Staff Security Engineer, Application & Platform Security

At Sentry, a Staff Security Engineer is tasked with leading impactful initiatives that focus on addressing critical security challenges. This includes driving projects from initial idea formulation through design and implementation, while also nurturing relationships with technical leaders across the company to influence and meet security objectives.

To qualify for the Staff Security Engineer role at Sentry, candidates should have at least 10 years of industry experience in designing and supporting distributed systems in production. A degree in Computer Science or a related field is often required, alongside expertise in securing container-based environments, preferably with GCP and AWS.

A Staff Security Engineer at Sentry should have a strong understanding of Kubernetes, cloud security, and programming in languages such as Python, Go, or Rust. Experience with cryptography, TLS, and insights into the current threat landscape for SaaS companies are also essential to maintain our security posture.

Sentry promotes a hybrid work model that encourages collaboration, with set in-office anchor days. The culture is agile and engineering-focused, allowing for an environment where security engineers can thrive, share ideas, and collaborate with passionate colleagues.

At Sentry, career development is prioritized. As a Staff Security Engineer, you will have opportunities to mentor peers, explore new technologies, and contribute to architectural improvements—a chance to continuously learn and grow within a supportive team.

Zero trust is a security model that assumes no user or device, inside or outside the network, should be trusted automatically. As a Staff Security Engineer, you're expected to analyze how this principle can be applied to our architectural decisions and how it can help improve our overall security posture.

A strong response should include your past hands-on experiences with Kubernetes, focusing on specific security challenges you've faced, such as implementing role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring secure configurations, and handling potential vulnerabilities within containerized applications.

Share a specific project that showcases your ability to lead and deliver results. Emphasize the challenges faced, the strategies employed, and the measurable outcomes that enhanced security within an organization, demonstrating your capacity to handle similar responsibilities at Sentry.

Explain your proactive approach towards professional development, such as following security blogs, attending conferences, participating in webinars, and being part of active security communities that keep you informed about the evolving threat landscape.

Discuss your familiarity with threat modeling frameworks, how you've employed them in prior roles, and how this practice can be integral in identifying potential vulnerabilities in systems and applications at Sentry.

Illustrate a past experience where you identified a security vulnerability, outlining your approach to documenting the issue, remedial actions taken, and how you communicated solutions across relevant teams to increase awareness.

Articulate your philosophy on mentoring, emphasizing how sharing knowledge among team members strengthens the organization's security capabilities and contributes to building a more competent and aware security culture.

Provide insights into your strategic approach to balancing the need for speed in development with effective security practices. Highlight frameworks or best practices you employ to ensure security remains a core component of the development lifecycle.

Discuss your methodology for assessing new technologies, including conducting research, understanding market trends, pilot testing technologies, and gathering feedback from relevant teams to ensure they align with Sentry's security objectives.

Detail your incident response plan, which could include immediate containment, thorough investigation, and improved measures to prevent future occurrences. Stress the importance of communication with stakeholders and documentation throughout the process.