Security Engineer, Detection and Response

Location: San Francisco fal is the generative media ecosystem powering the next generation of AI products. We build the infrastructure, tools, and model access that teams need to move from idea to production, and do it at scale without compromise. For developers and enterprises, fal is the foundation that makes generative media not just possible, but practical: a unified platform where high-performance inference, orchestration, and observability come together to unlock new categories of AI-native products. As generative media reshapes industries across a market projected to grow by hundreds of billions over the next decade, fal is becoming the ecosystem that ambitious teams build on. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re hiring for a Staff Detection & Response Engineer to build fal's detection and response (D&R) program. You’ll own how we find, investigate, and contain threats across our organization and ecosystem. You’ll set the strategy, select the tooling, build the system, and lead incidents end to end, with room to grow the team as the program matures. Proficiency in building with and using AI is central to this role. What You’ll Do Build Detection - Stand up logging and telemetry pipelines across cloud, Kubernetes, bare-metal GPU hosts, threat intel platforms and identity/SaaS providers - Write, test, and tune detections as code, keeping signal high and noise low - Lead and run threat hunting to turn findings into lasting detections - Build AI-driven detection and response, using LLMs and agents for triage, enrichment, investigation, and alert correlation Own Incident Response - Lead incidents from triage and containment through forensics, communication, and post-incident review - Write the IR plan and playbooks, establish severity models, and set on-call rotations - Design and lead tabletop exercises with engineering and leadership Shape the Program - Own the D&R roadmap and build-vs-buy decisions - Define and report on coverage, MTTD, and MTTR - Partner with infra, platform, and ML teams to fix the gaps exposed by incidents - Own detection and incident response controls and evidence for SOC 2, ISO 27001 What We’re Looking For - AI fluency: you use LLMs, agents, and AI coding tools daily to build detections, automate investigations, and ship tooling - 5+ years in security engineering, with deep hands-on detection engineering and incident response experience - Experience leading incidents in cloud-native environments (AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, Linux) - Sound judgment during incidents, with actions proportional to real business impact - Hands-on with SIEM, EDR, and cloud security tooling - Has built or scaled a D&R or IR program, ideally as an early hire or founding team member - Communicates clearly under pressure to different audiences, from engineers to executives Nice to Have - Specialization in GPU infrastructure, ML platforms, or multi-tenant compute - Background or experience in forensics, malware analysis, or threat intelligence - Hands-on experience with detections-as-code or SOAR automation - Experience supporting SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audits COMPENSATION & BENEFITS - Competitive salary + equity - Full health, dental, and vision coverage - Opportunity to work on frontier AI infrastructure WHAT WE OFFER AT FAL - Interesting and challenging work - A lot of learning and growth opportunities - We offer visa sponsorship and will help you relocate to San Francisco. - Health, dental, and vision insurance (US) - Regular team events and offsites COMPENSATION - $180,000 - $250,000 + equity + comprehensive benefits package U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY INFORMATION: fal provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by applicable law.