Security Engineer, GKE at Google
Seattle, WA
$174,000–$253,000from the description
Jul 15, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role focuses on hardening the security of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) as a platform for running AI and machine learning workloads. Day-to-day work involves conducting Kubernetes security reviews, researching and reproducing vulnerabilities, shaping threat detection strategy, and guiding engineering teams on mitigating top security risks. It suits mid-level security engineers with a strong background in containerization, cloud infrastructure, and security protocols.
Senior level · 5+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
Advertised as Mid, but the requirements read as Senior.
“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
Roughly 90 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (information security analysts). range 25–130
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $165,338 (middle half $132,613–$190,632). This posting is about at that midpoint.
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 (6)
The posting is titled 'Security Engineer' and framed at 'Mid' level by Google's internal leveling label, but the requirements (5 years of security engineering, 5 years of distributed cloud computing, 3 years of container orchestration, mentoring junior members, leading a team's security strategy) are consistent with a Senior-level role.
The role sits at the boundary between Information Security Analysts (15-1212) and Software Developers (15-1252): responsibilities include security reviews, vulnerability research, threat detection strategy, and security guidance — leaning security — but also building prototypes/applications and driving a managed Kubernetes platform, which leans software development. 15-1212 was chosen as the primary given the explicit 'Security Engineer' framing and security-review-centric responsibilities.
The degree requirement states 'Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience'; because an explicit degree alternative is offered, this would normally map to None, but the JD's minimum qualifications section lists it as a hard gate without the 'or equivalent experience' escape being clearly dominant — treated as Bachelors per the hard-gate rule. Note: candidates with equivalent practical experience may also qualify per Google's standard language.
The preferred qualifications mention 'GCP techniques such as prompt engineering, dual encoders, and embedding vectors' — this is an unusual pairing of GCP with ML/AI techniques; captured as GCP preferred since that is the named platform.
Compensation is stated as $174,000–$253,000/year plus a 15% bonus target and equity; the bonus and equity are not captured in the comp fields, which reflect base salary only.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): security engineering.
Read the full posting
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