Principal Security Engineer

Your Impact

The security systems you build will determine whether millions of Americans can safely access college aid. You’ll architect the defenses protecting studentaid.gov — the system handling $120 billion in federal aid and the most sensitive financial data of 20 million families each year.

The Technical Challenge

You’ll design and build the security infrastructure that handles:

• Authentication and authorization for millions of users accessing SSNs, tax returns, and financial data
• Threat detection and incident response for a system under constant attack
• Security compliance meeting FISMA, FedRAMP, and federal requirements without slowing teams down
• Vulnerability management across hundreds of services, libraries, and dependencies
• Security architecture reviews for features shipping to millions of users weekly

What You’ll Do

This is a hands-on technical leadership role — you won’t code every day, but when it matters, you’ll dive in to unblock teams and de-risk critical changes. The specific tech stack doesn’t matter — we need engineers who can work with and improve whatever technology serves the mission. Tasks may include:

• Design and build security infrastructure replacing legacy authentication systems
• Set technical standards for secure coding and threat modeling across teams
• Make architectural decisions about identity, secrets, and encryption
• Lead incident response for security events affecting millions of users
• Review PRs across multiple codebases, spotting failure modes and simplifying changes
• Unblock teams by writing code when the mission demands it

Who Succeeds Here

We’re looking for engineers who’ve built at scale in complex environments — typically Staff+ at a strong engineering organization, with experience in most of the following:

• Built or operated systems serving millions of users in production
• Led cross-team technical initiatives over multiple quarters
• Migrated or decomposed legacy systems while keeping critical workflows available
• Stayed hands-on with code — you can still read a diff, trace a request, and ship a fix
• Prioritized outcomes over process — you know when to push back on bureaucracy that slows delivery without adding value

Reality Check

Compensation: This is a GS-15 technical position — the highest rung on the standard government pay scale and roughly equivalent to a Principal Engineer at a top technology company. Full federal benefits included.

The Environment: You’ll face legacy systems, federal compliance, and change-resistant stakeholders. However, you own your technical decisions — shaping architecture, influencing requirements, and driving change through consensus rather than permission.

The Impact: Your code will impact more families than most consumer apps ever reach at one of the most consequential financial moments of their lives. Once you’re in, you have technical autonomy rarely seen in government.

Interview Process

Our interview process is fully remote, consisting of 3-5 conversations that assess work experience, fit, and technical skills.