Senior Security Engineer, Proactive Security

Amazon is hiring a Senior Security Engineer, Proactive Security in Austin, United States. It pays $178k-$227k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this cybersecurity role Uses AI ●●○○: an ordinary role that requires AI tools.
The listed pay starts 12% above the typical cybersecurity posting on Level.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Generative AI, Machine learning and application security.
Level classifies it as a senior role.
Level lists 20,000+ other open roles at Amazon.

AI in this role

Drive proactive security initiatives, threat modeling, and leverage generative AI to build intelligent security automations.

Generative AIMachine learning

application-securitythreat-modelingpenetration-testingcode-reviewsecurity-automation

The Senior Security Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for independently driving security initiatives across multiple services and teams. This role requires deep technical expertise in application security, threat modeling, and secure system design, combined with the ability to influence engineering teams and deliver high-impact security outcomes with minimal guidance.

Key job responsibilities
Security Reviews & Assessments: Lead end-to-end security reviews for complex, high-priority services including design reviews, threat modeling, and penetration testing scoping and readout
Technical Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert for assigned affinity teams, providing architectural guidance and security consultation to service teams throughout the development lifecycle
Threat Modeling: Independently perform and guide threat modeling exercises for complex distributed systems, identifying risks and recommending mitigations
Manual Code Review: Conduct targeted manual code reviews of security-critical components, identifying vulnerabilities and insecure patterns that automated tools miss
Penetration Testing: Scope, coordinate, and oversee penetration testing engagements; analyze results and drive remediation with service teams
Findings Management: Identify, document, and track security findings to resolution; escalate critical issues to leadership when appropriate
Mentorship & Influence: Mentor junior engineers, contribute to team processes and tooling improvements, and raise the security bar across the organization
Design & Build Security Tooling: Design and build security automation, tooling, and processes that improve operational efficiency and scale the team's impact
AI-Powered Security Automation: Leverage generative AI and machine learning to build intelligent security automations that streamline review workflows, enhance vulnerability detection, and reduce manual toil
Builder Engagement: Partner with service teams to improve security posture proactively, including developing self-service guidance, documentation, and readiness frameworks
Metrics & Reporting: Define and track security metrics that measure risk reduction, operational efficiency, and builder experience improvements

About the team
Diverse Experiences
Amazon Security values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why Amazon Security?
At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores.

Inclusive Team Culture
In Amazon Security, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices.

Training & Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, training, and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Basic qualifications

- 4+ years of non-internship background in troubleshooting systems issues, analyzing logs, or automating complex tasks using command line tools experience
- 5+ years of work in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans experience
- 4+ years of (non-internship) scripting, programming, and security code review in common programming languages experience
- Knowledge of at least two of the following programming languages: Scala, Java, Python, C/C++, or Go
- Experience working in identifying security issues and risks, and developing mitigation plans
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

Preferred qualifications

- Experience applying threat modeling or other risk identification techniques or equivalent
- Experience with security in service-oriented architectures/microservices and web services

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, TX, Austin - 178,400.00 - 226,700.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior Security Engineer, Proactive Security at Amazon rates 45 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Uses AI (AI Level 2 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Uses AI. An ordinary role that requires AI tools.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Senior Security Engineer, Proactive Security is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 2 of 4: Uses AI.
The listed salary is $178k-$227k a year.
The role is based in US, TX, Austin.
The job was posted on July 28, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Application SecurityThreat ModelingPenetration TestingCode ReviewSecurity AutomationGenerative AIMachine learning

Also common in cybersecurity jobs at this level

AWS LLM Azure Google Cloud Kubernetes AI agents

Pay

This job starts at: $178k
Typical cybersecurity job: $160k

This posting starts 12% above the typical cybersecurity job. See cybersecurity jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where application security was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where threat modeling was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where penetration testing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where code review was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where security automation was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Application Security, Threat Modeling, Penetration Testing, Code Review, and Security Automation. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Put the AI tool in a bullet point about what you did, not just in a skills list. This role treats it as a required part of the job.

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