Lead Security Engineer, Detection & Response

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The Company’s three core products are Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world; Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform that powers AR across Snapchat and other services; and its AR glasses, Spectacles.

Snap Security teams protect the trust and safety of our global community by securing the systems and data that power Snapchat. We safeguard hundreds of millions of Snapchatters every day, ensuring that every product and service is built on a foundation of security and resilience. Our values guide everything we do - from how we anticipate and mitigate threats to how we collaborate across Snap. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Lead Security Engineer to drive high-impact detection and response work across Snap.

You will lead complex investigations, improve detection coverage for high-risk systems, build scalable automation, and influence how Snap reduces security risk across a large, fast-moving technical environment.

What You’ll Do

• Lead detection engineering initiatives across endpoint, cloud, infrastructure, SaaS, and network environments

• Improve detection coverage for high-risk systems, behaviours, and attack paths

• Design and improve logging, alerting, triage, and response systems

• Build automation for threat hunting, investigations, and incident response

• Lead complex security investigations and support incident response

• Turn threat intelligence and attacker tradecraft into practical detection outcomes

• Partner with engineering, infrastructure, privacy, and product teams to reduce risk

• Mentor engineers and raise the quality of team practices, tooling, and playbooks

• 6+ years of relevant security experience, or Master’s with 5+ years, or PhD with 2+ years

• Experience in detection and response, incident response, threat hunting, forensics, malware analysis, threat intelligence, or security engineering

• Strong coding skills in Python, Go, or a similar language

• Deep systems knowledge in at least two of: macOS, Windows, Linux, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP

• Experience leading complex security engineering or response initiatives

• Strong judgement, clear communication, and the ability to influence across teams

• Experience with Google Cloud, Google Workspace, and AWS

• Experience with SIEM, EDR, SOAR, data pipelines, or security analytics platforms

• Strong knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK, attacker tradecraft, and detection coverage mapping

• Experience building production-quality security tooling

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don’t be shy and provide us some information.

"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week. 

At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.

Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!