale.
• Leverage AI to automate review workflows and improve detections.
• Partner with service teams to improve security posture with self-service guidance.
• Define and track security metrics for risk reduction and builder experience.

Skills

Security reviews

Threat modeling

Manual code review

Penetration testing

Scripting & programming

Mentorship/leadership

Security tooling

AI security automation

Security architecture

Communication

Job description

The Senior Security Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for independently driving security initiatives across multiple services and teams. This role requires deep technical expertise in application security, threat modeling, and secure system design, combined with the ability to influence engineering teams and deliver high-impact security outcomes with minimal guidance.

Key job responsibilities

• Security Reviews & Assessments: Lead end-to-end security reviews for complex, high-priority services including design reviews, threat modeling, and penetration testing scoping and readout
• Technical Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert for assigned affinity teams, providing architectural guidance and security consultation to service teams throughout the development lifecycle
• Threat Modeling: Independently perform and guide threat modeling exercises for complex distributed systems, identifying risks and recommending mitigations
• Manual Code Review: Conduct targeted manual code reviews of security-critical components, identifying vulnerabilities and insecure patterns that automated tools miss
• Penetration Testing: Scope, coordinate, and oversee penetration testing engagements; analyze results and drive remediation with service teams
• Findings Management: Identify, document, and track security findings to resolution; elevate critical issues to leadership when appropriate
• Mentorship & Influence: Mentor junior engineers, contribute to team processes and tooling improvements, and raise the security bar across the organization
• Design & Build Security Tooling: Design and build security automation, tooling, and processes that improve operational efficiency and scale the team's impact
• AI-Powered Security Automation: Leverage generative AI and machine learning to build intelligent security automations that streamline review workflows, enhance vulnerability detection, and reduce manual toil
• Builder Engagement: Partner with service teams to improve security posture proactively, including developing self-service guidance, documentation, and readiness frameworks
• Metrics & Reporting: Define and track security metrics that measure risk reduction, operational efficiency, and builder experience improvements

About the team

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

• 4+ 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 experience4+ 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 working in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans
• 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

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

If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

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, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, TX, Austin - 178,400.00 - 226,700.00 USD annually