Security Software Engineer, AI & Automation

About the role

As a Security Software Engineer focused on AI and Automation, you'll play a crucial part in strengthening the security, reliability, and trust behind NerdWallet's financial decision-making tools and experiences.

Responsibilities

• Design and build multi-agent LLM systems and routing logic that automate threat modeling, security design review, policy Q&A, and vulnerability analysis at scale.
• Develop retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and semantic search systems across large code and documentation repositories.
• Create automated code review capabilities that help identify insecure patterns and improve software quality earlier in the development lifecycle.
• Design integrations with tools such as GitHub, Slack, Jira, Confluence, and cloud platforms to embed security guidance into everyday engineering workflows.
• Develop REST APIs and platform services with authentication, authorization, rate limiting, observability, and secure handling of sensitive data.
• Design and maintain scalable data processing pipelines for large codebases and document repositories, including extraction, indexing, stream processing, batch jobs, and parallel execution.
• Improve AI application security through controls such as prompt injection prevention, sensitive data filtering, supply chain security, and secure handling of model inputs and outputs.
• Enhance NerdWallet's secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) through automation, tooling, and developer-friendly security practices.
• Partner with engineering teams to prioritize and remediate application and infrastructure security risks.
• Support incident response and on-call needs by contributing security engineering expertise, tooling, automation, and analysis when security issues arise.
• Identify new opportunities for automation and AI augmentation across the security team, bringing fresh eyes and independent thinking to a growing backlog of high-impact work.

Requirements

• 3+ years of software engineering or security engineering experience.
• Strong proficiency in Python or Go for building production-grade backend services, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Experience building and maintaining backend services including REST APIs, authentication, authorization, rate limiting, streaming, and observability.
• Working knowledge of application security concepts including common vulnerability classes such as injection, broken authentication, cross-site scripting, insecure authorization, and secrets exposure; experience with threat modeling and SSDLC practices.
• Hands-on experience building AI-powered systems using LLM APIs, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, multi-agent architectures, and semantic search.
• Working understanding of AI-specific security risks such as prompt injection, sensitive data exposure, and secure handling of model inputs and outputs.
• Genuine interest in AI and how it applies to security, not just as a tool to use, but as a domain to understand deeply, including its limitations and risks.
• Understanding of caching and performance patterns including Redis, semantic caching, TTLs, and cache invalidation.
• Strong communication skills, able to explain complex AI and security concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, and confident advising stakeholders on tradeoffs and limitations.

Qualifications

• Experience with distributed systems and cloud-based environments, including message queues, NoSQL databases, AWS, containers, Kubernetes or ECS, serverless, and infrastructure as code.
• Knowledge of security best practices and standards, including OWASP Top Ten, CIS Benchmarks, and NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
• Experience with security testing frameworks such as OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, and Nessus.
• Experience with security monitoring and logging tools such as Splunk, ELK Stack, or Prometheus.
• Experience with security compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR.

Skills

• Python or Go programming language.
• Experience with LLM APIs and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Experience with distributed systems and cloud-based environments.
• Experience with security testing frameworks and compliance frameworks.
• Experience with security monitoring and logging tools.

Benefits

• Industry-leading medical, dental, and vision health care plans for employees and their dependents.
• Rejuvenation Policy – Flexible vacation time off + 11 holidays + holiday company shutdown.
• New Parent Leave for employees with a newborn child or a child placed with them for adoption or foster care.
• Mental health support.
• Paid sabbatical after 5 years for Nerds to recharge, gain knowledge, and pursue their interests.
• Health and Dependent Care FSA and HSA Plan with monthly NerdWallet contribution.
• Monthly Wellness Stipend, Cell Phone Stipend, and Wifi Stipend (Only remote Nerds are eligible for the Wifi Stipend).
• Work from home equipment stipend and co-working space subsidy (Only remote Nerds are eligible for these stipends).
• Nerd-led group initiatives – Employee Resource Groups for Parents, Diversity, and Inclusion, Women, LGBTQIA, and other communities.
• Hackathons and team events across all teams and departments.
• Company-wide events like NerdLove (employee appreciation) and our annual Charity Auction.
• Take 8 hours of volunteer time off per quarter and donate to your favorite causes with a company match.
• Financial wellness, guidance, and unlimited access to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) through Northstar.
• Disability and Life Insurance with employer-paid premiums.

Pay

Competitive salary and benefits package.

Schedule

Full-time, remote position based in the U.S.