Senior Security Engineer

Job Description

The big picture: Axios is a respected media company dedicated to providing trustworthy, award-winning news content in an audience-first format known as Smart Brevity™. We are looking for a Senior Security Engineer with strong cloud infrastructure and AI security experience to lead our defensive posture, drive threat modeling and vulnerability management, and embed security controls - including AI-driven defense and monitoring - across our platform and automation pipelines.

Why it matters: As a Senior Security Engineer at Axios, you will architect and implement proactive security strategies to protect our audience, platform, and data assets against evolving threat vectors, including AI-driven attacks. In this role, you will define our security roadmap, leverage internal and third-party AI defense tools, and ensure our cloud systems remain resilient, secure by default, and capable of automated threat detection and response.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architectural design and implementation of security controls across cloud infrastructure, platform services, and AI integrations.
• Drive vulnerability management, threat modeling, incident response, and proactive security assessments across AWS, Kubernetes, and AI application environments.
• Shape, maintain, and execute the company’s long-term security roadmap in close alignment with engineering and executive leadership.
• Embed automated security testing, SAST/DAST, and AI-driven compliance checks directly into CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code workflows.
• Oversee identity and access management (IAM), secrets management, encryption protocols, and zero-trust architecture standards.
• Evaluate, deploy, and maintain internal AI security tools and modern third-party defensive solutions to detect, mitigate, and respond to AI-driven threats and sophisticated attack vectors in real time.
• Promote a strong security culture across engineering by conducting threat modeling workshops and coaching teams on secure coding and infrastructure practices.
• Partner with product, infrastructure, data, and QE teams to ensure security is integrated seamlessly into every stage of the development lifecycle.

Skills:

• Deep expertise in cloud and application security, including threat modeling, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, IAM, secrets management, AI security, and compliance frameworks.
• Strong working knowledge of AWS infrastructure and security controls (IAM, KMS, EKS, RDS, S3).
• Experience hardening Kubernetes clusters, runtime security, container scanning, and network policy enforcement.
• Proficiency in integrating SAST/DAST and security automation into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions).
• Solid scripting or programming skills in Python, Go, or Bash for security tooling and automated remediation.
• Hands-on experience with SIEM, security logging, automated threat intelligence, and AI-powered monitoring frameworks (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, or modern SOC tooling).
• Demonstrated leadership in driving security initiatives, defining policy, and guiding engineering teams on security risk.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to effectively balance security requirements and business agility.

What success looks like:

• Security & Compliance: Focused on proactive security initiatives, including automated vulnerability scans, implementation of controls, remediation, and contributions to the long-term security roadmap.
• Cloud Security Architecture: Hardened, reviewed, and optimized AWS and Kubernetes infrastructure security to meet strict compliance, resilience, and least-privilege access standards.
• DevSecOps & Automation: Integrated automated security scans, secret detection, and vulnerability gates seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines without disrupting developer velocity.
• Security Tooling Adoption: Evaluated, piloted, and deployed advanced security and defensive AI tools that measurably enhanced threat detection speed and reduced exposure risk.
• Threat Detection & Response: Established robust security monitoring, SIEM alerting, and incident response playbooks to maintain real-time visibility and rapid response capabilities across all production platforms.
• Cross-Functional Security Leadership: Partnered with engineering, product, and QE teams to instill a security-first culture, conduct threat modeling workshops, and guide technical teams on risk mitigation.
• AI Defense & Security: Evaluated and deployed internal AI security tools and 3rd-party defensive solutions to proactively safeguard infrastructure, applications, and corporate assets against AI-driven threats and emerging attack vectors.

Starting salary for this role is in the range of $150,000 - $180,000 and is dependent on numerous factors, including but not limited to location, work experience, and skills. This range does not include other compensation benefits. Axios’ compensation philosophy takes into account the cost of labor differentials across the country. Because this is a remote-optional job posting, this salary range takes into account all possible locations within the United States, but candidates will only be eligible for the salary range for their location.

Axios is committed to embracing artificial intelligence as a core part of how we work. All team members are expected to actively develop AI literacy and use AI tools to enhance their productivity, creativity, and efficiency. We invest in ongoing learning to ensure every employee is equipped to responsibly and effectively integrate AI into their daily workflows.

What Axios brings to the table besides salary:

• 401(k) with employer match
• Robust PPO and High Deductible health insurance options on the Blue Cross Blue Shield network
• Employer Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution for the high deductible health plan option
• Dental and vision coverage
• Primary caregiver 12-week paid leave
• Birth-givers will have an additional 6-8 weeks depending on type of delivery, for a total of 18-20 weeks continuous leave
• Generous vacation policy, plus holidays
• One mental health day per quarter
• Annual learning and development stipend
• $100 monthly work-from-home stipend
• Tele-mental health services through Headspace
• OneMedical membership, including tele-health services
• Personal health advocacy resources through HealthAdvocate
• Inclusive fertility, hormonal health and family forming benefits through Carrot Fertility
• Access to the Axios Employee Support Fund, which was created to allow employees to request financial support when facing financial hardship or emergencies
• Increased work flexibility for parents and caretakers
• Virtual company-sponsored social events
• A strong and positive work environment
• A commitment to an open, inclusive, and diverse work culture

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Axios is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. Axios makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.