Senior Cloud Security Engineer

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. In 2024, Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

We are seeking a highly skilled and proactive Senior Cloud Security Engineer to join our growing security team. In this role, you will be the primary architect and guardian of our central command and control center application environment, ensuring that our cloud-native platforms—and the data within them—remain secure against an evolving threat landscape.

The ideal candidate bridges the gap between traditional security engineering and modern DevOps, possessing a deep understanding of how to secure multi-tenant cloud environments without compromising agility.

In this role, you will:

• Scope, design, and build complex security systems end to end, maintaining them through production and driving through ambiguous technical challenges with minimal oversight
• Identify systematic risks through threat modeling and risk assessment, then build the controls and infrastructure that address them
• Enable other teams to build their own security solutions by providing design pattern guidance and expanding security ownership beyond the security team
• Developer security and supply chain
• Build and advance our developer security program by embedding security practices into the software development lifecycle and developer workflows
• Harden CI/CD pipelines against supply chain attacks through isolated build environments, signed attestations, dependency verification, and automated policy enforcement
• Identity and secrets management
• Architect systems that protect sensitive assets including model weights, customer data, and training datasets
• Build and operate credential issuance, rotation, and workload authentication across our multi-cloud environments

Infrastructure security

• Implement and maintain cloud security controls including IAM, network segmentation, VPC architecture, and encryption across our multi-cloud and on-prem environments
• Contribute to cluster security controls including RBAC policies, namespace isolation, workload identity, and pod security
• Contribute to continuous cloud security posture management using infrastructure-as-code scanning, misconfiguration detection, and automated remediation

Secure frameworks

• Build critical security foundations including cryptographic frameworks, mTLS infrastructure, secure serialization, and authorization systems, designed to prevent entire classes of vulnerabilities and empower engineering teams to work securely without becoming security experts themselves
• Partner with product, research, infrastructure, and other security teams to ensure frameworks integrate smoothly with lower-layer security controls

What you'll bring:

• At least 6 years of software engineering experience with deep security expertise, including leading complex security initiatives independently
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience
• Strong programming skills in Python or at least one systems language such as Go, Rust, or C/C++
• Deep understanding of identity systems, cryptographic primitives, and secrets management
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes security primitives including RBAC, namespaces, network policies, and service accounts
• Experience leading cross-functional security initiatives and navigating complex organizational dynamics
• Outstanding communication skills, translating technical concepts effectively across all levels of the organization
• A track record of bringing clarity and ownership to ambiguous technical problems and driving them to resolution
• Low ego and high empathy, with a history of growing the engineers around you and supporting diverse, inclusive teams

Bonus Points for:

• Designed or operated identity and secrets management systems for large-scale AI or cloud infrastructure
• Built security frameworks or libraries adopted across an engineering organization
• Led a developer security program including supply chain security, secure build infrastructure, and SDLC integrations
• Built or secured CI infrastructure using Nix, Bazel, or Kubernetes-based deploy systems, with depth in toolchain issues, CI/CD pipelines, and developer workflow optimization
• Implemented machine identity or workload authentication systems using SPIFFE/SPIRE, mTLS, or equivalent
• Understanding of Linux systems internals including namespaces, cgroups, and seccomp, and how these underpin container and workload isolation
• Contributed to the security architecture of multi-cloud environments including network segmentation, data protection, and access governance
• Experience with network security controls including admission controllers, CNI-level policy, service mesh security, and east-west traffic enforcement
• Experience building runtime security monitoring using eBPF or kernel security policies

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses
• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)
• MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, & Critical Illness Insurance
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies
• Our office is centrally located in Mountain View, CA
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
• Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
• Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation) 
• Fidelity 401(k)
• Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA
• Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)

The pay range listed below reflects the base salary in our SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview. Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package

California Pay Range

$190,000

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$250,000 USD

At Kodiak, we strive to build a diverse community working towards our common company goals in a safe and collaborative environment where harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited. Kodiak is committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

In alignment with its business operations, Kodiak adheres to all relevant statutes, regulations, and administrative prerequisites. Accordingly, roles that carry more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates that can satisfy additional scrutiny and eligibility for such positions may hinge on verification of a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. Should the position require, and Kodiak determines that a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status necessitate an export license, bar the candidate from the position, or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions, Kodiak will consider the candidate for alternative positions unaffected by such restrictions, under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiak’s sole discretion, or, as an alternative, opt not to proceed with the candidate’s application. If applicable, Kodiak may provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates.