Principal Security Engineer

About Us:

Trusted and loved by 25 million educators, students, and families worldwide, Seesaw is the only elementary learning experience platform, offering a suite of award-winning tools, resources, and curriculum for teachers to deliver joyful, inclusive instruction. Through interactive lessons, digital portfolios, and two-way communication features, Seesaw keeps everyone in the learning loop by providing continuous visibility into the student's learning experience to support and celebrate their learning.

Our Mission:

Seesaw’s mission is to provide every elementary student with joyful and connected learning experiences that lay the foundation for success in life.

Your Team:

You'll be joining our collaborative, mission-driven Engineering organization and reporting directly to our EVP of Engineering. In this role, you'll work closely with Engineering, IT, and Legal teams — acting as a key cross-functional partner bridging technical execution and organizational risk. You won't be siloed in a security corner; you'll be embedded in the heart of our product and infrastructure decisions, partnering across the company to make security a shared responsibility at every level.

Your Role:

We're looking for a Principal Senior Security Engineer who is, first and foremost, an exceptional software engineer — one who has developed deep expertise in security along the way. This is not a governance-only or leadership-only role. You'll be expected to write code, review architecture, shape our SDLC, and get your hands dirty alongside our engineering team while also owning the strategic direction of our security program.

This role is ideal for a senior engineer who has organically grown into security.

What This Role Is Not:

This is not a CISO or pure security leadership position. We don't need someone to manage a security team or sit in meetings all day. We need someone who leads through doing — setting the standard by example, bringing pragmatic security thinking to every layer of our stack, and helping us build a security culture that scales with the company.

What You’ll Do:

Security Program Leadership

• Own and drive the company’s security strategy, roadmap, and overall posture
• Serve as the internal expert on security best practices and risk management
• Partner cross-functionally to ensure security is embedded across engineering, product, IT, and legal

Application Security & Secure SDLC

• Lead threat modeling, secure code reviews, and architecture reviews
• Define and enforce secure coding standards and vulnerability management processes
• Drive adoption of SAST, DAST, SCA, and other security tooling

Hands-On Engineering

• Build and maintain security tooling, automation, and infrastructure as code
• Implement security controls across application, API, and infrastructure layers
• Partner with engineers on authentication, authorization, and data protection

Infrastructure & DevSecOps

• Own vulnerability scanning, patching, and incident response processes
• Strengthen cloud security (IAM, networking, secrets, logging, monitoring)
• Integrate security into CI/CD pipelines and automate security gates

Compliance & Policy

• Partner with Legal to develop and maintain security policies and standards
• Lead or support compliance efforts (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001)
• Stay ahead of evolving regulatory requirements

What We’re Looking For:

Must-Haves

• 7+ years of hands-on software engineering experience
• Strong experience in application security (threat modeling, code review, SDLC integration)
• Experience securing cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including IAM and networking
• Ability to operate both strategically and tactically—setting direction while staying hands-on
• Strong communication skills; able to translate security concepts into clear, actionable guidance

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001)
• Familiarity with security tooling (SAST, DAST, SCA, SIEM, vulnerability management)
• Experience building security programs in startup or high-growth environments
• Relevant certifications (CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, OSCP), though not required

Compensation & Benefits:

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry. Salary is just one part of our total compensation package that includes, perks & benefits, and development opportunities at Seesaw. Individual pay decisions are based on several factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, geography, and balancing internal equity relative to other Seesawers. It is our expectation that the majority of candidates who are offered roles at Seesaw will land well within our salary ranges based on these factors.

The Annual base salary range for this position is: $177,600 - $210,000

This is an Exempt position.

Benefits include: Medical/Dental + Orthodontics/Vision Coverage, 401k Match, Flexible Paid Time Off, Mindfulness First Fridays, Monthly Technology Stipend, Home Office Setup Stipend, Professional Development Stipend, Paid Parental Leave, Charitable Donation Matching, Volunteer Days.

Our Interview Process: Our process typically includes a recruiter screen, technical conversations with our engineering team, and an in-personal final round with our SVP of Engineering in Seattle.

Seesaw cares about building a diverse and inclusive team to better advocate for the needs of our incredibly diverse K-12 users.

We prioritize work-life balance and actually walk the walk — we care a lot about our work, but care more about our employee's well-being. We encourage everyone to work at a sustainable pace and have a flexible vacation policy that people actually use.

Seesaw provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religious creed, color, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity/gender expression/transgender, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information/characteristics, marital status/registered domestic partner status, age, sexual orientation, or military or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, Seesaw complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Seesaw is committed to protecting your personal data. Learn more about the personal information we collect, how we use it, and how to exercise your rights here: U.S. Privacy Notice.

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