Software Engineer - Security/Infrastructure San Francisco

AfterQuery; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

AfterQuery is a San Francisco–based applied research lab building data solutions for foundation model development. You will protect a high‑stakes system handling AI workflows, expert networks, and enterprise integrations while shaping core infrastructure and human‑in‑the‑loop tooling.

The role emphasizes building resilient security infrastructure, replacing manual workflows with code, and accelerating debugging with AI tooling, all inside a fast‑moving, in‑person team.

Qualifications

• Built internal tools or systems to solve security problems.
• Strong programming ability in Python, Go, or TypeScript.
• Experience with cloud IAM, networking, and containers.

Responsibilities

• Build systems that identify and respond to real security events across our stack.
• Replace manual security workflows with programmatic, scalable solutions.
• Strengthen our cloud and production environments (GCP/AWS, containers, networking).
• Design and enforce access control systems across internal teams, experts, and customers.
• Integrate security checks directly into development workflows without slowing shipping speed.
• Own incident handling systems and processes from detection through resolution.
• Secure surfaces unique to AI systems, including data flows and model interaction layers.
• Beyond security: develop human‑in‑the‑loop systems and contribute to core infrastructure.

Skills

Python

Go

TypeScript

Cloud environments

Security

Incident handling

Tools

GCP

AWS

Containers

Job description

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development.

We serve every frontier AI lab with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. In doing so, we can make expertise that once took a lifetime to build available to anyone who needs it. Our customers are the ones building the foundation models themselves and our work sits directly in the loop of how those systems improve.

This is a rare opportunity to join a company at a defining moment in AI. Since raising our $30M Series A at a $300M valuation, AfterQuery has grown well over a $100M revenue run rate.

We're based in San Francisco and backed by leading investors including Altos Ventures, BoxGroup, and Y Combinator and angels from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI.

Software Engineer (Security/Infrastructure) — AfterQuery

About the Role

You’ll be responsible for protecting a system that handles highly sensitive workflows across AI training, expert networks, and enterprise integrations with leading model labs.

This role is deeply technical. You’ll design and implement the infrastructure that keeps our systems resilient, rather than managing off‑the‑shelf security tools.

We move fast and rely heavily on AI internally. You should be comfortable using LLMs to accelerate debugging, threat analysis, and system design—and just as comfortable replacing repetitive work with code.

Security here isn’t isolated. When you’re not working on security problems, you’ll be building core systems—especially human‑in‑the‑loop platforms and data infrastructure that power how frontier AI models are developed.

We work in‑person in San Francisco.

What You’ll Work On

• Build systems that identify and respond to real security events across our stack
• Replace manual security workflows with programmatic, scalable solutions
• Strengthen our cloud and production environments (GCP/AWS, containers, networking)
• Design and enforce access control systems across internal teams, experts, and customers
• Integrate security checks directly into development workflows without slowing shipping speed
• Own incident handling systems and processes from detection through resolution
• Secure surfaces unique to AI systems, including data flows and model interaction layers

Beyond security:

• Develop human‑in‑the‑loop systems used in AI training and evaluation
• Contribute to core infrastructure and internal tooling used across the company
• Ship features across the stack that directly impact customers and model performance

What We’re Looking For

• You’ve built internal tools or systems to solve security problems—not just configured existing products
• Strong programming ability in Python, Go, or TypeScript
• Experience working with cloud environments (IAM, networking, containers)
• Ability to identify vulnerabilities directly in code and system design
• Experience creating or maintaining signal‑based monitoring and alerting systems
• Comfortable owning production issues when they arise
• Able to move fluidly between security work and general engineering
• 2‑7 years building software or security systems

Nice to Have

• Background in fast‑scaling startups or high‑output engineering teams
• Exposure to AI systems, data pipelines, or model evaluation workflows
• Familiarity with offensive security techniques
• Experience building tools that other engineers depend on
• Evidence of building and shipping systems from zero to production

Why Apply

Massive Opportunity: We were one of the fastest growing YC companies in our batch, and we believe we can be one of the fastest growing YC companies of all time.

Founding role—you’ll define and own our data infrastructure from day one.

Equity & Growth – Competitive salary + equity. As we scale, you’ll have the opportunity to lead and grow an engineering team.

Strong Team: The founding team has experience from Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Silver Lake, and Morgan Stanley – get to work with the best :)