
Product Security Engineer at Persona (San Francisco, CA)
Persona· San Francisco, CA· $150k–$220k·
Role details
Medical Insurance · Dental Insurance · Vision Insurance · 3% 401(K) Contribution · Unlimited PTO · Quarterly Mental Health Days · Family Planning Benefits · Professional Development Stipend
Summary
The Product Security Engineer will own the full vulnerability lifecycle and design autonomous systems and AI tooling to scale security across products. This role involves partnering with product engineers to embed security into the SDLC and leading the bug bounty program to protect against AI-enabled fraud.
Job description
About Persona
Persona withpersona.com is the configurable identity platform built for businesses in a digital-first world. Verifying individuals and organizations is harder — but more important — than ever, with AI enabling fraudsters to launch sophisticated accounts at scale and regulations evolving rapidly.
We’ve built Persona to support practically every use case and industry — that’s why we’re able to serve a wide range of leading companies. For example, Reddit relies on Persona for age assurance and verification to comply with online safety regulations, protecting younger users while maintaining a seamless experience. Meanwhile, OpenAI relies on Persona to keep bad actors out, protecting one of the world’s most powerful AI platforms from large-scale abuse in a time when AI is reshaping the way we work and live.
We’re growing rapidly and looking for exceptional people to join us!
About the Role
Persona builds identity verification infrastructure where security isn't a layer we add later, it's core to everything we ship. When security fails at most companies, systems go down. At an identity verification company, real people's identities are compromised.
As AI tooling expands what engineers can build and how fast they can build it, the attack surface grows with it. Someone proactively needs to own that problem.
What you'll work on
This is a product security role embedded in a generalist security team. Right now that means:
- Drive the full vulnerability lifecycle and how Persona responds to external threats.
- Design and build autonomous systems and AI tooling that scale security across every team and product
- Partner with product engineers to shape how new features and systems get built securely
- Shape Persona's presence in the security research community — running the bug bounty program that powers it
Must-haves
- 4+ years of software engineering experience
- 2+ years in product security
- You've translated security risk into product decisions with non-technical stakeholders
- You've embedded security into an eng team's SDLC without becoming the team that says no to everything
Nice to have
- Familiarity with SAST/DAST tooling, dependency scanning, or bug bounty programs
- Compliance experience (SOC 2, HIPAA) in a cloud-native environment
- You've built systems where data sensitivity wasn't an afterthought — HIPAA, financial data, identity, etc.
The team
Small and senior by design. High ownership from day one — this isn't a team where your work disappears into a large org. The seniority of the team means you'd have direct access to experienced engineers invested in your growth.
Based in SF. Relocation assistance available.
Benefits and Perks
For full-time US-based employees (excluding internship and contractor opportunities), Persona offers a wide range of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision, 3% 401(k) contribution, unlimited PTO, quarterly mental health days, family planning benefits, professional development stipend, wellness benefits, among others.
For full-time UK employees, Persona offers a wide range of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, a 6% employer pension contribution, unlimited PTO, a monthly wellness stipend, professional development stipend, co-working stipend, and more.
As part of our interview process, all candidates will be asked to verify their identity with Persona. This step is used solely to confirm that candidates are who they say they are, and will have no impact on hiring decisions.
Why work at Persona
- Culture & Values: “People first,” “speed is not a tradeoff,” “work in public,” “start small, think big,” “lead by serving.” Emphasis on collaboration, continuous improvement, and high standards.
- Benefits & Perks:
- 401(k) with 3% automatic annual contribution (even if employee doesn’t contribute).
- Unlimited PTO and quarterly company-wide wellness days.
- 16 weeks parental leave (including all paths to parenthood).
- Annual professional development reimbursement (courses, books, conferences).
- Monthly wellness stipend (gym, books, etc.) and coworking stipend for remote employees.
- Commuter benefits, catered lunch on in-office days, weekly company meetings, team offsites, and social events.
- Engineering Culture: Mentorship from former Square, Dropbox, and Coursera engineers; ship features end-to-end from week one; strong early career programs (internships, technical leadership program).
- Work Model: Hybrid/office-first in San Francisco, with some fully remote roles available. In-office presence includes catered meals and curated social events.