Staff Product Security Engineer, Secure Design (Kernel and Virtualization)
DigitalOcean · Seattle
Posted about 3 months ago · $175,000 - $190,000
or apply directly on DigitalOcean's site. We never take the application ourselves.
Is this posting real?
- This role has been open
- 87 days DigitalOcean's roles stay open a median of 87 days
- Reposted
- No
- Salary listed
- Yes 68% of DigitalOcean's roles list one
- Ghost-job risk at DigitalOcean
- high 151 stale, 1 reposted of 151 open
- Hiring momentum
- 197 roles opened in the last 90 days ↑ up vs. the prior 90 days
- Last confirmed on the employer's board
- 2026-10-29
Measured from postings appearing on and disappearing from DigitalOcean's own greenhouse board since 2026-08-03. Full hiring picture for DigitalOcean.
About this role
As a Staff Product Security Engineer at DigitalOcean, you will focus on assessing and mitigating security risks within the virtualization stack. Your responsibilities include developing threat models, proposing defense-in-depth mitigations, collaborating with engineering teams, and promoting a security culture. You will also mentor teams on security best practices and oversee the vulnerability management program.
- benefits
- 4/5
- freshness
- 1/5
- career value
- 4/5
- role clarity
- 4/5
- pay transparency
- 5/5
Scored from the posting itself — how clearly the role is described, how much it says about pay and benefits, and how recently it was listed. Not a judgement of DigitalOcean as an employer.
What you need
- Deep familiarity with at least one kernel security feature (ex: AppArmor, SELinux, Landlock, etc.)
- Capable of assessing and understanding the performance implications of code changes to virtualization stacks (especially in Qemu and KVM)
- A record of partnering with internal engineering teams to tackle security problems with empathy and creativity
- Ability to clearly communicate security topics and vulnerability classes (e.g. memory corruption, privilege escalation, TOCTOU)
- Working knowledge of modern development concepts (virtualized environments, containerization, continuous integration + delivery)
Nice to have
- 5+ years of writing systems level code (embedded systems, kernel, assembly or similar)
- Experience guiding software teams on secure architecture design
- Written code for an embedded system (raspberry pi, arduino, etc.)
- Experience building or reviewing threat models and crafting malicious user, attacker, and abuse/misuse cases
- An understanding of patches and mitigations for hardware side-channel attacks
What you get
- Compensation range of $175,000 - $190,000
- Hybrid work model
- Reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education
- Flexible time off
- Local team meetups
- Mental health and well-being support
Worth weighing
- No specific mention of the tech stack beyond virtualization and kernel security features
- The role may involve complex security challenges that require collaboration with various teams
- The position emphasizes a culture of partnership rather than mandates, which may require strong interpersonal skills
Summarised from DigitalOcean's posting. Read the full original.
Listed by DigitalOcean on their greenhouse job board, last confirmed open on 2026-10-29. PitchMeAI is not the employer.
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