Security Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Security Engineer based in Italy.

As a Security Engineer, you will take ownership of application security for a rapidly growing AI-powered digital platform serving millions of users worldwide. This is a hands-on role focused on identifying vulnerabilities, reviewing code and strengthening security across the entire application stack. Acting as the primary security specialist, you will work closely with technical leadership and engineering teams to define security priorities and implement effective solutions.

You will also contribute to securing AI-powered products by identifying emerging threats such as prompt injection, jailbreaks and content filter bypasses. Combining technical execution, independent decision-making and strategic responsibility, you will have the opportunity to shape security practices from the ground up. This fully remote position offers significant autonomy within a fast-paced, innovative and internationally distributed environment.

Accountabilities

Own and drive application security across the organisation, proactively identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring security risks are addressed throughout the software development lifecycle.

Conduct regular source code reviews to detect security weaknesses before deployment, prioritising critical vulnerabilities and collaborating with engineering teams to implement effective fixes.

Coordinate external security audits and penetration tests, critically evaluating findings, challenging assessments when necessary and ensuring remediation actions are completed.

Develop and automate security processes, scripts and internal tools to improve vulnerability detection, streamline security operations and support scalability.

Integrate AI-powered tools into daily security workflows, leveraging them for code reviews, penetration testing, scripting and security research.

Act as the primary security point of contact, independently defining priorities, managing security initiatives and communicating technical risks clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Monitor and respond to security alerts, including participating in occasional night and weekend on-call rotations.

Maintain risk registers and relevant Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) documentation, ensuring security practices remain organised and up to date.

Promote security awareness across the organisation by sharing relevant updates, providing guidance and delivering internal security training.

Monitor emerging AI-specific security threats, including prompt injection, jailbreaks, content moderation bypasses and vulnerabilities affecting third-party AI providers.

Requirements:

At least 2 years of hands-on professional experience in cybersecurity, with a strong focus on application security rather than compliance-only or infrastructure-focused responsibilities.

Demonstrated experience conducting regular source code reviews and identifying, investigating and resolving real application vulnerabilities, with the ability to explain a concrete example of a vulnerability discovered and fixed.

Experience coordinating external security audits or penetration tests and managing remediation efforts through to completion.

Strong engineering skills, including experience working with Git/GitHub, scripting in Python or Bash, and hands-on exposure to modern web technologies such as Ruby on Rails or Node.js.

Familiarity with cloud and hosting environments such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Heroku or comparable platforms.

Proven ability to work independently and take ownership of security activities, ideally having served as a sole security specialist, security lead or independent owner of a security function.

Recent practical experience reviewing code or testing systems regularly, ideally on a weekly basis over the past two years.

Daily use of AI-powered tools to support security engineering, research, automation and vulnerability assessment.

Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, combined with a proactive hacker mindset and genuine enthusiasm for discovering vulnerabilities and making systems more secure.

Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with full professional fluency in English and the ability to explain complex technical risks in accessible terms.

A strong sense of ownership, accountability and commitment, with a goal-oriented approach and the ability to balance hands-on execution with planning an