Principal Platform Security Engineer (Cloud/K8S)
at Gemini
San Francisco, New York, United States
About the Company
Gemini is a global crypto and Web3 platform founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2014, offering a wide range of simple, reliable, and secure crypto products and services to individuals and institutions in over 70 countries. Our mission is to unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom by providing trusted access to the decentralized future. We envision a world where crypto reshapes the global financial system, internet, and money to create greater choice, independence, and opportunity for all — bridging traditional finance with the emerging cryptoeconomy in a way that is more open, fair, and secure.
The Department: Platform Security
The Platform Security team secures Gemini’s infrastructure through service hardening and by developing and supporting a suite of foundational tools. We provide secure-by-default infrastructure, consumable security services, and expert consultation to engineering teams for secure cloud and non-cloud infrastructure.
The Role: Principal Platform Security Engineer (Cloud/K8S)
The Platform Security team builds and delivers zero-trust foundations and paved paths so every Gemini team can ship safely on supported cloud platforms. As a Principal Cloud and Kubernetes Security Engineer, you will architect and build security platforms that define how Gemini operates in the cloud. You will set technical direction for cloud security, design foundational services used across the organization, and establish engineering standards for secure infrastructure. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you'll write production code daily while driving strategic initiatives.
You will own the technical vision for cloud security architecture, mentor engineers across teams, and influence how the entire organization builds and deploys infrastructure. This role requires exceptional technical expertise in cloud security, mastery of Terraform and infrastructure-as-code, and proven ability to build production services that scale. You will shape security culture by creating platforms that make secure patterns the default choice for engineering teams.
This role is required to be in person twice a week at either our San Francisco, CA or New York City, NY office.
Responsibilities:
- Architect and build security platforms, frameworks, and services that scale across the organization
- Set technical standards and best practices for cloud security and infrastructure-as-code
- Design and implement foundational security services used by multiple engineering teams
- Drive adoption of new technologies and security patterns across the organization
- Lead technical decisions for multi-quarter initiatives spanning cloud, container, and infrastructure security
- Mentor engineers across teams on secure architecture and engineering practices
- Participate in on-call rotation for critical security incidents and infrastructure issues
Minimum Qualifications:
- Exceptional software development skills in Python or Go with proven track record of building production platforms
- Deep expertise securing AWS environments at scale, including advanced IAM, network architecture, and security services
- Mastery of Terraform including provider development, complex module design, and enterprise-scale implementations
- Extensive experience with Kubernetes security, including building operators, admission controllers, and platform extensions
- Proven ability to architect distributed systems and cloud-native platforms
- Track record of leading technical initiatives that transformed organizational capabilities
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience building security platforms adopted by 100+ engineers
- Contributions to open source security tools or infrastructure projects
- Experience with GCP security services and multi-cloud architectures including Azure
- Expertise in policy-as-code frameworks and compliance automation
- Published research, conference talks, or thought leadership in cloud security
- Experience building developer platforms and improving engineering velocity
- Competitive starting salary
- A discretionary annual bonus
- Long-term incentive in the form of a new hire equity grant
- Comprehensive health plans
- 401K with company matching
- Paid Parental Leave
- Flexible time off
Salary Range: The base salary range for this role is between $192,500 - $275,000 in the State of New York, the State of California and the State of Washington. This range is not inclusive of our discretionary bonus or equity package. When determining a candidate’s compensation, we consider a number of factors including skillset, experience, job scope, and current market data.
In the United States, employees within the New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami metropolitan areas are expected to work from the designated office on a hybrid cadence, unless there is a job-specific requirement to be in the office every work day. We believe our hybrid approach for those near our NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami offices increases productivity through more in-person collaboration where possible. Employees outside of these areas are considered part of our remote-first workforce.
At Gemini, we strive to build diverse teams that reflect the people we want to empower through our products, and we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. Equal Opportunity is the Law, and Gemini is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. If you have a specific need that requires accommodation, please let a member of the People Team know.
#LI-ES1