Staff Application Security Engineer

AURORA; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); Hybrid; USD 171,000 - 273,000; Full time

Job summary

Aurora is seeking a Staff Application Security Engineer to advance an AI-native security program for its driverless truck product and infrastructure. This builder-first role emphasizes securing design, automation, and scalable investigations in collaboration with engineering teams.

The candidate will contribute code, build tooling, and implement preventative controls across the software lifecycle, while applying AI thoughtfully to scale security efforts in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in security, applications security, or product security.
• Strong programming, debugging, and system design skills for production software.
• Ability to investigate unfamiliar codebases, understand behavior, and assess misuse.
• Experience delivering technical work across teams in large/complex orgs.
• Thorough threat modeling, clear risk communication, and practical solutions with engineers.
• Experience building developer tooling, automation, or SDLC integrations.
• Practical AI experience to support technical work with validated outputs.
• Proficiency with C, C++, Go, Python, JavaScript and web frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Partner with engineering teams on fixes and secure design improvements, contributing code directly.
• Investigate findings with clear evidence and propose solutions to responsible teams.
• Help build and maintain the application security program and tooling, using AI to scale investigations.
• Build automation and integrate preventative controls into the software development lifecycle.

Skills

Security experience

Programming skills

Threat modeling

AI tooling

C/C++/Go/Python/JS

Cross-team collaboration

SDLC tooling

Security audits

Job description

Who we are

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit aurora.tech or follow us on LinkedIn.

What we are looking for

Aurora hires talented people with diverse backgrounds who are ready to help build a transportation ecosystem that will make our roads safer, get crucial goods where they need to go, and make mobility more efficient and accessible for all.

We’re looking for a Staff Application Security Engineer with a strong software engineering background to help build and maintain an AI-native application security program for our driverless truck product and supporting infrastructure. This is a builder-first role for someone who enjoys understanding complex systems and working alongside engineers to improve them. You’ll collaborate on fixes and design-level improvements, build automation, and make security a low-friction part of the software development lifecycle. You’ll use AI thoughtfully to scale your attention while applying your own engineering judgment.

In this role you will

• Partner with engineering teams on fixes and secure design improvements, contributing code directly.

• Investigate findings and their practical impact, bringing clear evidence and possible solutions when engaging the responsible teams.

• Help build and maintain the application security program and its tooling, using AI to scale investigation while validating results.

• Build automation and integrate preventative controls into the software development lifecycle to reduce recurring risks and friction.

Required qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in security , applications security engineering, or product security roles

• Substantial experience building and maintaining production software, with strong programming, debugging, and system design skills.

• Ability to investigate unfamiliar codebases, understand system behavior, and reason about potential misuse.

• Experience delivering technical work across teams in a large or complex engineering organization.

• Demonstrated ability to threat model systems, explain technical risks, and tradeoffs clearly and collaborate with engineers on practical solutions.

• Experience building developer tooling, automation, or software development lifecycle integrations.

• Practical experience using AI to support technical work, with the judgment to validate its output and explain the underlying reasoning.

• Experience with languages in our stack: C, C++, Go, Python, JavaScript, and web frameworks.

Desirable qualifications

• Hands-on experience building or maintaining both cloud and embedded systems, ideally with deep technical knowledge of each.

• Experience developing software for safety-critical products or their supporting infrastructure, particularly autonomous vehicle technology.

• Application or product security experience, including in-depth code audits, secure design reviews, threat modeling, or vulnerability investigation.

• Experience building and maintaining production AI-assisted security tooling or automation.

For roles based in San Francisco, CA, Mountain View, CA, and Seattle, WA: The salary range for this position is $189,000 - $303,000 per year.

For roles based in Pittsburgh, PA, Livonia, MI, and Dallas, TX: The salary range for this position is $171,000 - $273,000 per year.
Aurora’s pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, the successful candidate’s starting base pay will be determined based on factors including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, relevant education or training, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future. The successful candidate will also be eligible for an annual bonus, equity compensation, and benefits.

Working at Aurora

At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together — all without any jerks.

We believe in-person work increases collaboration, empathy and our ability to lead effectively. As a result, we operate in a hybrid work environment where Aurorans are in office at least 3 days per week.

Our Careers page provides insight into what it is like to work at Aurora, and you can find all the latest updates in our Newsroom.

Our commitment to safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee, and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.

Our commitment to inclusion

Aurora considers candidates without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy status, parent or caregiver status, ancestry, political affiliation, veteran and/or military status, physical or mental disability, or any other status protected by federal or state law. Aurora considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail].

For California applicants, information collected and processed as part of your application and any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Aurora’s California Employment Privacy Policy.