Senior Security Engineer

Adventure is our Culture. Join a team that celebrates a lifestyle as bold as the terrain we love. At Backcountry, we are rooted in adventure, recognition, and wellbeing on and off the mountain. We spotlight employee stories, celebrate milestones, and offer exclusive outdoor perks. Whether you are at HQ, in a retail store, or remote, you will be part of a team that thrives on energy, exploration, and connection.

Reports to: Information Security Manager

Location: Costa Rica (Hybrid) - Must live near San Jose, Costa Rica

About the Role

Backcountry needs a senior security engineer to protect and harden the multi-cloud platforms, Kubernetes workloads, and CI/CD pipelines that power its digital commerce ecosystem. The role spans AWS, GCP, Azure Entra ID, Microsoft Defender XDR, and GitOps tooling — with a growing mandate to govern secure AI adoption across engineering and business teams.

As Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, you will define security baselines, drive DevSecOps practices, and lead incident response across cloud, container, and identity layers. Within your first six months, you will have measurably improved pipeline security posture, tightened identity and access controls, and established governance guardrails for AI tooling.

This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.

What You'll Do

Protect and monitor infrastructure hosted in AWS and GCP; configure and maintain AWS WAF/CDN and GCP Cloud Armor rules; review Infrastructure as Code for security best practices

Secure containerized workloads across EKS and GKE clusters; implement Istio mesh policies (mTLS, authorization, traffic controls); manage GitOps delivery security through ArgoCD (RBAC, secrets, drift detection)

Integrate security into CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions; manage dependency and supply-chain risk via Dependabot; collaborate with engineering teams on secure development practices

Administer and secure Azure Entra ID and SSO configurations; enforce least-privilege access across cloud, Kubernetes, and SaaS platforms; conduct periodic access reviews

Manage Microsoft Defender XDR for endpoint and identity security; monitor alerts, investigate incidents, and lead incident response efforts across cloud, Kubernetes, and identity layers

Secure the Microsoft 365 environment (Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams); implement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies and email security controls

Define and enforce secure baselines for Linux and Windows VMs, including patching, configuration management, and vulnerability remediation

Evaluate and govern the secure use of AI tools (Claude, OpenAI) and automation platforms (n8n) across the organization, including data handling, access controls, and leakage risks

Required Qualifications

5+ years of experience in SecDevOps, Cybersecurity, or related roles

Hands-on, production-level experience with AWS and GCP security configurations

Practical AI experience with tools such as Claude, OpenAI, or similar in production or automation workflows

Demonstrated experience managing Kubernetes and containerized workloads

Demonstrated experience in at least 3 of the following: Identity and Access Management (Azure Entra ID, SSO); service mesh technologies (Istio or similar); GitOps tooling (ArgoCD or similar); Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) / XDR solutions; OAuth, OIDC, SSO; IaC (Terraform preferred) and Git/GitHub workflows

Solid understanding of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, firewalls, VPNs)

Scripting and automation skills (Python, PowerShell, or Bash)

Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, AWS Security Specialty, GCP Security Engineer, CKS, SC-200, OSCP, or CEH

Background in compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR)

Experience with workflow-automation platforms such as n8n

Why Join

The people who do best here are builders. They take ownership, move fast, and want to see the direct impact of their work.

Cross-Functional Impact: Your security decisions will touch every engineering team and cloud platform across the business — from infrastructure and CI/CD to AI adoption governance.

AI-First Skill Building: Get hands-on with advanced AI tools and automation platforms while building the security frameworks that govern their safe use across the organization.

End-to-End Ownership: Own security strategy across a multi-cloud, Kubernetes-native stack — from threat detection and incident response to identity management and policy enforcement.

Competitive Benefits: We offer an attractive benefits package including primarily remote work, private medical and life insurance, additional paid time off, monthly allowances and reimbursements, employee discounts, and opportunities for professional growth.

Interview Process

1. Recruiter Screen - A 30-minute conversation with our recruiting team to align on the role, your background, and what you are looking for.
2. Hiring Manager Interview - Conversation with the Information Security Manager focused on your security engineering experience, multi-cloud background, and approach to DevSecOps.
3. Technical Challenge - A short AI or security-focused challenge so we can understand how you approach problems and execution.
4. Technical Deep-Dive Interview - Deep-dive interviews with Backcountry engineering and security leadership focused on your hands-on experience across Kubernetes, cloud security, and incident response.
5. In-Person Interview - We'd like to meet you at our Costa Rica office. Details and logistics will be arranged with your recruiter.
6. Reference Checks - Conducted in parallel with the final stages where possible.
7. Offer - We move quickly for the right candidate.

Interview process is subject to change. Any updates will be communicated promptly and clearly.