Senior Security Engineer

Northwood Space•Los Angeles, CA

22d•$120,000 - $190,000

About The Position

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it. Role: We're building the internet for space. Help us secure it. Northwood is deploying a global network of phased array ground stations that will fundamentally change how satellites communicate with Earth. We're talking about real-time, high-throughput space communications infrastructure that government and commercial customers depend on for mission-critical operations. We need a Senior Security Engineer to design robust security frameworks that enable rapid scaling while meeting the most demanding compliance requirements in the industry.

Requirements

5+ years of production experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, AWS CDK)
Ability to obtain and maintain TS/SCI clearance
Experience conducting security architecture reviews in regulated environments
Strong knowledge of NIST 800-171, CUI, and FedRAMP frameworks
Familiarity with government cloud environments (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) and CI/CD deployment pipelines that need to work across air-gapped networks
Proficiency in one or more general-purpose languages (Python, Go, Rust, etc.)
Experience implementing defensive controls for endpoints, SaaS apps, and infrastructure that operates in environments where traditional security assumptions don't apply

Nice To Haves

Experience building large-scale log ingestion and storage pipelines that can handle massive data volumes from distributed ground stations
Hands-on experience with SIEM (Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel, Panther) and endpoint security solutions (CrowdCrowdStrike, SentinelOne) in production environments
Strong Linux experience in production environments
Knowledge of DFARS compliance and government contracting security requirements
Familiarity with EMASS or similar government assessment tools
Demonstrated ability to own complex security projects that directly impact national security missions and interface with government customers

Responsibilities

Build security from the ground up - Design security architectures for brand-new ground station infrastructure and space communication protocols.
Secure the impossible - Design and implement security controls for distributed systems that span continents and operate where a single failure could impact national security missions.
Own the whole stack - Deploy enterprise SIEM solutions that can handle terabytes of satellite communications data while maintaining detailed audit trails for the most stringent compliance requirements.
Pioneer security for space communications - Write security playbooks and serve as primary security liaison for Space Force and other government customers.
Lead incident response and threat hunting across a globally distributed ground station network, coordinating with engineering, network operations, and compliance teams to maintain security posture that enables mission success.
Create automated compliance pipelines that don't slow down deployment cycles - Build comprehensive security documentation and reporting standards that satisfy FedRAMP and NIST 800-171 requirements without breaking engineering velocity.