Senior Detection Engineer II

Role Description

Instacart's Detection Engineering team sits at the core of our Security organization, building and operating the systems that identify, surface, and respond to threats across one of North America's largest grocery technology platforms. We own the full detection lifecycle, from telemetry collection and signal design to automated response, across a complex, cloud-native environment spanning endpoint, cloud, container, and SaaS.

As a Senior Detection Engineer II, you'll be a technical anchor on the team:

• Develop high-fidelity detection logic.
• Hunt for novel attacker techniques.
• Raise the bar for coverage, quality, and scale.
• Work closely with Engineering, Red Team, Incident Response, Fraud, and Trust & Safety.

We operate with a detection-as-code mindset: everything we build is versioned, tested, and deployed through repeatable pipelines. We care deeply about:

• Reducing noise.
• Improving analyst efficiency through automation and SOAR.
• Continuously evolving our coverage as the threat landscape shifts.

If you're energized by hard forensic problems, enjoy translating attacker TTPs into durable detection logic, and want to help shape the future of a growing security function, this role is for you.

About the Job:

• Develop, tune, document, and maintain detection logic across multiple log sources including endpoint, cloud, container, and SaaS products.
• Assist in cyber forensic investigations across a variety of log sources.
• Optimize log ingestion pipelines and telemetry collection to ensure high-quality, actionable security data while managing volume and cost.
• Design and build SOAR playbooks and automation workflows to streamline detection triage, enrichment, and response actions.
• Mentor junior security analysts and detection engineers on threat hunting methodologies, detection logic development, and investigation techniques.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in a detection engineering, incident response, or offensive security role.
• Experience with 1 or more public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Deep understanding of attacker TTPs across modern zero trust environments, including identity compromise, token theft, and abuse of trust boundaries.
• Proficient understanding of macOS internals and telemetry available to identify macOS specific threats.
• Experience implementing detection-as-code workflows including version control, peer review processes, automated testing, and CI/CD deployment pipelines.
• Basic proficiency with Python, Golang, or other programming languages.
• Relevant certifications: GCFA, GCFE, GNFA, GREM, OSCP, GCIA, or similar.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in offensive security or red teaming.
• Knowledge of machine learning for threat detection.

Benefits

• Highly market-competitive compensation and benefits.
• Remote work flexibility.
• New hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants.