---
title: 'Software Engineer – Platform Security at FriendliAI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-platform-security-friendliai-san-francisco-66rydfprajb8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-07'
---

# Software Engineer – Platform Security at FriendliAI

- **Company:** FriendliAI
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/friendliai/372dbe1e-d6e6-4726-ae09-673ec8916d05

## Job description

## About the job

FriendliAI is looking for an engineer to architect and build the security foundations of a multi-tenant serverless compute platform running on Kubernetes with hardened container isolation. As a Software Engineer, Platform Security, you will own the security design for both the control plane and data plane, implement guardrails as code, and partner closely with Platform/SRE/Infra teams to ship a secure-by-default developer experience. This is a hands-on builder and architect role.

## Key Responsibilities

- Design and implement the security architecture for a Kubernetes-based, multi-tenant serverless platform.
- Build guardrails as code using Terraform and Helm.
- Establish network segmentation and service-mesh policy.
- Develop secrets and key management patterns.
- Implement runtime detections for containerized workloads.
- Design and roll out IAM & workload identity management.
- Threat model new features and changes to the overall platform.
- Collaborate with engineering to debug production issues, lead post-incident hardening, and automate evidence for compliance controls.

## Qualifications

- 5+ years securing cloud-native platforms with a focus on distributed systems and multi-tenancy.
- Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
- Strong hands-on experience with AWS (IAM, VPC/networking, logging/monitoring, …) and Kubernetes/container security.
- Proficiency with Terraform and Helm.
- Experience building or operating runtime detections for containers/functions.
- Strong technical background in backend systems, cloud infrastructure, or AI tooling
- Clear written and verbal communication; ability to translate pricing/business rules into robust systems.

## Preferred Experience

- Knative or similar serverless-on-K8s frameworks.
- Container hardening and sandboxing.
- Policy-as-code and admission policy design at scale.
- eBPF-based observability, detections, and signal tuning.
- Multi-cloud exposure and cross-cloud identity approaches.
- Hands-on contributions to SOC 2 / HIPAA control automation and audit evidence pipelines.

## Benefits

- A front-row seat to the generative AI infrastructure revolution
- Competitive compensation and benefits package
- Daily lunch and dinner provided; unlimited snacks and beverages
- Health check-up and top-tier hardware support
- Flexible working hours and a highly collaborative environment

## About us

FriendliAI is building the next-generation AI inference platform that accelerates the deployment of large language and multimodal models with unmatched performance and efficiency. Our infrastructure powers high-throughput, low-latency workloads for global organizations and integrates directly with Hugging Face, providing instant access to over 600,000 open-source models. We are on a mission to deliver the world’s best platform for AI inference.

## About FriendliAI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: FriendliAI is The Frontier AI Inference Cloud, providing a highly optimized platform for deploying, scaling, and monitoring large language and multimodal models with unmatched speed and cost efficiency.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage; $26.7M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (with offices in Seoul, South Korea and Redwood City, CA)
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Byung-Gon Chun (CEO) and Gyeong-In Yu (CTO) – the researchers who invented the continuous batching technique now standard in AI inference.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI Infrastructure / Cloud Inference Platform (Infrastructure as a Service)
- **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises and AI teams deploying generative AI and agent workloads at production scale; focuses on open-weight and custom models.
- **Mission**: Democratize access to production-grade AI so teams can focus on building great products.

## Products & Services
- **[FriendliAI Inference Cloud](https://friendli.ai/)**: A fully managed platform that instantly deploys 580,000+ Hugging Face models (language, audio, vision) with one click. Supports bring-your-own fine-tuned or proprietary models. Key features:
  - Custom GPU kernels, smart caching, continuous batching, speculative decoding, and parallel inference.
  - 2×+ faster inference than standard solutions, up to 3× faster than vLLM.
  - 50% to 90% cost savings relative to closed model APIs.
  - 99.99% uptime SLAs, geo-distributed infrastructure, enterprise-grade fault tolerance.
  - SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant (March 2026).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $26.7M (two seed rounds: $6.7M in 2021 and $20M led by Capstone Partners in September 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Capstone Partners (lead investor in latest round), plus two other investors in the first seed round.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew 90% YoY to ~45 employees (as of mid-2026).
  - Active job postings: 19 positions (up 1800% YoY) – strong hiring momentum.
  - Appointed Brian Yoo (former Moloco COO) as Chief Business Officer in April 2026 to drive hypergrowth.
  - Achieved SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance in March 2026, opening regulated markets.
  - LinkedIn followers grew 257% yearly (8,221 followers).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Inventor of continuous batching** – the technique is now industry standard, giving FriendliAI deep technical expertise.
- **Purpose-built inference engine** that constantly evolves for state-of-the-art models, delivering 2–3× speed improvements over alternatives like vLLM.
- **Massive model library** – 580,000+ Hugging Face models deployable instantly with zero manual optimization.
- **Enterprise-grade reliability** – 99.99% SLA, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, multi-cloud scaling.
- **Cost leadership** – 50–90% savings vs. closed model APIs, maximizing tokens per dollar.

## Strategic Focus
- **Hypergrowth** – scaling sales, engineering, and solutions architecture teams globally (US and Korea).
- **Compliance and enterprise readiness** – recent SOC 2/HIPAA certification to serve healthcare and regulated industries.
- **Multi-cloud and geo-distribution** – expanding infrastructure footprint for global low-latency inference.
- **Open-weight and custom model support** – enabling model ownership and flexibility for enterprises.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Boldest innovations come from great teams” – passionate, humble, curious builders. Mission-driven to democratize AI.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid (San Francisco and Seoul offices); some roles are in-office (Seoul) or hybrid (SF). Employees engage in a mix of remote and on-site work.
- **Engineering focus**: Heavy emphasis on AI inference engine, GPU kernels, Python developer tools, AI agents, backend, and platform security. High technical bar.
- **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but fast-growing startup with significant impact in the AI infrastructure space; opportunity to work on cutting-edge inference optimization.
- **Locations**: San Francisco (HQ), Redwood City, CA, and Gangnam-gu, Seoul – global team with cross-cultural collaboration.

## Sources
1. [friendli.ai](https://friendli.ai/)
2. [friendli.ai/careers](https://friendli.ai/careers)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/friendliai](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/friendliai)
4. [builtin.com/company/friendliai](https://builtin.com/company/friendliai)
5. [linkedin.com/company/friendliai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/friendliai)

## Other roles at FriendliAI

- [Software Engineer – Platform Security](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-platform-security-friendliai-seoul-py7z22pxysmy) — Seoul, South Korea
- [Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Inference](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-ai-inference-friendliai-san-francisco-qynbjce9sx8b) — San Francisco, CA
- [Strategic Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-account-executive-friendliai-san-francisco-agpd8wfwpcdv) — San Francisco, CA
- [Director of Product](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-product-friendliai-san-francisco-vckbhh439mws) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer - Full Stack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-full-stack-friendliai-seoul-2kvnfm2hejx8) — Seoul, South Korea
- [Software Engineer – Cloud Infrastructure](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-cloud-infrastructure-friendliai-san-francisco-z8fjtpn12kpn) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer - Cloud Infrastructure](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-cloud-infrastructure-friendliai-seoul-rf473fpa9850) — Seoul, South Korea
- [Software Engineer – Python Developer Tools](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-python-developer-tools-friendliai-seoul-z74wd9kp8fex) — Seoul, South Korea
- [Software Engineer – GPU Kernel](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-gpu-kernel-friendliai-seoul-yg1eq3ks7m5a) — Seoul, South Korea
- [Software Engineer – AI Inference Engine](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ai-inference-engine-friendliai-seoul-8pdpe18z4ejk) — Seoul, South Korea