Security Engineer - Application Security (Senior)

Cogent Security is on a mission to stop breaches and prevent cybercrime by innovating at the frontier of generative AI systems. We are building the world’s first AI cyber taskforce, composed of AI agents capable of human-caliber reasoning and execution of cybersecurity tasks, that autonomously protects organizations from emerging threats. The early adopters of our technology include some of the world’s most important institutions, spanning public companies, elite universities, and Fortune 500 corporations across industries.

Cogent was founded by a seasoned team of former engineering and product leaders, who bring decades of experience across cybersecurity and technology. The team is fully in-person in San Francisco and New York, and consists of the top software engineering and machine learning talent from leading companies such as Abnormal Security, Coinbase, Microsoft, Tesla, Stripe and more. To support our ambitious growth plans, we recently raised a large Seed round led by Greylock Partners and leading angels across AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise software (e.g. Reid Hoffman and founders of Abnormal, Datadog, and other top companies).

As we execute on our mission, we are constantly pushing ourselves to ACHIEVe:

• Ambition for Excellence

• We work backwards from the way things should be and constantly measure our progress against it

About The Role

We're hiring a Senior Security Engineer, Product Security to own the security of the software we build. You'll partner closely with engineering to embed security into the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), keep our dependencies and supply chain safe, and make sure the product our customers trust is built on a secure foundation. You’ll also have the chance to influence our product, as an internal SME and early security user, your feedback loop directly shapes what we ship.

What You’ll Do

• Embed security into the software development lifecycle: threat modeling, secure design reviews, and secure-coding guidance that engineers actually adopt

• Own application security testing - code review, SAST/DAST, and triage - and drive issues to remediation rather than just filing them

• Harden our software supply chain: dependency verification, safe dependency management, and CI/CD pipeline security

• Build and automate security tooling and guardrails so security scales with engineering, not against it

• Serve as the internal security SME on product and workflow decisions, and as an early user of what we build

• Partner across all teams on architecture and design so security is a default, not an afterthought

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of extensive security engineering experience within product / application security, upholding the highest Trust standards

• Strong hands-on engineer who ships - you produce and automate, you don't just manage process

• Strong software engineering skills; comfortable working in code across the stack (e.g. Python, Go, Typescript, and/or similar)

• Depth in application/product security: secure SDLC, threat modeling, code scanning, and supply-chain / dependency security

• Fluency with the modern AI landscape and how it’s influencing the security picture - staying up to date with the rapidly changing environment

• Able to flex up and down: strategic when it matters, in the weeds when it counts

• Comfortable being an early security hire at a startup - high ownership, ambiguity, and direct impact

Bonus Points

• Experience securing AI/ML products or agentic systems

• Background contributing to developer-enablement or security-champions programs

• Prior experience as an early security hire or building an AppSec function from scratch

For California Based Applicants

The standard base salary range for this position is $100,000 - $300,000 annually. Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for variable compensation, equity, and benefits.

We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse company. We do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.