Principal Security Engineer

About the Position

Principal Security Engineer

Los Angeles, CA

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About Altruist

Altruist is transforming the multi-trillion dollar wealth management industry by building an AI platform for wealth professionals. We partner with financial advisors nationwide, empowering them to grow, optimize time and resources, and deliver superior outcomes for their clients.

We're looking for exceptional talent to help us achieve our mission of making financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to all. If you're passionate about challenging the status quo and want to do the most important work of your life, we'd love to meet you!

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About the Position

Altruist is in the midst of an exciting phase and we’re excited to hire a Principal Security Engineer to lead detection, response, and security monitoring for a self-clearing broker-dealer. You’ll build and lead the team and the 24x7 program that keeps our platform - and our advisors’ clients - safe.

This role follows a hybrid schedule, with three days per week onsite in our San Francisco FiDi or Culver City office.

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Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow the security operations / detection & response team, setting priorities and career paths.
• Own our 24x7 security monitoring strategy across our managed detection & response provider.
• Run the incident response program end to end - from detection through containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review.
• Define and report on SecOps metrics and SLAs (MTTD/MTTR, alert quality, coverage) to security and executive leadership.
• Mature our detection engineering, threat-intelligence ingestion, and response automation (SOAR) capabilities.
• Drive regular tabletop and purple-team exercises and partner with Cloud, IT, and Engineering to close gaps surfaced by monitoring.
• Own the day-to-day operation and roadmap of the security operations tooling stack.

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Requirements

• Experience: 6+ years in security operations, including 2+ years leading or managing a SOC or detection & response team.
• Hands-on incident response and investigations in a cloud-first environment.
• Depth with SIEM (Datadog/Splunk), EDR/MDR (CrowdStrike/SentinelOne), and cloud telemetry (AWS).
• Experience managing an MDR/MSSP and/or IR retainer relationship.
• Strong ability to lead through influence and operate with urgency.
• Education: A B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or Computer Engineering or Information Security or relevant experience.
• Technical aptitude: You’re technologically savvy and comfortable across modern cloud and detection stacks (i.e., AWS, Kubernetes, SIEM query languages, detection-as-code, Terraform, etc.).
• Ownership: The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable.
• Superb communication: Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others.
• Resilience: We’re inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way.
• Assurance: Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives.
• Creative problem solving: Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You’re instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks.

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Bonus Points

• Experience working in regulated environments (SEC/FINRA, fintech, or financial services).
• Experience building or standing up a 24x7 SOC or transitioning to managed detection & response.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., CISSP, GCIH, GCIA, GCFA).

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We Offer

• Stunning, amenity-filled office spaces in Culver City, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Dallas, TX. Our offices are intentionally designed for comfort, collaboration, and productivity.
• Competitive total compensation.
• Premium healthcare, dental, and vision insurance plans (HMO and PPO).
• 401k savings plan with a 4% match and immediate vesting.
• 16 week paid parental leave after one year of employment.
• Professional growth and development opportunities including an employee mobility program and an annual L&D budget allocation for each employee.
• Company perks program (includes discounts on pet insurance, fitness, cell phone plans, and travel, etc.).
• Financial guidance program (includes counseling on navigating debt, tracking personal spend, saving and planning goals, home-purchasing preparedness, etc.).
• One month work from anywhere policy (with the exception of a few countries).

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Salary

$203,000-$285,000 USD

Total compensation includes a competitive benefits package, along with a bonus program for eligible roles. For salaried positions, a salary offer will be determined by a number of factors including experience, skill level, internal pay equity, geographic location, and other relevant business considerations. We review all employee pay and compensation programs regularly to ensure fair, equitable, and competitive pay. At Altruist, we are committed to providing fair, equitable, and competitive compensation by leveraging market data to inform our pay bands. Base salaries will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year, typically in conjunction with performance review cycles. By evaluating compensation on a regular basis, we are able to reward high performance and ensure all employees have opportunities for growth.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Altruist we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.