About Northwood
Northwood is deploying a global network of phased array ground stations that will fundamentally change how satellites communicate with Earth. These systems support real-time, high-throughput communications that commercial and government customers rely on for mission-critical operations. As a Senior Security Engineer, you will design and implement security architectures for infrastructure that simply does not exist anywhere else.
This is an opportunity to define the security posture of a rapidly scaling space-communications network—where the stakes include national security, global communications integrity, and uninterrupted mission operations.
Role Overview
You will own security end-to-end across distributed ground station infrastructure, cloud environments, RF systems, and data pipelines. This is not a legacy environment, you are building greenfield security systems for first-of-their-kind technology. You will design architectures, lead incident response, build automated compliance workflows, and serve as a key security interface for government customers including Space Force.
Key Responsibilities
Security Architecture & Infrastructure
- Design security from the ground up for brand-new ground station infrastructure, RF systems, and space-communication protocols
- Design, build, and maintain scalable, zero-trust architectures across cloud, edge, and physical ground station systems.
- Conduct security architecture reviews for highly regulated and mission-critical environments where “good enough” is not acceptable.
- Implement identity, secrets management, network segmentation, and encryption models across globally distributed systems.
Global Ground Station & Distributed Systems Security
- Secure phased-array networks capable of tracking hundreds of satellites across multiple orbits simultaneously.
- Design and implement controls for distributed, latency-sensitive systems spanning continents.
- Develop and deploy detection, logging, and telemetry pipelines
Threat Detection, Incident Response & Monitoring
- Lead incident response, threat hunting, and forensic analysis across cloud, on-prem, RF, and edge computing environments.
- Deploy and manage enterprise SIEM platforms (Splunk, Sentinel, Panther, etc.) and endpoint solutions (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne).
- Establish continuous monitoring strategies tailored for nontraditional environments where standard corporate controls don’t apply.
Governance, Compliance & Security Programs
- Build automated CI/CD-integrated compliance pipelines that satisfy FedRAMP, DFARS, NIST 800-171, and internal program requirements without slowing engineering velocity.
- Create security documentation, standards, and processes for internal and external audits.
- Interface directly with government customers, serving as a trusted security liaison.
Policies, Risk Management & Security Operations
- Conduct risk assessments, vulnerability analyses, and mitigation planning for cloud, physical, and RF assets.
- Establish security policies, procedures, and governance frameworks appropriate for national-security-grade infrastructure.
- Provide guidance on endpoint security, SaaS hardening, and cloud security across AWS, GovCloud, and air-gapped environments.
- Work hand in hand with vendors on Red Teaming Northwoods corp and production systems
Cross-Functional & Leadership Responsibilities
- Collaborate with engineering, network operations, RF, and compliance teams as a primary security subject-matter expert.
- Develop internal security awareness and training (where applicable) for engineering orgs.
- Drive complex, multi-stakeholder security initiatives with direct impact on national security missions.
Basic Qualifications
- Strong experience conducting security architecture reviews in regulated, high-assurance environments.
- Deep understanding of NIST 800-171, CUI, FedRAMP, and secure cloud implementation patterns.
- Proficiency in Python, Go, Rust, or similar languages for building automation and custom security tooling.
- Hands-on experience securing AWS GovCloud or other government cloud environments.
- Experience implementing defensive controls across endpoints, SaaS, and distributed/edge infrastructure.
- Ability to obtain and maintain TS/SCI clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience designing large-scale log ingestion pipelines for distributed systems with massive telemetry volumes.
- Hands-on experience with SIEMs (Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel, Panther) and modern EDR platforms.
- 5+ years of production experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK); you treat security configuration as code.
- Strong Linux experience, ideally with custom or specialized distributions.
- Knowledge of DFARS and government contracting security requirements.
- Familiarity with EMASS or similar assessment and accreditation tools.
- Demonstrated experience leading security efforts tied to government or national security missions.
Why Northwood
- Build security systems for infrastructure that has never existed before.
- Direct impact on missions that matter- to national security, global communications, and commercial space innovation.
- Fast-moving hardware + cloud + RF environment with no legacy constraints.
