Senior Staff Security Engineer (Security Operations)

Robinhood; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Robinhood is seeking a Senior Staff Security Engineer, Security Operations, to lead and reinvent how AI-powered defenses are built and operated. You will own the technical creation and execution of the AI-driven Security Operations roadmap for both offensive and defensive functions.

You will push adversaries back with deep red team, penetration testing, and app security expertise while mentoring security engineers and shaping security strategy at the highest level.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of security engineering experience with demonstrated depth across offensive and defensive security.
• A strong background in threat detection and security operations.
• Proficiency with cloud infrastructure security (AWS preferred), telemetry and observability tooling.
• Deep expertise in application security and vulnerability management.
• Experience leading security research and mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead offensive security research with red team, penetration testing, and app security expertise.
• Architect and build next-generation defensive capabilities using AI-powered defense systems.
• Own the Security Operations AI roadmap for defensive and offensive functions.
• Drive AI-forward security strategy and scale the security workforce with AI tools.
• Set technical standards and mentor engineers across Security Operations.
• Translate threat intelligence into proactive, architectural defenses.

Skills

Threat detection

Security operations

Red team

Penetration testing

Offensive security

Application security

Defensive security

Incident response

Threat intelligence

AI in security

Technical leadership

AWS

Telemetry & observability

Tools

AWS

Job description

• As a Senior Staff Security Engineer, Security Operations, you will operate at the intersection of operational security tradecraft and cutting-edge AI-driven defense
• You will bring deep expertise across both the offensive and defensive sides of security operations and you will push the boundaries of what’s possible when those disciplines are combined with modern AI tooling
• This is a 0-1 technical leadership role for someone who doesn’t just follow the security playbook, but looks to rewrite it
• Serve as the Security Operations AI Tech Lead for Robinhood’s offensive and defensive security functions - Owning the technical creation and execution of Robinhood’s Security OperationsAI roadmap for defensive and offensive operations
• Lead offensive security research - applying deep red team, penetration testing, and application security expertise to proactively identify and close critical attack surfaces before adversaries find them
• Architect and build next-generation defensive capabilities that go beyond static detection - designing intelligent systems that actively engage, deceive, and track sophisticated threat actors including AI-powered attackers
• Drive Robinhood’s AI-forward security strategy - not just using AI as a productivity tool, but as a core architectural component of how we build a synthetic workforce to scale against agentic and automated adversaries
• Identify emerging threat actor motivations and attack patterns especially in the AI space, translating intelligence into proactive defensive architectures that stay ahead of the threat curve
• Set technical standards and mentor security engineers within Security Operations, elevating the overall capability of the org

Strong background in threat detection and security operations - you understand how attackers operate and how to build systems that catch them fasterProficiency with cloud infrastructure security (AWS preferred), telemetry and observability tooling, and the technical underpinnings of large-scale detection pipelinesA genuine, informed point of view on AI in the security domain - you’re not using AI to write scripts, you’re thinking about how AI fundamentally changes both the attack surface and the defensive toolkit12+ years of security engineering experience with demonstrated depth across both offensive security (red team, penetration testing, application security, vulnerability management) and defensive security (incident response, detection engineering, threat intelligence)Demonstrate impact by innovating with AI in Security Operations - You’ve moved orgs well beyond the chatbot experience and implemented measurable success in uplifting Security Operations with AIDeep expertise in application security - you understand how modern software is built and where it breaks, and you can operate equally well as a security engineer and a software engineerExceptional technical communication skills - you can write, brief, and influence at the executive level as well as go deep with engineers on implementation detailsSecurity certifications (OSCP, GREM, GXPN, or equivalent) are a plus - but demonstrated capability will always outweigh paper credentials hereProven track record of technical leadership at the Senior Staff, Principal, or Distinguished level - you’ve set org-wide or company-wide security direction, not just executed within a team