Security Infrastructure Engineer

Role Overview

Tailscale is seeking a Security Infrastructure Engineer to help grow its product security team. You will design, implement, and improve security controls across the infrastructure and product stack, while collaborating with highly technical teams in an asynchronous, distributed setup.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build security controls across layers such as:
  • Cloud platforms
  • OS security
  • Kubernetes and container environments
  • Networks
  • CI/CD
• Improve security and privacy properties by identifying opportunities (security features, privacy enhancements, bug fixes, and defense-in-depth) and implementing them across the codebase.
• Audit infrastructure for technical security weaknesses and drive mitigations/resolutions.
• Support engineering decisions using threat modeling and security analysis.
• Spend 25–50% of your time writing software (not purely operational/governance work).

Requirements / What We Are Looking For

• Security expertise in cloud platforms (e.g., AWS), including securing multi-cloud networks and building cloud-agnostic systems.
• Familiarity with container and orchestration security.
• Familiarity with authentication/authorization concepts.
• Knowledge of internet/web security fundamentals such as:
  • WAF
  • TLS
  • PKI
  • DNS security
• Proficiency developing in at least one language (Tailscale uses Go) plus Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible).
• Prior experience in a safety-related technical role (e.g., infra security, security operations, threat modeling/prioritization, incident response/digital forensics).
• Knowledge of OS internals and security mechanisms.
• Knowledge of common networking protocols.
• Ability to act as a Subject Matter Expert during security incidents, focusing on infrastructure-level containment and remediation.

Nice-to-Haves / Team Fit

• Ability to give and process constructive feedback.
• Strong independent and collaborative work style.
• Comfort adapting to a dynamic startup environment.
• Risk-based approach to security: balance security expertise with practical, usable solutions.