Senior Security Engineer at Northwood Space
Los Angeles, CA
$120,000–$190,000
Jul 23, 2026
Los Angeles, CA
Jul 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior security engineering role focused on designing and implementing security architecture for a global network of ground stations used in satellite communications. The work spans infrastructure-as-code, SIEM deployment, compliance automation (FedRAMP, NIST 800-171), and incident response across distributed systems. The role also involves acting as a security liaison for government customers, including Space Force, and requires eligibility for a TS/SCI clearance.
Senior level · 5+ years · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $132,021 (middle half $99,961–$167,095).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (10)
No work location or metro is specified in the posting. The role involves deploying and securing physical ground station infrastructure globally, so it is likely tied to a specific US office or site, but no city or state is named.
The TS/SCI clearance is framed as a condition of employment that must be obtained — candidates need not hold it on day one, but inability to obtain it can result in termination. Treated as a hard gate.
Terraform and AWS CDK are listed together as interchangeable IaC options under Basic Qualifications with a 5+ year requirement; Terraform is named as primary with AWS CDK in alternatives.
AWS GovCloud and Azure Government appear together under Basic Qualifications as a paired familiarity requirement; AWS GovCloud is named primary with Azure Government as an alternative.
Python, Go, and Rust are listed as interchangeable general-purpose language options under Basic Qualifications; Python is named primary.
SIEM tools (Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel, Panther) and endpoint security tools (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne) appear under Preferred Qualifications.
Kubernetes appears only in the narrative responsibilities section ('From RF protocols to Kubernetes clusters'), not in a requirements block — treated as preferred/context.
The role has a meaningful software-building component (custom security tooling, automated compliance pipelines, log ingestion pipelines), which is why 15-1252 Software Developers is noted as a runner-up. However, the primary day-to-day work is security architecture, compliance, and incident response, making 15-1212 the better fit.
ITAR compliance is required — candidates must be US citizens, lawful permanent residents, or otherwise ITAR-authorized.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
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