Job Description

Systems Security Engineer

Location: Phoenix, AZ
Company Stage of Funding: Early-Stage Autonomous Robotics & Defense Technology Startup
Office Type: On-site
Salary: Competitive + Equity

We’re representing an early-stage autonomous systems company building low-cost swarm robotics platforms for defense and industrial applications. Their products combine edge AI, autonomous navigation, distributed coordination, and cloud-connected fleet management systems to support mission-critical operations in highly demanding environments.

The team is composed of senior engineers and operators from leading autonomous vehicle, aerospace, robotics, and defense organizations. They are building highly scalable autonomous systems that integrate embedded computing, GPU-accelerated platforms, secure communications, and distributed cloud infrastructure. This role will be foundational in establishing the company’s security architecture and operational security posture from the ground up.

What You Will Do

• Own and execute the end-to-end security posture across autonomous robotic platforms, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems
• Design secure architectures for embedded systems, edge devices, fleet management infrastructure, and cloud services
• Implement and enforce security controls spanning secure boot, firmware integrity, encryption, key management, IAM, and secure communications
• Secure heterogeneous compute environments involving CPUs, GPUs, and edge AI platforms
• Conduct threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, penetration assessments, and system-level security reviews across embedded and cloud environments
• Lead compliance and accreditation initiatives including ATO preparation, security documentation, and alignment with federal cybersecurity frameworks
• Establish continuous monitoring, incident response processes, vulnerability remediation workflows, and operational security practices
• Collaborate closely with autonomy, embedded, cloud, and systems engineering teams to integrate security into products from first principles
• Define internal security policies, CI/CD security standards, secure coding practices, and infrastructure hardening procedures
• Present security architecture decisions, compliance posture, and risk assessments to leadership and government stakeholders

Ideal Background

• 6+ years of experience in systems security engineering, cybersecurity, or related technical disciplines
• Strong background securing complex embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, or distributed infrastructure environments
• Experience designing security architectures across cloud infrastructure and edge computing systems
• Familiarity with secure communications protocols, zero-trust networking, VPNs, TLS/mTLS, and distributed systems security
• Experience supporting government or defense-related compliance frameworks such as NIST, FISMA, or CMMC
• Strong understanding of system-level threat modeling, vulnerability management, and continuous monitoring practices
• Experience operating autonomously as a primary or lead security engineer in fast-moving engineering organizations
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with software, infrastructure, robotics, and systems teams
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical security concepts to both engineering teams and executive stakeholders

Preferred

• Experience working within robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, or defense technology environments
• Familiarity with GPU-enabled systems, edge AI infrastructure, or NVIDIA Jetson-class hardware
• Experience securing real-time telemetry or low-latency communication systems
• Experience with cloud security tooling, infrastructure-as-code scanning, container security, SIEM/SOAR platforms, or secrets management
• Hands-on programming experience in Python or C++
• Experience with penetration testing, red teaming, or adversarial security analysis
• Familiarity with ROS or robotics software stacks
• Active or previously held U.S. security clearance preferred

Compensation and Benefits and Other Things

• Competitive base salary + meaningful equity package
• Opportunity to architect and own security infrastructure from the ground up
• High-impact role directly supporting mission-critical autonomous systems and defense applications
• Work closely with an elite cross-functional engineering team spanning robotics, autonomy, infrastructure, and cloud systems
• Fast-moving startup environment with significant ownership and technical influence
• Opportunity to contribute to next-generation autonomous defense technologies