API Security Engineer

About the role

This role is focused on securing APIs and the systems that expose and consume them, including improving visibility, control, and risk reduction across a growing set of application and integration patterns, with support for initiatives such as AI Gateway and other shared platforms where needed.

Responsibilities

• Help design, implement, and mature Moderna’s API security capabilities across enterprise applications, shared services, integrations, and AI-related platforms.
• Support the evaluation, deployment, and operationalization of API security technologies used for API discovery, posture assessment, traffic monitoring, anomaly detection, and policy enforcement.
• Partner with application, platform, and engineering teams to identify insecure API designs, weak authentication or authorization patterns, excessive data exposure, and other common API security risks.
• Perform API-focused threat modeling and security assessments for modern services, microservices, integrations, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Define and promote secure API engineering practices, including strong authentication, authorization, rate limiting, schema validation, secrets handling, and secure service-to-service communication.
• Help shape security approaches for non-human and agentic identity models, including how services, automation, and software agents authenticate to APIs, obtain scoped access, and interact with sensitive systems safely.
• Analyze API telemetry and findings to identify abuse paths, misconfigurations, shadow APIs, and control gaps, then work with stakeholders to drive remediation.
• Collaborate with broader security teams to connect API security findings with cloud, application, identity, and detection engineering workflows.
• Provide practical engineering guidance that helps teams improve API security while preparing for new trust and identity challenges introduced by automation and AI-enabled systems.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in cybersecurity, application security, platform security, or a related engineering discipline, with meaningful hands-on experience in API security.
• A strong understanding of API security risks and controls, including authentication, authorization, token handling, rate limiting, data exposure, input validation, and service-to-service trust models.
• Experience assessing or securing REST, GraphQL, or other modern API patterns in cloud-native or distributed application environments.
• Experience working with engineering and platform teams to improve API design, security posture, and operational controls.
• Familiarity with API gateways, service meshes, reverse proxies, or related control points used to secure and observe API traffic.
• Ability to perform threat modeling and technical risk assessments for APIs, integrations, backend services, and machine-to-machine interaction patterns.
• Familiarity with cloud and application security fundamentals, including identity, secrets management, logging, and common security design patterns.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled architectures or gateway patterns is a plus, particularly where APIs are used to broker access to models, tools, or sensitive data flows.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to turn technical findings into pragmatic remediation guidance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work across technical and non-technical stakeholder groups.

Qualifications

• Working knowledge of identity and access concepts relevant to non-human identities, workload identities, and emerging agentic access patterns is strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of cloud and application security fundamentals, including identity, secrets management, logging, and common security design patterns.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled architectures or gateway patterns is a plus, particularly where APIs are used to broker access to models, tools, or sensitive data flows.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to turn technical findings into pragmatic remediation guidance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work across technical and non-technical stakeholder groups.

Skills

• Strong understanding of API security risks and controls, including authentication, authorization, token handling, rate limiting, data exposure, input validation, and service-to-service trust models.
• Experience assessing or securing REST, GraphQL, or other modern API patterns in cloud-native or distributed application environments.
• Experience working with engineering and platform teams to improve API design, security posture, and operational controls.
• Familiarity with API gateways, service meshes, reverse proxies, or related control points used to secure and observe API traffic.
• Ability to perform threat modeling and technical risk assessments for APIs, integrations, backend services, and machine-to-machine interaction patterns.
• Familiarity with cloud and application security fundamentals, including identity, secrets management, logging, and common security design patterns.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled architectures or gateway patterns is a plus, particularly where APIs are used to broker access to models, tools, or sensitive data flows.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to turn technical findings into pragmatic remediation guidance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work across technical and non-technical stakeholder groups.

Benefits

At Moderna, we believe that when you feel your best, you can do your best work. That’s why our benefits and well-being resources are designed to support you—at work, at home, and everywhere in between. Competitive healthcare, plus voluntary benefit programs to support your unique needs. A holistic approach to well-being, with access to fitness, mindfulness, and mental health support. Family planning benefits, including fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support. Generous paid time off, including vacation, volunteer days, sabbatical, global recharge days, and a discretionary year-end shutdown. Savings and investments to help you plan for the future. Location-specific perks and extras.

Pay & Benefits

The salary range for this role is $145,900.00 - $234,200.00. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An individual’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, performance, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate may be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, other incentive compensation, or equity award, subject to company plan eligibility criteria and individual performance.

About Moderna

Since our founding in 2010, we have aspired to build the leading mRNA technology platform, the infrastructure to reimagine how medicines are created and delivered, and a world-class team. We believe in giving our people a platform to change medicine and an opportunity to change the world. By living our mission, values, and mindsets every day, our people are the driving force behind our scientific progress and our culture. Together, we are creating a culture of belonging and building an organization that cares deeply for our patients, our employees, the environment, and our communities. We are proud to have been recognized as a Science Magazine Top Biopharma Employer, a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators, and a Great Place to Work in the U.S.

Equal Opportunities

We are committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, religious beliefs, national origin, ancestry, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, pregnancy, marital status, medical condition, sexual orientation, military or protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other personal characteristic protected under applicable law. We are a place where everyone can grow. If you meet the Basic Qualifications for the role and you would be excited to contribute to our mission every day, please apply!

Export Control Notice

This position may involve access to technology or data that is subject to U.S. export control laws, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). As such, employment is contingent upon the applicant’s ability to access export-controlled information in accordance with U.S. law. Due to the nature of the work and regulatory requirements, only individuals who qualify as U.S. persons (citizens, permanent residents, asylees, or refugees) are eligible for this position. For this role Moderna is unable to sponsor non-U.S. persons to apply for an export control license.