Product Security Engineer Job at Vercel (San Francisco)

Job Description

We are looking for a Product Security Engineer to join our security team to drive critical product security initiatives across Vercel’s products and platform. Your core focus will be on threat modeling, open-source software security, secure code review, SDLC tooling, and bug bounty program management. You will support both our internal product engineering teams and customer-facing security programs, ensuring that security is embedded throughout our development lifecycle and that our platform earns the trust of developers and end-users alike.

Job Responsibility

Threat Modeling & Design Review: Partner with engineering and product teams to perform threat modeling for new and existing features. Identify potential risks early in the design phase and recommend security controls or design changes to mitigate threats. You will ensure security concerns are addressed from the inception of features through deployment
Secure Code Review: Conduct secure code reviews and security assessments on products and services built with Next.js, Node.js, and our serverless backend. You’ll uncover code-level vulnerabilities, provide actionable remediation guidance to developers, and establish best practices for secure coding across the engineering team
Open Source Security Management: Oversee Vercel’s open-source security efforts. This includes monitoring and coordinating fixes for vulnerabilities in third-party open-source packages we use (as a consumer) and ensuring the security of the open-source projects we maintain and publish (as a contributor/publisher, e.g. Next.js). You will work with maintainers and the community on responsible disclosure and patching of security issues in open-source code
SDLC Tooling & Automation: Evaluate, select, and integrate security tools into our Software Development Life Cycle. You will drive the implementation of automated security checks – for example, using GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) and other static analysis, dependency scanning, and secret detection tools – directly in our CI/CD pipelines and GitHub workflows. By embedding security tooling into developer workflows, you will help catch issues early and reduce manual effort
Bug Bounty Program Management: Own and expand Vercel’s bug bounty program. You will triage and validate incoming vulnerability reports from the security researcher community, ensure critical issues are promptly addressed, and coordinate cross-team efforts to remediate and learn from reported vulnerabilities. You’ll also work on making our bug bounty a world-class, researcher-friendly program, including refining policies, scope, and engagement to encourage high-quality submissions
Cross-Organizational Security Initiatives: Lead and contribute to security projects that span multiple teams and disciplines. For example, you might drive a company-wide upgrade to a more secure framework, implement a new authentication/authorization mechanism in collaboration with product teams, or roll out a security awareness program for engineers. You will act as a security champion across the org, aligning stakeholders from Engineering, DevOps, Product, and other groups to implement lasting security improvements
Customer-Facing Security Support: Work closely with customer success and product marketing on security-related initiatives that impact our users. This may involve contributing to security documentation and whitepapers, assisting with customer security questionnaires or audits by providing product security expertise, and communicating our security features and best practices to build customer trust in the platform.

Requirements

Experienced Security Engineer: You have 5+ years of experience in an Product Security or Product Security role (or related field), with a track record of securing web products and services. You’re well-versed in the fundamentals of product security and have hands-on experience finding and fixing vulnerabilities
Web Tech Stack Proficiency: Strong familiarity with JavaScript/TypeScript and Node.js runtime security. Experience with modern web frameworks (ideally Next.js or React and Node-based frameworks) and understanding of their security considerations. You can read and review code in these technologies to spot security flaws
Threat Modeling & SDLC Expertise: Demonstrated ability to perform threat modeling and architectural risk analysis for complex product. You understand how to integrate security into a fast-paced SDLC without slowing it down. Experience implementing or working with secure development lifecycle practices (secure design, code review, pentesting, etc.) is required
Security Tools & Automation: Hands-on experience with product security tooling such as static product security testing (SAST), dynamic testing (DAST), dependency vulnerability scanners, and CI/CD pipeline security integration. Familiarity with GitHub Advanced Security or similar tools for code scanning and secret detection is a strong plus
Open Source and Supply Chain Security: Knowledge of open-source security best practices. You have experience dealing with open-source dependencies and package management security (e.g., handling vulnerability advisories, using tools like Dependabot or Snyk). Bonus if you have contributed to or maintained open-source projects, especially security-related ones
Bug Bounty & Vulnerability Management: Exposure to running or participating in a bug bounty program or vulnerability disclosure process. You know how to assess externally reported issues, reproduce and validate vulnerabilities, and coordinate fixes. You stay up-to-date on the latest vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10, emerging threats) and methods to mitigate them
Cloud & Serverless Security Understanding: Solid understanding of cloud architecture and serverless environments from a security perspective. You are familiar with securing products on cloud platforms (e.g., securing serverless functions, protecting APIs, managing secrets and keys). Experience with related cloud security concepts or tools is a plus
Technical Leadership: Proven ability to drive security initiatives and influence engineering teams to adopt best practices. You can work cross-functionally to achieve security goals – for example, rolling out a new security tool or standard across many engineers. (While we emphasize technical skills, this senior role requires you to effectively communicate and lead within the organization to get things done.)

Nice to have

Have prior software development experience beyond security (e.g. as a frontend or backend engineer). Being able to empathize with developers and write or contribute code will help you integrate security seamlessly into development
Hold relevant security certifications or recognitions (for example, OSCP, OSWE, CISSP, or notable bug bounty hall of fame entries). These demonstrate your depth of knowledge, though they are not required
Experience with security policy-as-code or infrastructure as code security (for instance, using tools like Open Policy Agent, Terraform security checks, etc.). This shows you can bring security into the automation and infrastructure realm
Have built or implemented security features in a product (such as authentication systems, encryption, secure CI/CD pipelines) or contributed to security community projects/tools
Are an active participant in the security community (e.g., contributing to open source security projects, writing blog posts or research, attending or speaking at security conferences). A passion for continuous learning and sharing knowledge is always a plus on our team.

What we offer

Competitive compensation package, including equity
Inclusive Healthcare Package
Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills
Flexible Time Off
We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.

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