Partner 20, Staff Security Engineer at Andreessen Horowitz

<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 Security Engineer to be a generalist anchor on the Security Engineering team at a16z. We have an internal engineering team (ASG) which operates in the mode of an internal startup and takes on requests from all corners of the firm. You’ll help ASG and the rest of the firm make secure decisions as we ship that tooling, integrate AI across workflows, and operate over a sophisticated cloud surface.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">You'll partner directly with ASG on the security of our cloud infrastructure, internal applications, SDLC pipelines, and AI systems. The role is hands-on. You'll review code, design controls, automate guardrails, and ship security capabilities across cloud, product, identity, and AI surfaces. You'll work closely with Engineering, SecOps, and IT to make security show up as a partner, not a gate.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Venture capital firms face targeted, sophisticated threats — capital call wire fraud, social engineering, vishing, 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;">Be the day-to-day security partner to teams across the firm as they adopt AI and help make secure choices.</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Pair on architecture reviews, run threat models, and ship guardrails as a16z builds custom tooling for the VC industry</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Help secure AI usage across the firm, including internal agent systems, AI-powered workflows that touch sensitive data, and the agentic infrastructure ASG is building</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Own and operate cloud security tooling (SAST, SCA, IaC scanning, runtime security) across AWS and GCP</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Build foundational programs, including asset management, SDLC integration, and Kubernetes hardening</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Move fast across CloudSec and Product Security - with depth in one and working breadth across the other</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;">4+ years of security engineering experience or equivalent demonstrated impact at a senior IC level</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Generalist with primary depth in CloudSec and Product Security, comfortable spanning enterprise security, identity, and AI</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Demonstrated experience with SAST, SCA, AWS, GCP, Terraform, Kubernetes, and GitHub Actions</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Strong code-reading and code-review skills, comfortable in Python or Go for tooling work</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Experience working embedded with engineering teams, not as an external gating function</span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">AI security knowledge, including model risk, prompt injection, and agent governance. This is a growing area for us</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 effectively with diverse teams</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>