Engineering Tech Lead (Product Security)

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for an Engineering Tech Lead (Product Security) based in Canada. Join a remote-first engineering team building next-generation Kubernetes and AI infrastructure for organizations operating at scale. In this hands-on technical leadership role, you’ll help secure infrastructure software by identifying vulnerabilities, conducting penetration tests, and strengthening security across cloud-native products. You’ll bring deep Kubernetes expertise to threat modeling, security-sensitive design reviews, and vulnerability remediation, helping engineers build secure systems from the ground up. Working closely with engineering teams, you’ll guide technical decisions, improve security practices, and ensure vulnerabilities are addressed through verified fixes and patched releases. You’ll also contribute production-quality Go code while helping protect container isolation and critical infrastructure components. This is an opportunity to shape product security in a fast-growing, open-source-oriented environment where ownership, technical excellence, and measurable impact matter.

Penetration Testing and Security Assessments: Conduct hands-on penetration testing of products and infrastructure to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, with particular focus on Kubernetes environments, container isolation, and cloud-native systems. Vulnerability Management: Investigate, triage, prioritize, and remediate security vulnerabilities in application code and dependencies, taking ownership from discovery through patch development, release, and verification. Threat Modeling and Secure Design: Review new features and security-sensitive architectural designs early in the development lifecycle, identify potential attack paths, assess risks, and recommend practical mitigations. Kubernetes Security: Analyze Kubernetes attack surfaces, including container breakout risks, privilege escalation, role-based access control (RBAC), admission control, and security policy configurations. Kubernetes Internals and Infrastructure Security: Apply a strong understanding of Kubernetes components, including the API server, controllers, admission mechanisms, and kubelet, to identify weaknesses and strengthen system security. Code and Architecture Reviews: Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and technical reviews to identify security issues and promote robust engineering practices. Secure Engineering Practices: Work with engineers across the organization to embed secure defaults, security checks, and threat-aware development practices into the product lifecycle. Production Software Development: Build, maintain, and improve production-grade software using Go, contributing directly to secure and reliable infrastructure components. Security Communication and Collaboration: Explain vulnerabilities, attack scenarios, and remediation priorities clearly to engineering stakeholders, helping teams make informed security decisions. Continuous Security Improvement: Strengthen security processes, vulnerability handling practices, and engineering standards as the platform and its threat landscape evolve. Requirements Hands-on experience conducting penetration tests and identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in production systems. Deep practical expertise in Kubernetes security, particularly container isolation, container breakout scenarios, privilege escalation, RBAC, and security policy best practices. Strong understanding of Kubernetes internals, including the API server, admission control, controllers, RBAC, and kubelet. Experience building Kubernetes controllers or operators using tools such as controller-runtime, Kubebuilder, or client-go is highly relevant. Demonstrated experience with threat modeling, secure system design, and reviewing production architectures for security risks. Proven ability to investigate and remediate vulnerabilities in software you work on, including familiarity with the CVE lifecycle, coordinated vulnerability disclosure, and security patch releases. Professional experience building and shipping production systems with Go as a primary programming language. Strong software engineering fundamentals, including code review, debugging, secure development practices, and practical risk assessment. Ability to communicate complex technical risks and security recommendations clearly to engineers and other stakeholders. A proactive, independent approach to problem-solving, with the ability to take ownership of security issues and drive them through to resolution. A collaborative mindset and commitment to improving security practices across engineering teams. Nice to have: Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) certification. Experience working at an early-stage startup or in a rapidly growing organization where autonomy, adaptability, and initiative are essential. Familiarity with open-source development and cloud-native infrastructure projects. Benefits Competitive compensation: Annual salary for Canada-based candidates ranging from CA$140,000 to CA$200,000, depending on experience and location. Equity and bonus opportunities: Compensation package includes equity and a bonus opportunity. Premium insurance coverage: Health, dental, vision, and life insurance, with plans for eligible dependents; coverage may vary by country. Flexible working schedule: Flexibility to manage your schedule around personal commitments, with an emphasis on results rather than fixed working hours. Remote-work flexibility: Remote-first working arrangements with flexibility in where you work. Global collaboration: Work with a distributed team of infrastructure engineers on challenging, high-impact technical problems. Technical ownership: Opportunity to influence product security, infrastructure architecture, and secure engineering practices. Open-source environment: Contribute to a culture that values open-source technology, continuous learning, and innovative approaches to complex engineering challenges.