Join Cognition as a Security Engineer to secure AI-native developer tools and build innovative security systems.
Posted by employer 1 month ago
First seen on Joblaze 5 days ago
Last verified on the company career page 1 day ago
What you'll build
- Secure the agent execution surface
- Own product and infrastructure security
- Build security tooling
- Lead incident response and detection
- Drive customer trust
Must have
- Deep security engineering experience
- Strong software engineering fundamentals
- Cloud security expertise
- Web security expertise
- Incident response experience
Nice to have
- Threat modeling and adversarial thinking
- Comfort with novel problem spaces
- Relevant industry experience
- Degree from a top-tier university
AI in the day-to-day
Cognition builds AI that can reason on real-world tasks and executes code on behalf of users.
Requirements
- Education
- Bachelor's degree
Not disclosed in this posting: years of experience, work arrangement, visa sponsorship.
Benefits
Joblaze summary
In this role, the Security Engineer at Cognition is responsible for securing the execution environment of their AI software, ensuring safe code execution and managing sensitive customer data. Key skills include deep expertise in product and infrastructure security, proficiency in programming languages like Python and Rust, and experience with cloud security. This position is ideal for seasoned engineers with a background in AI or developer tools who thrive in tackling novel security challenges. Cognition's team is composed of highly skilled professionals from leading tech companies, fostering a culture of innovation and high standards.
Joblaze insights
- Listed 5 days ago — first seen on Joblaze September 21, 2026. Last confirmed on Cognition's careers page September 25, 2026.
- Salary band is above the typical range for Security roles (median ~$170,000).
- Starts above 89% of 89 comparable senior security roles in United States that list Python we track (median $174,000 across 40 companies). See Python salary trends
- Python appears in 38.9% of 311 comparable senior security roles in United States; Rust appears in 6.1% of 311 comparable senior security roles in United States.
Quick facts
- What's the salary range?
- Cognition lists $260,000–$300,000 for this role.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AWS, Azure, GCP, Go, Kubernetes, Python.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Cognition targets senior candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Security Engineer role at Cognition.
From the original posting
About the Role
Security Engineers at Cognition own one of the most interesting security surfaces in the industry. Devin executes arbitrary code on behalf of users across millions of sandboxed sessions. Windsurf operates inside developer environments at scale. Both products handle highly sensitive customer code, credentials, and infrastructure access. You will help define what security looks like for AI-native developer tools and build the controls, systems, and culture that let Cognition ship fast without compromising on safety. This is a role for engineers who want to do hands-on, high-leverage security work at the edge of what is being figured out for the first time.
What You'll Accomplish
Secure the agent execution surface: Design and harden the sandboxing, isolation, and runtime controls that let Devin safely execute untrusted code and use tools across long-horizon tasks.
Own product and infrastructure security: Lead threat modeling, secure design reviews, and vulnerability management across Devin, Windsurf, and the underlying infrastructure they run on.
Build security tooling that engineers actually use: Create internal systems for secrets management, identity and access, dependency security, and detection that integrate naturally into how the team ships.
Lead incident response and detection: Build the detection pipeline, run incident response, and turn every event into systemic improvements.
Drive customer trust: Partner with go-to-market and legal teams to support compliance and customer trust initiatives. Build the controls that customers expect from a tool deeply embedded in their engineering workflow.
Exceptional Candidates Have Demonstrated
Deep security engineering: Hands-on experience across product security, infrastructure security, and detection and response.
Strong software engineering fundamentals: Security at Cognition means writing real code; proficiency in Python, Rust, Go, and comfort owning complex systems codebases.
Cloud security expertise: Practical experience securing Kubernetes, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and multi-tenant compute environments.
Web security expertise: Hands-on experience hardening complex, modern web applications.
Threat modeling and adversarial thinking: You can look at a system and quickly identify how it breaks; you think like an attacker and design like a defender.
Incident response: Calm, methodical, and effective under pressure; experience leading incidents end to end and driving the fixes that follow.
Comfort with novel problem spaces: You are excited rather than intimidated by the security challenges unique to autonomous agents and AI-native developer tools.
Relevant industry experience: Prior experience at a frontier AI lab, applied AI company, or developer tools company. You know what good looks like in this category.
Degree from a top-tier university: BS, MS, or equivalent in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related technical discipline from a highly selective program.
Compensation & Benefits
Base Salary: $260,000 - $300,000 + significant early-stage equity
Medical, Dental, Vision: Fully paid for you and your dependents
401(k): Company match included
Perks: Private chef, cozy slippers, endless snacks, and more
Standard company text repeated across Cognition's postings is omitted here.