Init Intelligence — Senior/Staff Security Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CA Compensation: $200,000–$300,000 + 1%–2% equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: Yes — H-1B, O-1, OPT Reports to: Founders (Isaiah, co-founder + co-founder)

About Init Intelligence

Init is building AI coworkers for IT teams: a security-focused product where an agent registers as a governed identity in a customer's directory, requests scoped access per task, escalates for human approval, and can drive screens it was never given an API for. The company raised a $6M seed with no product and no customers at the time, backed by Max Altman and Ben Braverman (CRO of Flexport, which sold for $2B), plus a bench of operator-angels including senior leaders from ServiceNow, Okta, and others. Init has several design partners today and a founding team of three.

Founded: 2026 | Team size: 1–10 (founding team of three) | Total funding: $6M (seed) Industry: AI Tools / Enterprise IT & Security Website: init.inc Office: San Francisco, CA

(Note: the Contrario company card lists the stage as "Pre-seed"; the role body describes a "$6M seed." Represented here as seed-stage, $6M raised.)

Why Candidates Should Join

• Genuinely novel security surface: Owning security end-to-end for a governed-identity agent that requests scoped access and acts under human approval — a system with little prior art.
• Founding-level ownership: First/founding security hire, owning application, cloud, network, and the agent itself, plus the written security architecture that closes enterprise deals.
• Backing and pedigree: $6M seed from Max Altman and Flexport's ex-CRO, with operator-angels from ServiceNow and Okta, and live design partners already in place.
• Comp and equity: $200K–$300K base with a meaningful 1–2% equity stake.

Intake Call Summary

• No intake transcript was included in the paste — Contrario hosts an intake video on the role page, but there is no text to summarize. If you'd like the intake points captured here, send the transcript and I'll fold them in.
• Scoping context drawn from the role page: the hire owns the full security posture (app, cloud, network, and the agent), leads threat modeling for a governed-identity agent, builds in-product security primitives, owns the buyer-facing security architecture account, runs external validation (pen tests, compliance, enterprise security reviews), and pushes security into CI.

The Role

Own the security posture of Init and its product end-to-end — application, cloud, network, and the agent itself — for a system with limited prior art: a governed-identity agent that requests scoped access and acts under human approval.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own the end-to-end security posture: application, cloud, network, and the agent itself
• Lead secure design reviews and threat modeling for a governed-identity agent with scoped, approval-gated access
• Build in-product security primitives: per-customer isolation, credentials the agent uses but never sees, write-action approval gates, a customer-controlled capability dial, and replayable audit trails
• Own the written security architecture account that gates enterprise deployments and closes technical buyers
• Run external validation: pen testing by a respected firm, required compliance frameworks, and enterprise security reviews
• Own incident readiness and response, with breach notification measured in hours
• Run continuous cloud/IAM auditing and make security a pipeline step in CI
• Set the internal bar for credential handling, data egress, and endpoint policy

Tech stack: Python / Go / Rust / TypeScript; cloud + infrastructure-as-code; identity & workload IAM; container / microVM isolation; CI security tooling (scanning, secret detection, compliance checks)

Requirements

• Hands-on application and infrastructure security experience
• Production-quality code in Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript
• Practical threat-modeling and vulnerability-identification skills
• Hands-on network and identity security: identity-based controls, policy enforcement, workload IAM
• Cloud security depth on at least one major provider, including identity federation and infrastructure-as-code
• Able to explain a risk trade-off clearly to both an engineer and a CIO in the same week
• Operates well with high autonomy and ambiguity
• Able to work in person in SF, Monday to Friday, at startup intensity

Green Flags

• Exceptional signal of excellence in some facet: led an important team at a high-growth company, top competition results (ICPC, IOI), or elite achievement in a sport, game, or craft
• Top-tier schooling (e.g. Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Northeastern, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UW, Waterloo, Oxford) for a CS/eng degree, OR genuinely exceptional experience in lieu of it
• Worked at a great company on a relevant, high-caliber team (team matters: AI infra/security at a big tech co, not ads)
• Big-tech backgrounds are welcomed here (scalability and security depth are assets for a security product)
• High agency: former founders, big scope, real ambiguity

Red Flags

• Career breaks / the "eat-pray" archetype (a year off, or three short jobs in a year)
• Currently "looking for work" / open-to-work with a thin, fluff-heavy profile
• A weak foreign university plus a US master's used to launder credentials (unless a top institution like an IIT)
• Only implemented scoped features, built demos without production rigor, or depends on other teams for architecture, security, infra, or product decisions

Nice to Haves

(Role-specific desirable expertise from the role body's Nice-to-Have list — additive, not required.)

• Experience securing agentic or code-execution systems
• Deep expertise in modern isolation: container security, kernel-level hardening, microVMs
• Offensive security or penetration testing experience
• Has run or owned a bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure program
• Has carried a company through compliance frameworks and enterprise security reviews
• Experience in or alongside enterprise IT and identity: directory services, SSO, PAM

Role Details

• Salary — $200,000–$300,000
• Equity — 1%–2%
• On-site policy — On-site in SF, Monday–Friday, startup intensity
• Visa sponsorship — H-1B, O-1, OPT
• Experience — 4+ years
• Employment type — Full-time
• Location — San Francisco, CA

Screening Questions

• None listed on the Contrario role page. If the client provides screening questions later, they'll be asked on the call and added here.

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — Culture Screen — Culture screen with Isaiah (co-founder). Stage 3 — Culture Screen (2) — Culture screen with the other co-founder. Stage 4 — Technical Interview (~1 hour) — Systems-design focused. Stage 5 — One-Day On-Site Stage 6 — Offer Extended Stage 7 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

• Not provided on the Contrario role page (no Ideal Companies section present).

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles. Contrario labels these "DO NOT CONTACT."

• Joshua Wang — LinkedIn URL not captured in the paste (icon only)
• Johann Rehberger — profile link not captured in the paste (icon only)