At a Glance
- Tasks: Manage security operations and enhance detection capabilities in a dynamic environment.
- Company: Join Alpaca, a leading fintech company revolutionising financial services globally.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, stock options, health benefits, and a monthly stipend for home office setup.
- Other info: Fully remote role with opportunities for professional growth and collaboration across diverse teams.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in security while working with cutting-edge technology and a global team.
- Qualifications: 3+ years in Security Operations, hands-on SIEM experience, and strong incident response skills.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 £ per year.
Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Our recent Series D funding round brought our total investment to over $320 million, fueling our ambitious vision.
Who We Are
Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 9 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We’re deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.
Our Team Members
We’re a dynamic team of 230+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favourite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond! We’re searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca’s rapid growth. If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.
Your Role
We are seeking a Security Operations Engineer to mature Alpaca’s day-to-day security operations. This role will be responsible for managing our third-party SOC relationship, operating and tuning our on-prem SIEM, and acting as a critical bridge between IT Helpdesk and the Security team to ensure security issues are identified, triaged, and resolved quickly and consistently. You will be both hands-on and operationally minded: improving detection quality, streamlining alert triage, coordinating incident response, and ensuring security operations scale with the business. You’ll play a key role in turning security signals into action and ensuring operational issues don’t become security incidents. This role reports to the Enterprise Security Architect and works closely with IT, DevOps, Engineering, and our external SOC partner. The Security Team is 100% distributed and remote.
Things You Get To Do
- Security Operations and Detection Engineering
- Security Operation Center: Own the relationship with our managed SOC, including alert quality, escalation workflows, SLAs, runbooks, and continuous improvement of detection coverage and response effectiveness. Assist with triage, investigations, and respond to security alerts across endpoints, identity, cloud, network, and application logs.
- SIEM Management: Operate and maintain our SIEM, including log onboarding, parsing, normalization, correlation rules, alert tuning, and lifecycle management to reduce noise and increase signal.
- Log Coverage & Telemetry: Ensure critical systems generate the right security telemetry, filling gaps across endpoints, identity providers, network devices, SaaS tools, and cloud platforms.
- Detection Improvements: Continuously refine detection logic based on threat intelligence, SOC feedback, incident learnings, and emerging attack techniques.
- Incident Handling: Assist with security incidents, working with IT, Engineering, and external partners to contain, eradicate, and recover from incidents.
- Runbooks & Playbooks: Develop, maintain, and continuously improve incident response playbooks, escalation paths, and communication procedures.
- Operational Metrics: Track and report on key security operations metrics such as alert volumes, false positive rates, mean time to detect (MTTD), mean time to respond (MTTR), and SOC performance.
- Bridge IT and Security: Act as the security liaison to the IT Helpdesk, ensuring security-related tickets are properly triaged, prioritized, and resolved without slowing down business operations.
- Security Enablement: Provide guidance and context to IT teams on security alerts, risks, and required actions, helping raise the overall security maturity of frontline support teams.
Who You Are (Must-Haves)
- Excited about Alpaca’s mission and what we’re building
- 3+ years of experience in Security Operations roles
- Hands-on experience operating and tuning a SIEM (on-prem or cloud-based)
- Hands-on experience maintaining Kubernetes clusters
- Working with Linux Scripting or automation experience (Python, Bash) for security operations tasks
- Experience working with a third-party SOC or MSSP
- Strong incident response and alert investigation skills across identity, endpoint, network, and cloud environments
- Understanding of common attacker techniques and detection methodologies
- Experience working closely with IT/helpdesk teams and translating security requirements into operational workflows
- Familiarity with endpoint security, identity monitoring, and log-based detections
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially during incidents
- Comfortable working cross-functionally and handling escalations calmly and decisively
Who You Might Be (Nice-to-Haves)
- Experience securing financial, trading, or other highly regulated platforms
- Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or PCI
- Experience with detection engineering frameworks (MITRE ATT&CK)
- Knowledge of cloud security logging (AWS/GCP/Azure) and SaaS security telemetry
- Experience working with GitOps and CI/CD pipelines
- Experience running tabletop exercises or incident response simulations
- Security certifications (GCIA, GCIH, GCED, CISSP, or similar)
- Ability to balance security rigor with operational efficiency and business needs
How We Take Care of You
- Competitive Salary & Stock Options
- Health Benefits
- New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
- Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card
Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.
Security Operations Engineer employer: Alpaca
Contact Detail:
Alpaca Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Security Operations Engineer
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with current Alpaca employees on LinkedIn. A personal touch can make all the difference when it comes to landing that interview.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! If you’ve got a portfolio or GitHub showcasing your security projects, make sure to highlight them during interviews. We love seeing practical examples of your work and how you tackle real-world problems.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for those technical questions! Brush up on your SIEM knowledge and incident response strategies. We want to see how you think on your feet, so practice explaining your thought process clearly and confidently.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in being part of the Alpaca team!
We think you need these skills to ace Security Operations Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Your Passion: When you’re writing your application, let your enthusiasm for Alpaca's mission shine through! We want to see that you’re genuinely excited about what we’re building and how you can contribute to our growth.
Tailor Your Experience: Make sure to highlight your relevant experience in Security Operations. We’re looking for specific skills like SIEM management and incident response, so don’t be shy about showcasing your hands-on expertise!
Be Clear and Concise: Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon and make it easy for us to understand your qualifications and how they align with the role.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy!
How to prepare for a job interview at Alpaca
✨Know Your Stuff
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of security operations, especially around SIEM management and incident response. Be ready to discuss your hands-on experience with tools and techniques relevant to the role, like Kubernetes and scripting in Python or Bash.
✨Show Your Passion for Security
Alpaca is looking for someone who aligns with their mission. Be prepared to share why you're excited about their vision and how you can contribute to their goals. This will help you stand out as a candidate who truly cares about the work.
✨Prepare for Scenario Questions
Expect to be asked about past incidents you've handled or how you'd approach specific security challenges. Think through examples that showcase your problem-solving skills and ability to work cross-functionally with IT and other teams.
✨Communicate Clearly
Strong communication skills are key, especially during incidents. Practice explaining complex security concepts in simple terms, as you'll need to liaise with various teams. Being calm and clear under pressure will demonstrate your capability in high-stress situations.