Staff Product Security Engineer

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo's 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world's first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.

Vast is looking for a Staff Product Security Engineer, reporting to the Information Security Manager, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. 

Responsibilities: 

• Developing top-level system requirements, and flowing down requirements and implementation concepts to subsystem.
• Define security development and test efforts implementation of security controls of components for the ground, link, and vehicle segments.
• Support developing plans and estimates, task execution, project tracking, reporting, and risk identification and mitigation plans.
• Interact with other functions to coordinate requirements, solutions, trades, costs, implementation, system impacts, and effectiveness.
• Support compliance efforts as it relates to NIST 800-53.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5+ years of hands-on experience.
• Strong understanding of security architecture, system requirements development, and implementation concepts for complex systems.
• Hands-on experience with threat modeling, risk assessment, and security testing methodologies.
• Familiarity with cryptographic methods, access controls, and secure communications protocols.
• Experience supporting project planning, task execution, reporting, and risk management.
• Strong ability to interact with cross-functional teams to align security requirements, trade-offs, and system impacts.
• Experience in security assessments, audits, and remediation planning.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Understanding of compliance requirements and certifications like NIST 800-53.
• Understanding of the SPARTA framework.
• Prior experience developing, implementing, and validating a security features for a space system.
• Familiarity operating in AWS.
• Prior experience working in a fast-paced startup environment.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time.
• Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones.

Pay Range 

• Senior Product Security Engineer: $150,000 - $204,000 
• Staff Product Security Engineer: $183,000 - $267,000

Pay Range: California

$150,000—$242,800 USD

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast's ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.

U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a "U.S. person" as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.