Senior Staff Security Engineer, Distributed Systems

Cerebras; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Cerebras Systems seeks a Senior Staff Security Engineer, Distributed Systems to harden and secure on‑prem and cloud clusters. You will define core security requirements, model threats, and partner with platform, infrastructure, networking, and hardware teams to bake security in from the start.

The role requires deep breadth in systems and networking, hands‑on engineering in heterogeneous environments, and the ability to communicate security concepts to non‑specialists in a fast‑paced development

Qualifications

• Experience securing heterogeneous compute environments and Kubernetes hardening.
• Proven ability to design threat models for cluster stacks and secure design in from the start.
• Strong written communication for non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Define core security requirements for distributed systems environments, covering everything from secure boot configurations to workload identity in k8s pods
• Partner with platform, infrastructure, networking, and hardware teams to identify gaps and deliver end-to-end solutions improving the overall security maturity of the environment
• Develop threat models for each part of the cluster stack, outlining trust boundaries and the interplay between first and third-party mechanisms
• Work with engineering leads and architects to bake secure design in from the beginning
• Balance engineering outcomes with security controls, enabling the company to deliver securely quickly
• Document security posture and strategy for technical and nontechnical audiences from both 1p and 3p perspectives

Skills

HPC experience

Kubernetes hardening

Networked system security

On-prem & cloud

AWS familiarity

Security communication

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Cloud security

Job description

Cerebras Systems builds the world's largest AI chip, 56 times larger than GPUs. This architecture allows Cerebras to deliver industry-leading training and inference speeds; over 10 times faster than GPU-based hyperscale cloud inference services.

This order of magnitude increase in speed is transforming the user experience of AI applications, unlocking real-time iteration and increasing intelligence via additional agentic computation.

Cerebras works with the leading model labs, global enterprises, and cutting-edge AI-native startups. OpenAI recently announced a multi-year partnership with Cerebras, to deploy 750 megawatts of scale, transforming key workloads with ultra high-speed inference.

Cerebras is seeking a Senior Staff Security Engineer, Distributed Systems to help build out the next generation of security controls and services in our on-prem and cloud clusters.

In this role you will be responsible for driving hardening efforts across every layer of the cluster stack, covering a range of systems at the bare metal, virtualized, and k8s containerized levels.

The ideal candidate brings a combination of wide breadth of knowledge on a variety of systems and networking topics, a pragmatic and results-driven outlook on security, and the flexibility and attention to detail to work in a fast-paced development environment without compromising our security standards.

Responsibilities

• Define core security requirements for distributed systems environments, covering everything from secure boot configurations to workload identity in k8s pods
• Partner with platform, infrastructure, networking, and hardware teams to identify gaps and deliver end-to-end solutions improving the overall security maturity of the environment
• Develop threat models for each part of the cluster stack, outlining trust boundaries and the interplay between first and third-party mechanisms
• Work with engineering leads and architects to bake secure design in from the beginning
• Balance engineering outcomes with security controls, enabling the company to deliver securely quickly
• Document security posture and strategy for technical and nontechnical audiences from both 1p and 3p perspectives

Skills and Qualifications

• 8-10 years of experience with heterogenous compute environments, kubernetes hardening, and general networked system security
• 10+ years with HPCs (high performance clusters)
• Strong hands-on engineering abilities in on-prem and cloud environments
• Ability to work in fragmented ecosystems, hardening both modern k8s deployments as well as bare metal instances
• Familiarity with AWS, Kubernetes, and distributed compute systems a plus
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to make security concepts approachable for non-specialists.

Why Join Cerebras

People who are serious about software make their own hardware. At Cerebras, we have built a breakthrough architecture that is unlocking new opportunities for the AI industry. With dozens of model releases and rapid growth, we’ve reached an inflection point in our business. Members of our team tell us there are five main reasons they joined Cerebras:

1. Build a breakthrough AI platform beyond the constraints of the GPU.
2. Publish and open source their cutting-edge AI research.
3. Work on one of the fastest AI supercomputers in the world.
4. Enjoy job stability with startup vitality.
5. Our simple, non-corporate work culture that respects individual beliefs.

Cerebras Systems is committed to creating an equal and diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe inclusive teams build better products and companies. We try every day to build a work environment that empowers people to do their best work through continuous learning, growth and support of those around us.