Senior Security Engineer

Senior Security Lead

Location: Itasca, IL

Work Arrangement: 2x a week on-site

About the Opportunity

We're partnering with an established, growing technology organization in the financial services industry to identify a Senior Security Lead. This is an opportunity to take ownership of cybersecurity initiatives across a modern technology environment, working closely with engineering, IT, and business leadership.

The ideal candidate is someone who enjoys being hands-on while also having the ability to drive security strategy, establish processes, and take ownership of the organization's overall security posture. This person will play a key role in strengthening security practices, managing risk, and helping guide the company's cybersecurity roadmap.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead and continuously improve application security practices, including SAST, DAST, and SCA tooling within CI/CD pipelines.
• Partner with engineering teams to implement secure development practices, conduct threat modeling, and identify application and infrastructure risks.
• Own vulnerability management processes, including assessments, remediation tracking, and patch management.
• Oversee security infrastructure, including firewalls, network segmentation, WAF, DDoS protection, SIEM, and secrets management.
• Lead incident response efforts, develop response procedures, and coordinate post-incident reviews.
• Drive security compliance initiatives, including SOC 2 Type I and Type II readiness, policies, procedures, and audit coordination.
• Conduct security assessments and manage relationships with third-party penetration testing providers.
• Establish security policies, access controls, and security awareness practices across the organization.
• Evaluate and implement security tools and technologies to continuously improve the company's security posture.
• Work closely with engineering and leadership teams to identify risks and translate security requirements into practical solutions.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years of progressive cybersecurity experience, including technical leadership or ownership of security initiatives.
• Strong hands-on experience with application security, DevSecOps, and secure software development practices.
• Experience implementing and managing SAST, DAST, and SCA tools.
• Knowledge of threat modeling, API security, OWASP Top 10, microservices, and container security.
• Experience with vulnerability management, remediation, and patching across applications and infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of network security, firewalls, segmentation, WAF, and DDoS protection.
• Experience implementing or managing SIEM and secrets management solutions.
• Experience leading incident response programs and developing security policies and procedures.
• Familiarity with SOC 2 audits, compliance requirements, and NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with tools such as SonarQube, Guardicore, Cloudflare, HashiCorp Vault, or comparable platforms.
• Background in financial services, fintech, trading platforms, or another regulated industry.
• Familiarity with NFA/CFTC requirements or financial services security guidelines.
• CISSP, CISM, CEH, or other relevant security certifications.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.