Partner 20, Staff Engineer, Security Automation

<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs <a href="https://a16z.com/news-content">building the future</a> through technology. We are <a href="https://a16z.com/portfolio">stage agnostic</a>. We invest in seed to venture to <a href="https://a16z.com/growth/">growth-stage technology</a> companies, across <a href="https://a16z.com/ai/">AI</a>, <a href="https://a16z.com/bio-health/">bio + healthcare</a>, <a href="https://a16z.com/consumer/">consumer</a>, <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/">crypto</a>, <a href="https://a16z.com/enterprise/">enterprise</a>, <a href="https://a16z.com/fintech/">fintech</a>, <a href="https://a16z.com/games">games</a>, and companies building toward <a href="https://a16z.com/american-dynamism/">American dynamism</a>. a16z has $100B+ under management across multiple funds.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We’ve established a team that <a href="https://a16z.com/about/">is defined by</a> respect for the entrepreneur and the company-building process; we know what it’s like to be in the founder’s shoes. We’ve invested in <a href="https://a16z.com/portfolio/">companies</a> like Anduril, Airbnb, Coinbase, Cursor, Databricks, Deel, Figma, GitHub, Roblox, SpaceX, and Stripe. Our team is at the forefront of new technology, helping founders and their companies impact and change the world.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">The Role</span></h2> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We're hiring a Staff Engineer, Security Automation to anchor automation across a16z's security org. Your mandate is leverage — connect the tools the security team relies on, centralize the data they generate, and build the dashboards and AI-native automations that let a small team (Security Engineering and Incident Response) operate at the scale of a much larger one.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">This is an AI-native role. You'll build with and on AI: LLM-augmented workflows, agentic automations, AI-assisted analysis as a first-class building block — and you'll help the rest of the security team get more leverage out of AI in their own work.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">a16z's security stack spans cloud telemetry, SIEM, identity, endpoint, vulnerability scanning, ticketing, and more. The team needs them stitched into one picture and one workflow rather than ten siloed ones. You'll be the person who makes that real. You'll work day to day with the Security Engineering Lead, Incident Response, SecOps, IT, and ASG(A16Z’s Applied Software Group).</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Venture capital firms face targeted, sophisticated threats — capital call wire fraud, vishing, social engineering, and threat actors who specifically pursue firms in this space. Your work protects the firm, our LPs, and our portfolio companies.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">This role requires an in-office presence 2 days a week in our San Francisco, CA office.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">To join our team, you should be excited to:&nbsp;</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Build the connective tissue across the security tools the org relies on — SIEM, vulnerability scanners, EDR, identity, asset management, ticketing — and centralize the data they generate into a single picture the team can act on</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Use AI as a first-class building block - LLM-augmented analysis, agentic automations, AI-assisted summarization - and design for compounding leverage, not one-off scripts</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Build the frameworks and dashboards that unify asset inventory, vulnerability posture, exposure reviews, and compliance evidence across systems</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Take the bigger automation problems off the team's plate — vulnerability management at scale, asset hygiene, access reviews, and the workflows that span multiple tools</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Raise the rest of the security team's leverage with AI - share patterns, ship tooling others use, and make it easy for security engineers and IR engineers to add AI to their own work</span></li> </ul> <h2><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Minimum Qualifications</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">5+ years of security engineering experience, with automation and tool-building as a core part of your work — not a side project</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Builder mindset — comfortable shipping production-quality security tooling, with strong Python or similar</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Hands-on experience building with LLMs or AI APIs — integrating AI into workflows, not just using AI-powered products</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Broad security fundamentals across cloud security, detection engineering, identity, and vulnerability management. Depth in one is fine; breadth across many is required</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Understanding of AI security risks: prompt injection, data exfiltration from LLM workflows, agent identity boundaries, and model risk</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Experience translating technical security concepts, decisions, and trade-offs into terms non-technical audiences across the firm can act on</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Low ego, high empathy, and the capacity to collaborate across security, engineering, and IT without creating friction</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">The anticipated salary range for this role is between $243,000 - $284,000, actual starting pay may vary based on a range of factors which can include experience, skills, and scope.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">This role is eligible to participate in the a16z carry program and various discretionary bonus programs as well as benefit and perquisite plans including health, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401K plan, vacation, and sick leave.</span></p><div class="content-conclusion"><h2><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><strong>a16z culture&nbsp;</strong></span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We do only first class business and only in a first class way</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We take a long view of relationships, because we are in the relationship business&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We believe in the future and bet the firm that way</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We are all different, we recognize that, and we win</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We celebrate the good times</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We do it for the team</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We play to win</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">At a16z we are always looking to hire the absolute best talent and recognize that diversity in our experiences and backgrounds is what makes us stronger. We hire candidates of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, Veteran status, and any other status. These differences are what enables us to work towards the future we envision for ourselves, our portfolio companies, and the World.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Our organization participates in E-Verify. Click<a href="https://www.e-verify.gov/employees" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.e-verify.gov/employees&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1674233464432000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1-yT1T3ug2xE734Ge62fLD"> here</a> to learn about E-Verify.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Andreessen Horowitz hereby reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes received from outside recruiting agencies and / or individual recruiters without being responsible for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes.</span></p></div>