---
title: 'Staff Security Engineer, Cloud at ALSO'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-security-engineer-cloud-also-palo-alto-pzsb7vtp8ax5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Staff Security Engineer, Cloud at ALSO

- **Company:** ALSO
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ridealso/3a75829d-d261-4773-8cc7-ec2352a6d809

## Job description

About ALSO. We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.

At ALSO, we are looking for a Staff Security Engineer for Cloud who wants to own security end to end — not advise on it, build it — for a connected, software-defined EV platform where nearly everything of value runs through the cloud: telemetry streaming in from vehicles in the field, remote diagnostics and updates, fleet intelligence, and the product APIs customers touch every day.

You'd set the security architecture and then build it yourself, in Go, alongside the backend team — equally comfortable writing a threat model, reviewing a Kubernetes admission policy, and shipping the service that enforces it. You'd be the person the company turns to for every question that starts with "is this secure," with the autonomy to actually answer it properly rather than just flag the risk and move on.

## What You'll Do

- Own cloud security end to end — strategy, architecture, implementation, and operations across AWS, Kubernetes, and our microservices platform — including threat modeling new systems in architecture reviews before the code exists
- Design and implement identity and access at scale: workload identity, org-wide IAM, least privilege by default, secrets management, and certificate/key lifecycle, including mutual TLS between services and between cloud and vehicle
- Harden containers and orchestration: image provenance, admission control, runtime and network policy, service mesh configuration, and clean isolation across microservices
- Secure the software supply chain: SBOM generation, dependency and image scanning, signed artifacts, and CI/CD pipelines that fail closed on what matters and stay quiet on what doesn't
- Build the controls in Go — authorization services, policy enforcement, provisioning and rotation tooling — and serve as the DevSecOps function, writing guardrails and policy as code so other engineers move fast without routing every decision through security
- Run detection and response: security logging and telemetry, meaningful alerting, runbooks, on-call for security incidents, and blameless postmortems that produce real fixes
- Secure the vehicle-to-cloud boundary: device identity and provisioning, fleet-wide certificate rotation, secure OTA update paths, and anomaly and tamper detection at scale
- Contribute to core backend work alongside the team, and own assurance — penetration tests, vulnerability management, evidence collection, and proportionate standards work that strengthens the product instead of slowing it down

## What You'll Bring

- 10+ years in backend and infrastructure engineering, with a substantial portion spent owning security in production
- Expert, hands-on AWS: IAM, VPC and network design, KMS, Secrets Manager, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail, Config, and org-level guardrails (SCPs), alongside core compute and data services (EKS, ECS, ECR, Lambda, DynamoDB, S3)
- Deep Kubernetes and container security — RBAC, admission controllers, pod security standards, network policy, secrets handling, runtime detection, and image hardening — with real experience operating clusters, not just reading about them
- Fast, fluent Go: you design, review, and ship production Go code today, not several years ago
- Microservices and distributed systems security: service-to-service authentication and authorization, API gateway patterns, rate limiting, tenant isolation, and event-driven pipeline security
- Identity protocols and applied cryptography in practice: OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, SAML, mutual TLS, and PKI with certificate lifecycle management at scale
- Infrastructure and policy as code, with security gating built into CI/CD
- Threat modeling and secure architecture review as routine practice, with specific examples of designs you've changed, plus incident response you've personally led from detection through postmortem
- Demonstrated 0 to 1 ownership: you've stood up a security function or program where none existed, without a large team behind you

The salary for this position ranges from $205,000 - $240,000 per year, depending on experience, qualifications, and location.

## Perks & Benefits

- Robust health coverage — excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO with FSA & HSA options
- One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates
- Rich fertility and family building benefits with Progyny
- Flexible time off
- 401(k) match

Why ALSO. We’re passionate about helping the world find a better way to get there—wherever it is you’re headed. We’re located in the heart of Silicon Valley and have brought together a world-class team from some of the biggest brands in the technology, automotive, cycling, outdoor recreation and retail spaces. Together we’re working hands-on to imagine, design and build an entirely new solution to a global set of transportation challenges.

## About ALSO

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: ALSO is an electric mobility company designing and building small, vertically integrated electric vehicles for moving people and goods, originally incubated within Rivian.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, Unicorn)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed; the company was formed as a stealth team within Rivian before spinning out as an independent entity.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Alternative Fuel Vehicle Manufacturing / Electric Mobility
- **Target customers**: B2C (urban consumers) and B2B (logistics, delivery, and transportation partners)
- **Mission**: To build the world’s best small vehicles for moving people and goods, driven and autonomous, with a focus on sustainability and rethinking transportation from first principles.

## Products & Services
Based on publicly available information, ALSO has not yet announced specific product names beyond the “TM” and “TM-” references on its website. The company is developing a vertically integrated technology platform that spans motors, batteries, electronics, and software. Its product lineup includes small EVs for both consumer and commercial use, with a flagship vehicle set to launch in early 2026.

- **[Flagship Small EV (unnamed)]**: A vertically integrated, small electric vehicle for urban and commercial use. It combines in-house powertrain, battery, electronics, and autonomy software. Launch expected in early 2026, initially in the U.S. and Europe. [ridealso.com](https://ridealso.com/pages/news)
- **Commercial Platform**: ALSO works with logistics, delivery, and transportation partners to deliver custom solutions at scale. [ridealso.com](https://ridealso.com/pages/company)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1–2.5B (unicorn status) as of March 2026 (latest valuation per Dealroom). [dealroom.co](https://dealroom.co/companies/ridealso-com/)
- **Total Funding**: $505M across four rounds.
  - Corporate Round (Feb 2025) – 1 investor
  - Series B (Mar 2025) – $105M led by Eclipse
  - Venture Round (Aug 2025) – $200M led by Greenoaks
  - Series C (Mar 2026) – $200M led by Greenoaks, with participation from other investors
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Eclipse Ventures, Greenoaks. ALSO works with commercial partners in logistics and transportation sectors.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 290.9% year-over-year to 205 employees (LinkedIn, as of mid-2026). The company is actively hiring 48 open positions across engineering, product, and operations. It operates in five countries (U.S., Taiwan, U.K., South Africa, China). Strong talent inflow from Rivian (56 employees), Tesla, Apple, and Cruise. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ridealso)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertically Integrated Technology**: In-house development of motors, batteries, electronics, and software enables a tightly optimized, high-performance EV platform.
- **Rivian Pedigree**: Originally incubated within Rivian, benefiting from automotive rigor and advanced software/autonomy expertise.
- **Focus on Small EVs**: Addresses a rapidly growing market segment where 80% of car trips are under 15 miles, with urban population projected to reach 7 billion by 2050.
- **Strong Financial Backing**: $505M in funding from top-tier investors, providing ample runway for product launch and scaling.

## Strategic Focus
- **Product Launch**: Introduce the flagship small EV in early 2026, first in the U.S. and Europe, then globally.
- **Commercial Expansion**: Deepen partnerships with logistics, delivery, and transportation companies to scale custom vehicle solutions.
- **Technology Platform**: Continue to advance in-house autonomy, sensing, and connectivity features to differentiate the user experience.
- **Talent Growth**: Rapidly hiring across engineering, design, and operations to support product development and future scaling.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Culture**: Employees are described as “builders, technologists, designers, and dreamers” focused on creating sustainable, delightful mobility.
- **High-Growth Environment**: Headcount has tripled year-over-year, offering early employees significant impact and career acceleration.
- **Top-Tier Team**: Colleagues come from Rivian, Tesla, Apple, Cruise, and other elite companies, fostering a culture of craft and excellence.
- **Technical Depth**: Opportunities to work on cutting-edge EV hardware, software, autonomy, and battery systems. Open roles include Senior Software Engineer (ML), Motor Controls Engineer, Battery Design Engineer, and Staff Reliability Engineer.
- **Office Locations**: Hubs in Palo Alto (vehicle engineering, software, design), Seattle (customer experience & commerce), and Taichung, Taiwan (supply chain & logistics). The work policy is not explicitly stated but likely hybrid or office-first given the hardware focus.
- **Perks**: Not publicly detailed, but as a well-funded unicorn, competitive compensation and equity packages are standard.

## Sources
1. [ridealso.com](https://ridealso.com/pages/company)
2. [ridealso.com](https://ridealso.com/pages/news)
3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ridealso)
4. [dealroom.co](https://dealroom.co/companies/ridealso-com/)
5. [ridealso.com](https://ridealso.com/)

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