Staff Security Engineer

Primer.ai; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Primer.ai is seeking a Staff Security Engineer to join the IT and Information Security teams to protect data by building and maintaining a secure cloud architecture. You will own DAST and SAST, threat detection, and incident response processes across cloud environments.

You will implement IAM with Okta, enable SSO/MFA, perform CI/CD security with SAST/DAST/SCA, and drive Zero Trust, CSPM, and RBAC in Kubernetes (EKS).

Qualifications

• 10+ years of security experience with cloud environments.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Experience integrating security into SDLC / DevSecOps.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and improve organizational security posture continuously.
• Manage security solutions and controls for cloud infrastructure, platforms, and apps.
• Harden IAM with Okta (SSO, MFA, lifecycle automation, conditional access).
• Lead Zero Trust framework expansion and CSPM efforts.
• Collaborate with DevOps, IT, and development teams to integrate security into SDLC/DevSecOps.
• Own remediation of findings and track gaps through closure.
• Oversee security in CI/CD pipelines (SAST, DAST, SCA, container image scanning).
• Lead SOC 2 (Type I/II) and CMMC compliance activities and audits.
• Run continuous vulnerability monitoring across cloud, endpoints, and apps.
• Support incident response and root-cause analysis.

Skills

Security expertise

Communication skills

Cloud security experience

Tools

AWS

Azure

Intrusion prevention systems

SIEM technologies

Okta / IAM

Terraform / CloudFormation

GitHub Advanced Security

Job description

As a Staff Security Engineer, you will be a valuable member of the IT and Information Security teams, managing and improving the organizational security posture. You will help protect sensitive data by implementing and continuously monitoring a secure cloud architecture. You will work with the security toolchain in cloud environments and support the development of security best practices and standards. Your responsibilities will also include managing vulnerability scanning and remediation efforts, responding to security alerts under supervision, and leading in root cause analysis. You will own the DAST and SAST solutions and be a key member of the incident response processes, tracking cyber actions from initial detection to final resolution.

Job responsibilities - How You Will Make an Impact

• Analyze the organizational security posture and pursue improvements on a continuous basis
• Implement and manage security solutions and controls for cloud-based infrastructure, platforms, and applications
• Administer and harden identity and access management through Okta, including SSO, MFA, lifecycle automation, and conditional access policies. privilege IAM, network segmentation, and cloud security posture management(CSPM)
• Tighten then the IT team to broaden the Zero Trust framework
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including DevOps, IT, and development teams, to integrate security into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and DevSecOps practices
• Own remediation of security assessment findings and ensure identified control gaps are tracked, implemented, validated and documented through closure.
• K8s line to admission control, RBAC, pod hardening, and runtime sensors on EKS
• Own secure code review practices on GitHub, including branch protection rules, required status checks, GitHub Advanced Security (secret scanning, CodeQL,Dependabot), and pull request security gates.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines with integrated security scanning (SAST, DAST,SCA, container image scanning) so vulnerabilities are caught before production.
• Lead and maintain SOC 2 (Type I/II) and CMMC compliance efforts: control implementation, evidence collection, audit readiness, and coordination with auditors.
• Run continuous vulnerability monitoring and management across cloud, endpoints, and applications, triaging findings and driving remediation with engineering teams against SLAs
• CrowdStrike Falcon end to end: EDR, incident response, detections and queries in NG-SIEM, Spotlight vulnerability program with reporting. AF, DDoS protection, DNS security, bot management, and Zero Trust network access.
• Maintain infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation/ARM/Bicep) with security policy-as-code checks baked into deployment pipelines.
• Monitor for security incidents, respond to alerts, and support incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Terraform in production: security posture on terraform-aws IAM, S3, ECR, and SG
• Scripting in Python or Go plus Bash. DAST automation, Okta sync, S3 auto-remediation, and CVE fixes in services
• Third-party risk: reviewing new vendors and tools before purchase, like the Pipl and CodePunch reviews
• Conduct security assessments and audits of cloud environments to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Respond to security alerts and conduct root cause analysis
• Perform incident response and track cyber actions from initial detection to final resolution

What We Are Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in Security and Cloud Operations
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Hands-on experience with AWS and Azure
• Direct experience with intrusion prevention systems
• Experience with system logging and SIEM technologies
• Experience with cloud native security tools (e.g., IAM, WAF)
• Knowledge of incident response processes and practices
• Hands-on experience with vulnerability management tools, technologies, and methods
• Proven ability to integrate security practices into IT and/or DevOps environments
• Experience streamlining security processes

Nice To Have:

• Knowledge of Python and Golang
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty (or AWS Solutions Architect Professional)
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) or Cybersecurity Architect Expert (SC-100)
• ISC2 Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) or CISSP
• Experience working with government customers, particularly within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) or other federal environments, including familiarity with government security and compliance requirements.