Lead Security Engineer

What you'll own

• Secure SDLC: dependency scanning, static analysis, security review of high-risk changes, coordinating annual penetration tests, and teaching engineers to catch issues early.
• Partner with DevOps on IAM, secrets management, network architecture, logging, and detection.
• Develop policies, conduct risk assessments, and create a security roadmap appropriate for company size and risk profile; defend these to auditors, bankers, and internally.
• Manage security questionnaires, vendor risk assessments, and customer security reviews in compliance with rigorous third-party risk management (often FFIEC guidance).
• Handle endpoint management, access reviews, phishing resistance, offboarding hygiene.
• Own SOC 2 Type II end-to-end: control design, evidence collection, auditor management.
• Lead incident response: writing plans, running tabletops exercises, and managing real incidents with knowledge of bank breach-notification expectations.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years in security engineering with breadth across appsec (application security), cloud security, and compliance.
• Hands-on: ability to read code, write scripts (e.g., Python), configure cloud controls.
• Experience owning or heavily contributing to SOC 2 audit (or ISO 27001 / equivalent).
• Experience answering enterprise or financial-institution security reviews.
• Strong written communication skills.
• Judgment about proportionality: knowing which risks matter at scale versus controls that are theater.

Nice to have

• Fintech or banking-vendor experience; familiarity with FFIEC (Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), or bank third-party risk management.
• Experience as a first or early security hire.
• Detection engineering / SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) experience.
• Familiarity with core banking integrations or handling of PII/KYC data flows.

About Prelim

Prelim builds digital account-opening infrastructure for community banks and credit unions. They have sustained over 100% ARR growth for four consecutive years on seed funding. Their platform is critical for banks onboarding customers; downtime means banks can't open accounts. They are a small team seeking their first dedicated security hire to define their security program for next-generation banking. Prelim is based in San Francisco and New York City but operates fully remote positions across the US. They offer equity compensation alongside a sponsored 401K plan; parental leave; fully paid health/vision/dental insurance; unlimited PTO; remote work stipend; lifestyle stipend; twice-yearly company retreats. Prelim values diversity and inclusion welcoming people of all backgrounds to join their mission to transform banking.