---
title: 'Principal DevOps Engineer at TENEX.AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-devops-engineer-tenex-ai-san-jose-e84nhzbq37sk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Principal DevOps Engineer at TENEX.AI

- **Company:** TENEX.AI
- **Location:** San Jose, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tenex/971cfa63-f594-4b58-a268-e15a4b6e42c0

## Job description

## COMPANY OVERVIEW

TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the AI-Native MDR landscape.

We’re a fast-growing startup backed by industry experts and top-tier investors led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and also backed by Shield Capital, DTCP (formerly Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund. Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team that just raised a substantial round – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside.

As a Principal DevOps Engineer, you will be a key technical leader responsible for the architecture, evolution, and operation of our Azure infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices. You will keep the platform highly available, secure, and performant as it scales to handle petabytes of security data and billions of daily events.

You'll work closely with Software Engineering, AI/ML, and Security Operations teams to define the technical vision and architecture for our production systems, driving automation and operational excellence to minimize toil and accelerate product delivery. This role requires deep, hands-on Azure platform expertise, a strong software engineering foundation, and fluency in DevSecOps principles.

Culture is one of the most important things at http://tenex.aiTENEX.AI http://TENEX.AI. Explore our culture deck at culture.tenex.ai http://culture.tenex.ai to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work.

Location: This role will require Monday through Thursday onsite in our Kansas City office (preferred), with San Jose or Sarasota, FL also considered. WFH Friday. Candidates must live in or be willing to relocate to one of these three cities.

## JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

- Own the architecture of our Azure platform as it scales to petabytes of security data and billions of daily events.
- Own our Azure governance and environment model, including subscription and management group structure, Azure Policy, network topology, and identity.
- Lead Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) initiatives, defining and driving adherence to critical Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Service Level Indicators (SLIs), and managing on-call rotations.
- Drive operational excellence by implementing advanced monitoring, observability (logs, metrics, tracing), automated provisioning, and disaster recovery strategies.
- Establish and enforce DevSecOps practices, standardizing CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), security testing, and deployment mechanisms for rapid, secure, and reliable software delivery.
- Automate deployment, scaling, and management of microservices and event-driven systems using containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, AKS).
- Maintain workload portability across the platform so that infrastructure decisions remain reversible.
- Partner with engineering teams to optimize application performance, resource utilization, and cloud cost efficiency.
- Mentor and influence engineering teams on best practices in Azure architecture, reliability, and security-first development.
- Collaborate with Product Management and Security Operations to translate new product requirements and operational needs into scalable and cost-effective platform solutions.
- Evaluate and drive the adoption of new infrastructure technologies and engineering methodologies to maintain a competitive advantage.

## REQUIRED SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

- 8+ years of progressive experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Platform Engineering roles.
- Deep, hands-on expertise building production Azure platforms, including AKS, Entra ID and workload identity federation, VNet design and Private Link, Key Vault, Azure Policy, and subscription or landing zone architecture. This is a platform engineering role rather than a Microsoft 365, Intune, or Windows administration role.
- Experience standing up or moving production workloads across cloud environments, with the ability to describe the design, the data path, the cutover, and what broke.
- Experience building secure and compliant (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001) environments.
- Deep understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and event-driven systems.
- Extensive experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools (e.g., Terraform, Bicep) and CI/CD best practices.
- Production experience writing and shipping software in Go or Python, beyond scripting and configuration.
- Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, ELK stack, or similar).
- Familiarity with real-time data pipelines and stream processing (e.g., Kafka, Event Hubs, Service Bus, Pub/Sub).
- Proven track record of architecting, building, and operating highly scalable, distributed, and secure enterprise-grade SaaS platforms.

-

Nice-to-have

- Working knowledge of more than one major cloud provider, deep enough to judge where the provider models differ rather than assume they match.
- Prior experience in cybersecurity (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, or MDR) or an MSSP environment.
- Experience with large-scale data warehousing/lakehouse technologies (e.g., Azure Data Explorer, Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake, BigQuery).
- Background leading technical initiatives in high-growth startups or enterprise SaaS.
- Familiarity with the underlying infrastructure to support AI/ML model deployment and monitoring (MLOps).

## EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

- 10-12 years of experience, Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, and or years of relative experience
- Relevant certifications (Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Kubernetes, or security-related credentials) are a plus. Certifications complement production depth and do not substitute for it.

## About TENEX.AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: TENEX.AI is the first AI-native, human-led Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, built from the ground up to deliver 10x faster threat detection and response.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, $277M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Sarasota, FL, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Eric Foster (CEO), Venkata Koppaka (Co-Founder & CTO), Jan Grzymala-Busse (CISO & Head of Security Operations), Elias “Lou” Manousos (Chairman), Ryan Shreve (Co-Founder & CRO), Edwin Solis (Co-Founder & CFO/COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Cybersecurity – Managed Detection and Response (MDR), threat intelligence, security automation, and incident response.
- **Target customers**: Mid-market to global enterprises (B2B), also SMBs with flexible pricing.
- **Mission**: “Deliver 10x better security outcomes, faster and more cost-effectively than legacy providers.”

## Products & Services
- **AI-Native MDR (Managed Detection & Response)**: Core service that uses domain-specific AI to triage every alert in under a minute, then empowers human analysts to investigate and respond. Includes 24/7 U.S.-based analysts with 8+ years average experience.  
- **Essential AI-Native MDR**: A standardized, lower-cost tier for smaller organizations (pricing from $99,000/year).  
- **Bespoke MDR**: Customized service for complex, mission-critical environments with dedicated engineering team, flexible contract, and quarterly executive briefings.  
- **Google Cloud Security Operations**: Implementation, management, and optimization of Google Security Operations platform (TENEX is a leading Google Cloud partner).  
- **Platform Training & Education**: Customer training on the TENEX platform and security operations best practices.  
- **Dashboards & Reports**: Continuous visibility and reporting for security posture.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Total Funding**: $277M across three rounds:  
  - Seed (Jan 2025): Led by **Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)**  
  - Series A (Oct 2025): $27M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners**  
  - Series B (Mar 2026): $250M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners** (also a16z, Shield Capital participated)
- **Key Metric**: 505.9% year-over-year headcount growth (74 employees as of early 2026); 108 active job postings.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Crosspoint Capital Partners, Shield Capital; Google Cloud (strategic partner).
- **Growth Signals**: Scaling from 1 to 3 offices (Sarasota, Overland Park, San Jose); rapid hiring across engineering, sales, and threat detection; leadership team includes former Google Security executives and founders of RiskIQ and Cyderes.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-native architecture**: Built from the ground up for AI, not retrofitted. Domain-specific models understand attacker behavior, not just patterns.
- **Human-led, AI-powered**: AI handles 100% of alerts at machine speed; human experts focus on complex threats. 95% fewer false positives, <1-minute mean time to triage (MTTX).
- **Elite founding team**: Veterans from Google Cloud Security (original Chronicle team), RiskIQ, Cyderes, Fishtech Group, and national security.
- **Deep Google Cloud expertise**: TENEX is the go-to partner for Google Security Operations, managing over 75% of Google’s security business at peak.
- **Flexible, scalable pricing**: From $99K/year Essential tier to fully bespoke enterprise solutions, making premium MDR accessible to a wide range of budgets.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale through AI, not headcount**: Use automation to multiply analyst efficiency rather than linearly adding people.
- **In-person collaboration**: All three offices are on-site-first; the company believes “bold innovations emerge from in-person collaboration.”
- **Continuous learning and adaptation**: The AI platform learns from every environment and analyst feedback, staying ahead of emerging threats.
- **Expansion into mid-market**: The Essential tier targets smaller organizations that previously couldn’t afford premium MDR.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “AI-native, human-led” – the company values elite human expertise alongside advanced AI. “We’re AI-native, born AI, built AI, think AI, and actively searching for the best human minds in cybersecurity.”
- **Work model**: On-site-first in three locations: Sarasota, FL (HQ); Overland Park, KS; San Jose, CA. Aggressive relocation packages including moving expense reimbursement, temporary housing, family transition support.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive health (Medical, Dental, Vision); 100% 401k match up to 6%; long-term incentives; professional development opportunities; continuous learning culture.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly scaling (505% YoY headcount growth) with 108 open positions across engineering, product, sales, and security operations. Opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven security.
- **Team**: 72% of employees in the US, with a strong technical base (39% in technical roles). Executives hail from Google, Microsoft, Cyderes, ReliaQuest, and other top security firms.

## Sources
1. [tenex.ai](https://tenex.ai/)  
2. [tenex.ai/about-us](https://tenex.ai/about-us/)  
3. [linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai)  
4. [tenex.ai/careers](https://tenex.ai/careers/)  
5. [tenex.ai/careers/open-positions](https://tenex.ai/careers/open-positions/)

## Other roles at TENEX.AI

- [Administrative Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/administrative-assistant-tenex-ai-scottsdale-zd8gnayx6tnz) — Scottsdale, AZ
- [Head of Communications, Public Relations & Analyst Relations Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-communications-public-relations-analyst-relations-marketing-tenex-ai-qzvry73dx1x1) — United States
- [Senior Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-program-manager-tenex-ai-united-states-1nc6s4kfnkqk) — United States
- [Manager, Customer Success Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-customer-success-operations-tenex-ai-sarasota-h1hw76n8ts8g) — Sarasota, FL
- [Director of Forward Deployed Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-forward-deployed-engineering-tenex-ai-qymr6qpgxw07)
- [Inside Sales Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/inside-sales-manager-tenex-ai-y2ebcbx44eh1)
- [Inside Sales Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/inside-sales-representative-tenex-ai-feha6menq4ge)
- [Sales Operations Associate-EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-operations-associate-emea-tenex-ai-united-kingdom-fbbbrxfvbx2y) — United Kingdom
- [Senior Security Researcher](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-researcher-tenex-ai-scottsdale-pe346ejjqpej) — Scottsdale, AZ
- [Senior Security Engineer - IAM](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-engineer-iam-tenex-ai-kansas-city-wtyvgd5m5m07) — Kansas City, MO