Who we are
Kentik is the network intelligence platform for modern infrastructure teams. Unlike traditional monitoring and observability tools, we demystify complex network operations, enabling organizations to deliver applications and innovation at scale. Built by network experts to make critical insight accessible to every engineer, Kentik is the real-time source of truth that understands every network in context — from data center to cloud to the internet. This single platform unifies and correlates cloud, device, flow, and synthetic data to turn telemetry into action. Market leaders like Akamai, Booking.com, Dropbox, and Zoom rely on Kentik to run, manage, and optimize their networks.
What we do
The Senior Software Security Engineer is a key technical leader within our growing Security organization, responsible for owning and evolving the technical strategy and execution of Kentik’s application and software security programs. This role plays a critical part in shaping the company’s overall security posture and enabling the engineering organization to ship secure software at scale.
As part of a small, dynamic team, the Senior Software Security Engineer acts as a Builder–Defender. They don’t just identify vulnerabilities and respond to threats — they design and build preventative controls, internal tools, and frameworks that embed security directly into our development processes. Operating at the intersection of Application Security and Software Engineering, this role ensures security is a first-class citizen throughout the SDLC while balancing risk, velocity, and developer experience.
What you'll do
This is an individual contributor role reporting to Kentik’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) with broad impact across the engineering organization and a high degree of autonomy, technical judgment, and influence and has the following responsibilities:
- Secure SDLC: Continuously evolve Kentik’s secure SDLC strategy, defining security and privacy standards from design through deployment in partnership with key stakeholders. Design and implement automated security guardrails in CI/CD pipelines to detect vulnerabilities, dependency risks, and misconfigurations in real time, enabling teams to move fast without sacrificing security.
- Vulnerability Management: Lead the analysis and resolution of complex, high-risk, or systemic vulnerabilities, partnering with engineers to design durable fixes and reusable security patterns. This also includes tooling selection, prioritization frameworks, remediation workflows, and developer guidance.
- Threat Detection & Response: Lead threat management automation capabilities by designing automated detections, response playbooks, and escalation paths. Be part of security operations by responding to security alerts/incidents and continuously improving response effectiveness through automation and post-incident learnings. Manage and evolve bug bounty and penetration testing programs in partnership with internal and external stakeholders.
- Internal Tooling & Framework: Design, build, and maintain internal security tools, platforms, and frameworks used broadly across the engineering organization. Focus on scalability, reliability, and developer experience while delivering capabilities such as automated scanning, validation, and security reporting and dashboards.
- Security Guidance and Enablement: Act as a trusted security advisor to engineering and product teams, providing practical guidance during design reviews, architectural discussions, and roadmap planning. Drive security adoption through collaboration rather than gatekeeping, helping teams make informed risk-based decisions.
- Training & Culture: Drive security and privacy awareness across the organization by delivering role-specific training, secure design guidance, and ongoing education. Help foster a culture where security is a shared responsibility embedded into everyday engineering practices.
What you'll bring
Studies have shown that some candidates tend to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to apply if you meet most of the criteria - even if you don’t match all of the qualifications, your skills and experience could be valuable in this role!
- 5+ years of experience in Software Engineering and/or Security Engineering, with demonstrated senior-level impact across multiple systems or teams.
- Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Python, Go, or Node.js), with an emphasis on building maintainable, production-quality systems and tooling.
- Deep understanding of common application security vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP Top 10), including root causes, exploitability, and real-world risk, and the ability to communicate these effectively to engineers.
- Strong experience with Linux, containers/Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code in at least one major public cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
- Experience leading threat detection and response efforts, including automation of detections and response playbooks.
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, product, and other stakeholders, influencing outcomes through collaboration and technical leadership.
Nice to haves
- Experience defining and tracking security metrics and building dashboards to measure program effectiveness
- Experience working in a remote environment
- Experience working in a pre-IPO startup environment
Our tech stack
- Our core data engine and platform are primarily written in Go
- We use Node.js + Express for application serving, and React as our primary UI framework
- We also use some JS and Python for tooling/scripting
- In addition to our own database, we use Postgres, Kafka, Mysql, and Redis
- Internal and public APIs expose both rest/json and gRPC endpoints
- Haproxy, Envoy for API traffic routing and balancing
- Github for source control, PRs, issues
- Jenkins for automated builds
What we offer
Kentik is a fully remote company that operates globally. We seek professionals that will help us thrive as an organization, and in turn, to broaden and enhance your career. We’re very thorough in the interview process to understand your skills and how they will relate to your successful growth here at Kentik. Our compensation philosophy encompasses a fair program for all in order to attract, engage and retain talented individuals who will drive our business and wow our customers.
The compensation range for this position is: €75,000 – €100,000. This range reflects the low and high end of the compensation range Kentik reasonably and generally expects to pay the hired candidate in this role. The actual compensation offered may be lower or higher than the stated range depending on various factors, including but not limited to:
- Experience with the skill sets required for success
- Demonstrated competencies and potential
- A geographic market-based approach
Note: For compensation, international applicants will be treated equitably in relation to the laws applicable within the countries in which we operate.
Come work with us
The true meaning of Kentik is visibility. We’re committed to making sure everyone feels empowered to use their voice, has a sense of belonging, and is represented at Kentik.
We don’t look for individuals who fit the culture, but those who will continue to add to the culture.
We encourage everyone to apply, especially those individuals who are underrepresented in the industry: people of color, LGBTQI+ community, women, individuals with disabilities (both seen and unseen), veterans, and people of any age or family status.
Kentik is committed to creating an inclusive interview process. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to recruiting@kentik.com.
Come as you are!
You will be working at a fast-growing, well-funded startup alongside industry thought leaders and network aficionados as we build the future of observability and set the high bar for how network operations and digital businesses should run. With a competitive salary and amazing benefits on top of the meaningful and challenging projects you’ll take on, we’re sure you’ll enjoy joining the Kentik team.
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