security engineer

INTAKE NOTES:
Title: Security Engineer
Client: Target
Location: Remote
Contract Length: 6 months plus extensions

Role Summary
We are looking for an experienced Backend Engineer to drive the evolution of a Go-based detection platform. This role focuses on building high-throughput consumer pipelines, secure secrets management workflows, and resilient asynchronous orchestration. The position sits at the intersection of backend systems, cryptography, and data engineering to deliver scalable security solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain and extend a high-performance detection platform using YARA/YARA-X consumer rule processors, event producers, APIs, and asynchronous workflows
• Design and operate Vault-backed secrets flows and encryption proxies (KMS)
• Review and harden key usage patterns and remediation lifecycles
• Implement and optimize Postgres schema migrations and query performance
• Integrate search capabilities using Solr/Lucene when required
• Troubleshoot high-throughput pipelines (Kafka/Benthos), ensuring idempotency and backpressure handling
• Implement effective instrumentation using traces and metrics
• Improve test coverage (unit, integration, golden tests)
• Refine CI/CD pipelines and optimize Docker-based developer workflows

Qualifications
Experience & Skills

• 5+ years of software development experience with a 4-year degree or equivalent experience
• Strong proficiency in Go with deep knowledge of configuration and deployment
• Ability to resolve complex technical issues independently
• Strong communication skills and ability to work in Agile environments
• Proven ability to deliver scalable, high-performance, secure solutions
• Commitment to continuous learning and professional development

Required Technical Skills

• Go: 4+ years writing production services, modules, and tests
• Security & Cryptography: 2+ years designing and operating Vault integrations and KMS-style key handling
• Detection Engines: Hands-on experience with YARA / YARA-X
• Databases: 3+ years with Postgres (migrations, indexing, tuning)
• Streaming: Experience with Kafka or similar systems; Benthos preferred
• Infrastructure: Docker, Docker Compose, Dockerfile optimization, Makefile workflows
• Observability: Familiarity with OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, and metrics

Nice to Have

• Experience with Temporal or similar workflow orchestration tools
• Solr / Lucene search tuning experience
• LDAP / OIDC integration
• Strong understanding of pattern-matching algorithm performance trade-offs