Principal Security Engineer

Job Description:

Our Opportunity:

Chewy is seeking a hands-on Principal Cybersecurity Engineer to join our technology organization. This role is for a senior technical leader who actively designs, builds, reviews, and evolves security capabilities across large-scale, cloud-native systems—not a purely advisory or compliance-focused position.

As a Principal Cybersecurity Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and execution, owning critical security domains and influencing security outcomes across dozens of teams. You will work deeply within AWS-based platforms, Kubernetes (EKS), and data services, setting technical direction while remaining directly engaged in solving complex security engineering problems. This role requires sustained hands-on technical contribution, deep system-level thinking, and the ability to lead through influence in a fast-moving, high-scale e-commerce environment.

What You’ll Do:

• Design, review, and contribute to security architectures and implementations across cloud, application, data, and platform layers
• Own and evolve core security engineering capabilities (e.g., cloud security patterns, workload identity, network segmentation, secrets management, data protection) from design through production
• Develop and maintain threat models, security requirements, and architectural guardrails for distributed systems running on public clouds.
• Partner directly with engineering teams to embed security into system design and code, not as an after-the-fact review function
• Define and implement secure-by-default patterns that teams can adopt without centralized friction
• Lead technical decision-making for high-risk, high-impact security tradeoffs, including incident learnings and architectural remediation
• Build and refine security engineering standards, reference architectures, and reusable components, and actively ensure they are implemented correctly
• Diagnose and resolve the most complex security failures and design flaws in production systems
• Establish measurable security outcomes (not just controls), and track progress against them
• Mentor engineers by reviewing designs, code, and implementations, raising the bar through direct technical engagement
• Influence hiring by setting clear expectations for senior and principal-level engineering excellence, and participating directly in interview loops

What You’ll Need:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in computer science or engineering
• 15+ years of engineering experience, with substantial hands-on work in cybersecurity engineering and architecture
• Demonstrated experience building and operating security controls in production, not just designing or recommending them
• Deep, practical expertise in securing AWS environments, including IAM, networking, compute, and managed data services
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes/EKS security, including pod/workload identity, network policies, and runtime controls
• Proven experience securing distributed data systems, including DynamoDB and PostgreSQL-based platforms
• Ability to read, review, and meaningfully influence production code and infrastructure-as-code
• Track record of owning security outcomes across multiple teams through influence rather than direct authority
• Experience turning ambiguous risk and business requirements into concrete technical designs and implementations
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical decisions to senior engineers and leadership
• Comfortable operating in environments with incomplete information, evolving requirements, and real operational risk

Bonus:

• Prior experience securing high-scale e-commerce or consumer-facing platforms
• Experience building self-service security platforms or guardrails used by multiple engineering team.
• Strong infrastructure-as-code background (e.g., Terraform) with security-first design
• Experience integrating security into CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows
• History of leading or significantly contributing to post-incident architectural improvements

• The specific salary offered to a candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors including but not limited to the candidate’s relevant experience, education, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for 401k and a new hire and annual equity grant. C08+ positions may also be eligible for annual bonus.

We offer different types of insurance and benefits, such as medical/Rx, vision, dental, life, disability, hospital indemnity, critical illness, and accident. We offer parental leave, family services benefits, backup dependent care, flexible spending accounts, telemedicine, pet adoption reimbursement, employee assistance program, and many discounts including 10% off pet insurance and 20% off at Chewy.com. 

Exempt salary team members have unlimited PTO, subject to manager approval. Team members will receive six paid holidays per year. Team members may be eligible for paid sick and family leave in compliance with applicable state and local regulations. 

Chewy is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, citizenship, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, veteran status, as well as any other legally-protected characteristic. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, and you need an accommodation during the application process or to perform these job requirements, or if you need a religious accommodation, please contact [email protected].

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