Staff Application Security Engineer

Upside; United States; Remote; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Equity

401(k)

Parental leave

Wellness membership

Mental health support

Unlimited PTO

Flexible work

Lunch reimbursement

ERGs

Learning stipend

Transparent culture

Mission-driven

Job summary

Upside is seeking an experienced security leader to own our application security program across mobile, web, and backend systems. You’ll drive remediation, establish guardrails, and create practical guidance that engineers actually use.

You will partner with Product Security, Cloud Security, and Engineering to scale secure software delivery, model threats for high‑impact initiatives, and ensure AI workflows are protected from design through deployment.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in application or product security or equivalent depth in secure software engineering with meaningful application security ownership.
• Strong Python code review skills, you can open a Lambda, understand what it does, and explain to the engineer who wrote it exactly what's wrong and why
• A track record of shipping security improvements that reduced real risk, not just running scanners or writing policy, you can point to fixes that landed, were verified, and to remediation you drove across teams you didn't own
• Experience with threat modeling and secure design review, engaging with designs before they ship, not only with code after the fact
• Practical, everyday use of AI in your security work; this is about how you already work, not a tool you've tried once
• Working knowledge of our stack: AWS security (Lambda, API Gateway, IAM least privilege, secrets handling) and CI/CD security in GitHub Actions, depth in the underlying mechanics matters more here than years in any one platform

Responsibilities

• Own Upside's application security program, the standards, the vulnerability management pipeline, and the guardrails that stop entire classes of defects from coming back
• Drive vulnerability management outcomes by triaging and tuning findings from scanning, code review, and our annual penetration test, then partnering with engineering teams to get fixes shipped and verified
• Lead application security reviews and threat models for high-impact work across mobile, web, and backend systems, and document risk decisions with clear mitigation plans
• Review and threat model agentic AI workflows, and define security controls for tool use, data access, and action execution
• Extend the AI automation that handles our finding volume: triage, prioritization with service context, and remediation guidance engineers can act on
• Build guardrails that scale beyond our team; repository baselines, required checks in GitHub, secure-by-default patterns for AWS workloads, reusable templates, and a security champions program

Skills

Security ownership

Python code review

Threat modeling

Secure design reviews

AI security

AWS security

CI/CD security

Security governance

Tools

GitHub Actions

Python

Terraform

AWS

Job description

Meet Upside:

We created Upside to transform brick-and-mortar commerce. Our technology uses the sophistication of online retail—profit measurement, attribution, and incrementality to provide users with more value on their everyday purchases and brick-and-mortar businesses with new, profitable customers. We've helped millions of users earn 2 to 3 times more cashback than any other product, and hundreds of thousands of brick-and-mortar businesses earn measurable profit. Billions of dollars in commerce run through the Upside platform every year, and that value goes directly back to our retailer partners, the consumers they serve, and important sustainability initiatives.

The Impact You’ll Make

You'll report to the Product Security Manager and work closely with our Cloud Security and Engineering teams to scale secure software delivery across Upside. This role owns our application security program, reducing real risk across mobile, web, and cloud systems by driving remediation, building engineering guardrails, and creating security guidance that developers actually use.

You’ll also work both sides of the AI problem:

we use AI to do security work, and we secure the AI systems we're building. If you came into security from a product engineering background, we'd especially love to hear from you.

• Own Upside's application security program, the standards, the vulnerability management pipeline, and the guardrails that stop entire classes of defects from coming back

• Drive vulnerability management outcomes by triaging and tuning findings from scanning, code review, and our annual penetration test, then partnering with engineering teams to get fixes shipped and verified

• Lead application security reviews and threat models for high-impact work across mobile, web, and backend systems, and document risk decisions with clear mitigation plans

• Review and threat model agentic AI workflows, and define security controls for tool use, data access, and action execution

• Extend the AI automation that handles our finding volume: triage, prioritization with service context, and remediation guidance engineers can act on

• Build guardrails that scale beyond our team; repository baselines, required checks in GitHub, secure-by-default patterns for AWS workloads, reusable templates, and a security champions program

What You’ll Bring

• 6+ years in application or product security or equivalent depth in secure software engineering with meaningful application security ownership

• Strong Python code review skills, you can open a Lambda, understand what it does, and explain to the engineer who wrote it exactly what's wrong and why

• A track record of shipping security improvements that reduced real risk, not just running scanners or writing policy, you can point to fixes that landed, were verified, and to remediation you drove across teams you didn't own

• Experience with threat modeling and secure design review, engaging with designs before they ship, not only with code after the fact

• Practical, everyday use of AI in your security work; this is about how you already work, not a tool you've tried once

• Working knowledge of our stack: AWS security (Lambda, API Gateway, IAM least privilege, secrets handling) and CI/CD security in GitHub Actions, depth in the underlying mechanics matters more here than years in any one platform

Tools We Use

• GitHub: Actions, Advanced Security, Copilot

• Python, Terraform

• AWS: Lambda, API Gateway, IAM, DynamoDB, S3, SNS, SQS, VPCs

• Snowflake, SQL, dbt, Dagster

• Claude, Claude Code, Amazon Bedrock

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting on Day 1

• Equity (ISOs)

• 401(k) program

• Family planning programs + paid parental leave

• Physical fitness and wellness memberships

• Emotional and mental health support programs

• Unlimited PTO + 10 paid federal holidays + our annual, week-long Winter Break

• Flexible work environment

• Lunch reimbursement for in-office employees

• Employee Resource Groups

• Learning and Development stipend

• Transparent culture

• Amazing mission!

Diversity and Inclusion:

Diversity drives innovation, and our differences make us stronger. We're passionate about building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here!

If there's anything we can do to support a disability or special need during your application or interview process, please email [e-mail].

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