Job description template

Security Engineer

We’re hiring a Mid-level Security Engineer to help secure our cloud and application environments across the full lifecycle: identifying risks, strengthening controls, and improving incident readiness. You’ll collaborate with engineering and operations to implement secure-by-default practices, validate security posture through continuous monitoring, and remediate issues with clear technical ownership.

Responsibilities

Perform security assessments of systems and changes (cloud infrastructure, applications, and supporting services) and document actionable findings
Own and improve security tooling and processes for vulnerability management, configuration hardening, and continuous compliance
Design and implement detection strategies and incident response improvements in partnership with engineering and operations
Collaborate on secure architecture reviews, threat modeling inputs, and security requirements for new features
Respond to security events and investigations, triaging impact and coordinating remediation work
Create and maintain security runbooks, dashboards, and reporting that make security risk measurable and understandable
Partner with teams to remediate vulnerabilities and reduce repeat findings through engineering enablement

Must-have qualifications

Hands-on experience with vulnerability management in production (e.g., scanning, prioritization, remediation tracking)
Strong knowledge of cloud security fundamentals (identity and access, network controls, logging, and secure configurations)
Experience implementing and tuning security monitoring/detection (SIEM, alerts, and detection logic)
Practical security incident triage experience, including evidence collection, scoping, and mitigation support
Experience hardening systems using configuration management and secure baseline practices
Ability to translate security findings into engineering-ready fixes and measurable outcomes

Nice to have

Experience with cloud-native security tooling (e.g., CSPM, CWPP, secrets scanning)
Familiarity with threat modeling and secure SDLC practices in agile teams
Experience with automated compliance reporting and control validation

What success looks like in 12 months

Reduced security vulnerabilities through consistent remediation ownership
Strengthened cloud security posture with improved configuration and access controls
Improved detection coverage and alert quality for security-relevant events
Faster, more effective incident response support
Improved security reporting and operational readiness

Logistics

Full-time (40 hours a week), remote from Latin America.
Working hours overlap with US business hours.

About the company

[About your company: what you build, your stage and team size]

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Interview scorecard

Score every candidate against the same bar

Improve and scale the company’s security posture by delivering measurable risk reduction across prevention, detection, and response.

Outcomes to measure

What this hire should deliver in the first year. Replace [N] with your own targets.

Reduced security vulnerabilities through consistent remediation ownership. Measure: reduce open critical/high vulnerabilities by [X]% and achieve remediation of [Y]% of items within SLA of [Z] days
Strengthened cloud security posture with improved configuration and access controls. Measure: increase adherence to defined security baselines to [X]% across [scope: accounts/environments] and reduce misconfiguration repeat findings by [Y]% within [N] months
Improved detection coverage and alert quality for security-relevant events. Measure: increase coverage of critical/high-severity detection scenarios to [X]% and reduce high-noise alerts by [Y]% while maintaining detection effectiveness measured by [metric/indicator: e.g., true positive rate or analyst-confirmed rate]
Faster, more effective incident response support. Measure: reduce mean time to triage security events to [X] minutes and reduce time to containment for confirmed incidents to [Y] hours
Improved security reporting and operational readiness. Measure: deliver security dashboards/runbooks for [N] priority workflows and achieve [X]% stakeholder satisfaction (measured by internal survey or adoption indicator) by end of month [N]

Competencies and weights

What to evaluate, how much it counts and what a strong answer looks like.

Vulnerability remediation ownership · 22%
This role must consistently drive risk down in real environments by turning findings into fixes and tracking closure. Evaluated in Round 1.

Weak: Reviews scan results but cannot clearly explain prioritization decisions or remediation status trends
Meets the bar: Tracks vulnerabilities through to closure and explains prioritization based on exposure and severity
Strong: Leads remediation programs that measurably reduce repeat findings; anticipates root causes and implements prevention improvements

Cloud security fundamentals · 20%
Strong cloud fundamentals are required to harden identity, network, and configuration controls effectively. Evaluated in Round 1.

Weak: Gives high-level answers without mapping controls to concrete cloud features or risks
Meets the bar: Explains how to apply identity, network, and logging controls and what misconfigurations to watch for
Strong: Designs or improves secure configurations and demonstrates tradeoffs with evidence (logs, settings, impact)

Detection engineering and tuning · 18%
The role needs the ability to build and tune monitoring/detection signals to increase signal quality and coverage. Evaluated in Round 2.

Weak: Describes generic monitoring without discussing alert thresholds, sources, or tuning approach
Meets the bar: Improves detection logic/alerting using relevant telemetry and reduces noise while preserving coverage
Strong: Implements detection improvements with clear success metrics and iteration based on investigation outcomes

Incident triage and mitigation support · 16%
Mid-level independence requires calm, structured triage and effective support for containment and remediation coordination. Evaluated in Round 2.

Weak: Cannot describe a structured triage process or how evidence/scoping is handled
Meets the bar: Performs structured triage, documents findings, and supports mitigation steps with relevant evidence
Strong: Leads incident scoping and coordination, minimizing impact and feeding lessons learned into improved detections/controls

Security findings to engineering fixes · 12%
Security work must translate into engineering-ready changes with measurable outcomes and practical guidance. Evaluated in Round 3.

Weak: States risks but cannot articulate actionable remediation steps or how to validate them
Meets the bar: Produces clear, engineering-ready remediation plans with validation steps and owners
Strong: Drives cross-team implementation by aligning technical context, proposing options, and confirming results

Secure configuration baselines · 12%
The role must harden systems using secure baseline practices and sustain them over time. Evaluated in Round 3.

Weak: Focuses on ad-hoc fixes without maintaining repeatable baselines or validation
Meets the bar: Applies secure baseline/hardening practices and validates outcomes through checks
Strong: Builds scalable baseline processes that reduce drift and repeat findings across environments

Interview questions

Questions for every interview round

Each round has an owner, a time box and questions that test the competencies above.

Round 1: Security fundamentals and remediation
Security Engineering Lead · 60 min

Tell me about a time you owned vulnerability remediation in production. How did you prioritize, drive closure, and prevent repeat findings?
Walk through how you would assess and improve cloud identity and access controls for a set of environments. What signals or logs would you rely on?
Describe a high-severity security issue you found via scanning or configuration checks. How did you validate the real-world impact before remediation?

Round 2: Detection and incident response
SOC/Incident Response Manager · 60 min

Describe a detection you implemented or tuned. What data sources did you use, how did you set thresholds/filters, and what metric showed improvement?
Tell me about an incident you helped triage. How did you scope impact, collect evidence, and decide on containment vs. monitoring?
Give an example of how investigation outcomes led to changes in detections, dashboards, or control settings. What changed and why?

Round 3: Engineering enablement and hardening
Security Architect · 60 min

Describe how you translate security findings into engineering-ready fixes. How do you define acceptance criteria and validate that a fix worked?
Walk me through how you establish or maintain secure configuration baselines. How do you handle exceptions, drift, and ongoing verification?
Tell me about a security review/architecture collaboration where you influenced the design. How did you quantify risk and drive to a practical solution?

Red flags to watch for

Focuses only on scanning results without owning remediation or measurable risk reduction
Cannot explain a structured approach to triage/scoping during security incidents
Relies on vague best practices and cannot map controls to concrete cloud features/log sources
Produces findings that are not engineering-actionable (missing validation steps, unclear ownership, no measurable success criteria)
Treats security as a one-time task rather than sustaining baselines to prevent repeat issues

How much does it cost to hire a Security Engineer in Latin America?

In 2026, a senior Security Engineer in Latin America costs $6,750 to $7,750 a month all-in, versus $14,625 in the US: up to 54% less. Mid-level starts at $4,500.

Country

Mid-level

Senior

Argentina

$4,500

$6,750

Brazil

$5,000

$7,500

Colombia

$4,500

$6,750

Mexico

$5,250

$7,750

United States

$11,875

$14,625

Monthly cost in USD, all-in: the talent's salary plus Teilur's flat 20% fee, from our 2026 rates. The United States row shows what the same role typically costs there.

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Frequently asked questions

What does a Security Engineer do?

Typical responsibilities include: perform security assessments of systems and changes (cloud infrastructure, applications, and supporting services) and document actionable findings; own and improve security tooling and processes for vulnerability management, configuration hardening, and continuous compliance; design and implement detection strategies and incident response improvements in partnership with engineering and operations. The full list is in the template above.

How much does it cost to hire a Security Engineer in Latin America?

In 2026, a senior Security Engineer in Latin America costs $6,750 to $7,750 a month all-in, versus $14,625 in the US: up to 54% less. Mid-level starts at $4,500.

Can I customize this Security Engineer job description?

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Security Engineer Job Description Template