Security Engineer II, Enterprise Detection Engineering

About the job

Our Security team works to create and maintain the safest operating environment for Google's users and developers. Security Engineers work with network equipment and actively monitor our systems for attacks and intrusions. In this role, you will also work with software engineers to proactively identify and fix security flaws and vulnerabilities.

As a Security Engineer in Enterprise Detection, you will help secure Google's enterprise systems and users from human and agentic cyber threats. This includes corporate endpoints (macOS, Linux, ChromeOS), off-Google and 2P/3P entities (e.g., Aqs/Bets), and infrastructure powering internal AI services/agents. You will build affluencies in Google's detection engineering practices aimed at using AI and traditional strategies to scale/mature high-fidelity detections to identify external threat actors and insider threats before they cause harm. Working with guidance from senior teammates, you will solve well-defined problems-typically focused on individual components or tactical subtasks within larger projects-while collaborating effectively with incident response, enterprise security (IIP), and engineering partners. You are expected to reliably execute well defined/delegated project tasks, drive iterative improvements to existing detections and workflows (e.g., integrate automation, adapt to agentic components), and build strong foundational and intermediate expertise in agentic detection engineering, automation, and threat modeling.

US: $123000 - $174000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Support peers to plan and execute threat models and scope detection requirements for enterprise surfaces, focusing on high-risk areas such as Insider Exfiltration, Access Abuse, and Malicious Process Execution.
• Support engineers to design and implement components of detection logic for systems involving multiple (2-3) interconnected components, ensuring comprehensive coverage across enterprise surfaces.
• Assess security risks and justify detection strategies based on threat intelligence and risk models. Design and implement improvements to existing detections to reduce false positives and improve detection fidelity.
• Participate in post-exercise analysis (e.g., Red Team, Purple Team) to identify detection gaps, document findings, and implement remediation detections.
• Work with peers to propose and implement incremental improvements to detection engineering pipelines, testing frameworks and automation tooling.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 1 year of experience with security assessments or security design reviews or threat modeling.
• 1 year of coding experience in one or more general purpose languages.
• Experience with security engineering, computer and network security and security protocols.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience developing tools or automating workflows to improve security operations.
• Experience with query languages (e.g., SQL, Logica) and detection rule formats (e.g., Yara-L, YARA, Sigma).
• Some on-job or in-classroom experience in detection engineering, security operations (SOC), threat hunting, or incident response.
• Knowledge of building and tuning detections on enterprise surfaces (macOS, Linux, Google Workspace/SaaS).
• Knowledge of AI and agentic systems and concepts.
• Familiarity with the MITRE ATT&CK framework and threat modeling methodologies.