Partner 20, Staff Engineer, Security Automation

a16z•San Francisco, CA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is seeking a Staff Engineer, Security Automation to lead automation efforts within their security organization. This role is crucial for leveraging tools, centralizing data, and building AI-native automations to enable a small Security Engineering and Incident Response team to operate at a larger scale. The position involves building with and on AI, including LLM-augmented workflows, agentic automations, and AI-assisted analysis. The security stack at a16z includes cloud telemetry, SIEM, identity, endpoint, vulnerability scanning, and ticketing systems, which need to be integrated into a unified view and workflow. The engineer will collaborate with the Security Engineering Lead, Incident Response, SecOps, IT, and ASG (A16Z’s Applied Software Group). The role is designed to protect the firm, its LPs, and its portfolio companies from sophisticated threats like wire fraud, vishing, and social engineering.

Requirements

5+ years of security engineering experience with a focus on automation and tool-building.
A builder mindset with experience shipping production-quality security tooling.
Proficiency in Python or a similar programming language.
Hands-on experience building with LLMs or AI APIs, integrating AI into workflows.
Broad security fundamentals across cloud security, detection engineering, identity, and vulnerability management.
Understanding of AI security risks (e.g., prompt injection, data exfiltration, agent identity boundaries, model risk).
Ability to translate technical security concepts and trade-offs for non-technical audiences.
Low ego, high empathy, and strong collaboration skills across security, engineering, and IT.

Responsibilities

Build the connective tissue across security tools (SIEM, vulnerability scanners, EDR, identity, asset management, ticketing) and centralize their data into a single, actionable picture.
Utilize AI as a core component, including LLM-augmented analysis, agentic automations, and AI-assisted summarization, designing for compounding leverage.
Develop frameworks and dashboards to unify asset inventory, vulnerability posture, exposure reviews, and compliance evidence across systems.
Address large-scale automation challenges such as vulnerability management, asset hygiene, and access reviews, including workflows spanning multiple tools.
Enhance the security team's capabilities with AI by sharing patterns, shipping reusable tooling, and enabling security and IR engineers to integrate AI into their work.