Staff Security Software Engineer, Detection & Response

CurationsLA; California; Remote; USD 177,000 - 365,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking an experienced Security Engineer to build and enhance detection and response capabilities across a cloud-first environment. You will protect employees and infrastructure while shaping how we detect threats and respond to incidents.

You will act as a senior resource for the Detection & Response Team, defining strategy, building new capabilities, and leading on-call responses. Collaboration with security and engineering and applying AI to accelerate work are key parts of the

Qualifications

• Broad and deep knowledge of intrusion detection and incident response in a cloud-first environment.
• Hands‑on experience writing SIEM queries for alerting, response, and threat hunting.
• Experience consuming threat intelligence to improve detection capabilities.
• Familiarity with telemetry sources such as EDR, Osquery, and firewall logs.

Responsibilities

• Act as senior technical resource for the Detection & Response Team.
• Define strategy and roadmap; identify capability gaps for the team.
• Imagine new detection engineering capabilities and lead builds of new tooling.
• Build alerts and automation workflows to detect and respond to threats.
• Manage logging pipelines and onboard new sources to improve coverage.
• Develop and maintain internal tooling to automate detection & response.
• Respond to alerts and lead incidents on a rotating on-call basis.
• Collaborate with cross-functional security and engineering teams.
• Hunt for undetected threats in the environment.
• Leverage AI to improve speed, accuracy, and coverage of security engineering.

Skills

IDS/IR engineering

Threat hunting

Python scripting

AI-assisted workflow

SIEM queries

Threat intel

Networking basics

OS internals

On-call incident response

Cloud-first

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Cybersecurity

Tools

SIEM

Osquery

EDR

Firewall logs

Job description

Millions of people around the world come to our platform to find creative ideas, dream about new possibilities and plan for memories that will last a lifetime. At Pinterest, we’re on a mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and that starts with the people behind the product.

Discover a career where you ignite innovation for millions, transform passion into growth opportunities, celebrate each other’s unique experiences and embrace the flexibility to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It’s Possible.

At Pinterest, AI isn't just a feature, it's a powerful partner that augments our creativity and amplifies our impact, and we’re looking for candidates who are excited to be a part of that. To get a complete picture of your experience and abilities, we’ll explore your foundational skills and how you collaborate with AI.

Through our interview process, what matters most is that you can always explain your approach, showing us not just what you know, but how you think. You can read more about our AI interview philosophy and how we use AI in our recruiting process here .

Pinterest is seeking an experienced Security Engineer to build and improve our detection and response capabilities and adapt to emerging threats to protect our employees and infrastructure. In this role, you will have the opportunity to solve challenging problems and make a meaningful impact on our overall security posture. We are looking for a candidate with a passion for both security and innovation.

What you’ll do:

• Act as senior technical resource for the Detection & Response Team
• Identify capability gaps and help define the strategy and roadmap for the team
• Imagine new ways to improve our detection engineering program and lead efforts to build new capabilities
• Build alerts and automation workflows to improve our ability to detect and respond to external and internal security threats
• Manage logging pipelines and supporting infrastructure, and onboard new logging sources to improve detection coverage
• Develop and maintain internal tooling to expand and automate the team’s detection and response capabilities
• Respond to alerts generated by our tooling and lead incidents as part of an on-call rotation
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners across security and engineering
• Hunt for previously undetected threats in our environment
• Leverage AI to streamline and enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and coverage of security engineering

What we’re looking for:

• Broad and deep knowledge of intrusion detection and incident response, with an engineering focus in a modern, cloud-first environment
• Knowledge of the attacker lifecycle, common attack techniques, and detection methods
• Hands‑on experience writing SIEM queries for alerting, response, and threat hunting
• Experience consuming threat intelligence and applying it to improve detection capabilities
• Familiarity with using multiple sources of telemetry for threat investigations, such as EDR, Osquery, and firewall logs
• Understanding of networking technologies and/or network security, including basic TCP /IP fundamentals
• Depth in ideally macOS internals, or alternatively Linux/UNIX or Windows internals, including persistence mechanisms and privilege escalation techniques
• Scripting or automation experience (e.g., Python, Go, Ruby) for tool development or integration
• Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve speed and quality in your day-to-day workflow for relevant outputs
• Strong track record of critical evaluation and verification of AI‑assisted work (e.g., testing, source‑checking, data validation, peer review)
• High integrity and ownership: you protect sensitive data, avoid over‑reliance on AI, and remain accountable for final decisions and deliverables
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, a related field, or equivalent experience

In-Office Requirement Statement:

• We recognize that the ideal environment for work is situational and may differ across departments. What this looks like day‑to‑day can vary based on the needs of each organization or role.
• This role will need to be in the office for in‑person collaboration 1‑2 times every 6 months, and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.

Relocation Statement:

• This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-JT1

At Pinterest we believe the workplace should be equitable, inclusive, and inspiring for every employee. In an effort to provide greater transparency, we are sharing the base salary range for this position. The position is also eligible for equity. Final salary is based on a number of factors including location, travel, relevant prior experience, or particular skills and expertise.

US based applicants only$177,185—$364,795 USD

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit. We want to have the best qualified people in every job. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member) or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state or local laws. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you require a medical or religious accommodation during the job application process, please complete this form for support. By submitting this application, I certify that all information submitted in my application and throughout the hiring process is true, accurate, and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any false statement, omission, or misrepresentation may disqualify me from employment consideration or result in termination if discovered after hire.