OPT Infrastructure Security Engineer Jobs
Infrastructure Security Engineer jobs are a strong fit for F-1 OPT students with backgrounds in cybersecurity, network engineering, or systems administration. Most roles qualify as STEM OPT, giving you up to 36 months of work authorization. Employers in this field regularly sponsor H-1B visas, making it a viable long-term path.
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Get Access To All JobsAbout Upstart
At Upstart, we're united by a mission that matters: to radically reduce the cost and complexity of borrowing for all Americans. Every day, we bring creativity, experimentation, and advanced AI to reshape access to credit, helping millions move forward financially with clarity and confidence.
As the leading AI lending marketplace, we partner with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through technology that's both radically intelligent and deeply human. Our platform runs over one million predictions per borrower using more than 1,800 signals, powering smarter, fairer decisions for millions of customers. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress.
We're proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn't mean distant. We're intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you'll have the support to work in the way that works best for you.
If you're energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we'd love to hear from you.
The Team
Upstart's Infrastructure Security team is focused on securing the cloud, compute, platform, and deployment layers that run our products. We believe security should enable fast, safe delivery through strong engineering fundamentals, automation, and secure-by-default patterns. Our team partners closely with platform, infrastructure, and product engineering to reduce risk in areas such as cloud IAM, Kubernetes and container security, network controls, secrets management, infrastructure-as-code, and production vulnerability management.
As a Security Engineer II at Upstart, you will help design, build, and improve security controls that protect our production infrastructure and developer platforms. You will partner with engineers across infrastructure, platform, and product teams to identify risks, review designs, automate preventative controls, and improve the security of the systems our products run on. This role is well suited for an engineer who can independently lead medium-sized projects, troubleshoot moderately complex security problems, and deliver durable improvements that make Upstart's infrastructure more secure by default.
How you'll make an impact
- Design and implement security controls for cloud, platform, and deployment systems, with a focus on secure defaults and durable risk reduction.
- Partner with platform, SRE, and infrastructure teams to review architecture and infrastructure changes, identify security risks, and drive practical remediation plans.
- Build and improve automation for infrastructure security, including controls for cloud IAM, Kubernetes and container environments, secrets handling, and infrastructure-as-code workflows.
- Identify and remediate systemic weaknesses such as misconfigurations, exposed services, weak trust boundaries, and insecure defaults in production environments.
- Support infrastructure vulnerability management by helping prioritize findings, validate fixes, and improve how issues are detected and prevented over time.
- Help assess and improve security controls for AI-assisted developer workflows and GenAI-enabled systems, including agentic tooling, coding assistants, and internal AI integrations that interact with production or sensitive environments.
- Respond to production security issues, investigate root causes using logs, dashboards, and system context, and contribute follow-up improvements that strengthen the platform.
- Contribute to team effectiveness by documenting patterns, participating in design and code reviews, and helping raise the security quality bar across engineering.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree and 3+ years of experience in security engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related software engineering role.
- Experience securing or operating cloud-native infrastructure in AWS or a similar cloud environment.
- Experience with one or more of the following domains: cloud IAM, Kubernetes/container security, network security, secrets management, or infrastructure vulnerability management.
- Experience writing code or automation in Python, Go, Java, or a similar programming language.
- Experience reviewing system designs, infrastructure changes, or architecture proposals and driving actionable security outcomes.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD tooling such as Terraform, Helm, GitHub Actions, or similar technologies.
- Experience investigating and resolving moderately complex production or security issues using logs, metrics, and debugging tools.
- Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly, with an understanding of security considerations such as sensitive data exposure, unsafe automation, access boundaries, or insecure use of generated code and infrastructure changes.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience building preventative guardrails or automated controls that are adopted by multiple engineering teams.
- Familiarity with production access control patterns for engineers and service identities.
- Experience with Kubernetes, service-to-service trust models, workload identity, or runtime security controls.
- Experience improving cloud posture management, hardening baselines, or drift detection programs.
- Familiarity with security considerations for AI-assisted engineering workflows, including code generation or code review tooling.
- Experience partnering with Risk, Compliance, or Audit teams in a regulated environment.
- Security certifications such as AWS Security Specialty, GCP Professional Cloud Security Engineer, CISSP, or equivalent practical expertise.
Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote
Time zone requirements The team operates on all continental US time zones.
Travel requirements As a digital first company, the majority of your work can be accomplished remotely. The majority of our employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S or Canada (outside of Quebec) but are expected to spend high quality time in-person collaborating via regular onsites and in-person meetings. The onsite cadence varies depending on the team and role; most teams meet once or twice per quarter for 2-4 consecutive days at a time.
What you'll love
At Upstart, our benefits are designed to support your health, financial well-being, family, and personal growth. Here's what you can expect:
- Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees
- Affordable medical, dental, and vision coverage, with multiple plan options - Upstart covers 90% to 100% of the cost depending on the plans you choose
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans
- Income protection benefits, including company-paid Basic Life, AD&D, and Short- and Long-Term Disability coverage, with options to purchase supplemental coverage
- Paid time off, sick and safe time, and company holidays
- Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments
- Family-centered benefits through Carrot and Cleo, supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources
- Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service
- Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you
- Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from
- Connection and community through team events and onsites, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our four offices, located in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all, we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices.
If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please email candidate_accommodations@upstart.com
About Upstart
At Upstart, we're united by a mission that matters: to radically reduce the cost and complexity of borrowing for all Americans. Every day, we bring creativity, experimentation, and advanced AI to reshape access to credit, helping millions move forward financially with clarity and confidence.
As the leading AI lending marketplace, we partner with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through technology that's both radically intelligent and deeply human. Our platform runs over one million predictions per borrower using more than 1,800 signals, powering smarter, fairer decisions for millions of customers. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress.
We're proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn't mean distant. We're intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you'll have the support to work in the way that works best for you.
If you're energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we'd love to hear from you.
The Team
Upstart's Infrastructure Security team is focused on securing the cloud, compute, platform, and deployment layers that run our products. We believe security should enable fast, safe delivery through strong engineering fundamentals, automation, and secure-by-default patterns. Our team partners closely with platform, infrastructure, and product engineering to reduce risk in areas such as cloud IAM, Kubernetes and container security, network controls, secrets management, infrastructure-as-code, and production vulnerability management.
As a Security Engineer II at Upstart, you will help design, build, and improve security controls that protect our production infrastructure and developer platforms. You will partner with engineers across infrastructure, platform, and product teams to identify risks, review designs, automate preventative controls, and improve the security of the systems our products run on. This role is well suited for an engineer who can independently lead medium-sized projects, troubleshoot moderately complex security problems, and deliver durable improvements that make Upstart's infrastructure more secure by default.
How you'll make an impact
- Design and implement security controls for cloud, platform, and deployment systems, with a focus on secure defaults and durable risk reduction.
- Partner with platform, SRE, and infrastructure teams to review architecture and infrastructure changes, identify security risks, and drive practical remediation plans.
- Build and improve automation for infrastructure security, including controls for cloud IAM, Kubernetes and container environments, secrets handling, and infrastructure-as-code workflows.
- Identify and remediate systemic weaknesses such as misconfigurations, exposed services, weak trust boundaries, and insecure defaults in production environments.
- Support infrastructure vulnerability management by helping prioritize findings, validate fixes, and improve how issues are detected and prevented over time.
- Help assess and improve security controls for AI-assisted developer workflows and GenAI-enabled systems, including agentic tooling, coding assistants, and internal AI integrations that interact with production or sensitive environments.
- Respond to production security issues, investigate root causes using logs, dashboards, and system context, and contribute follow-up improvements that strengthen the platform.
- Contribute to team effectiveness by documenting patterns, participating in design and code reviews, and helping raise the security quality bar across engineering.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree and 3+ years of experience in security engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related software engineering role.
- Experience securing or operating cloud-native infrastructure in AWS or a similar cloud environment.
- Experience with one or more of the following domains: cloud IAM, Kubernetes/container security, network security, secrets management, or infrastructure vulnerability management.
- Experience writing code or automation in Python, Go, Java, or a similar programming language.
- Experience reviewing system designs, infrastructure changes, or architecture proposals and driving actionable security outcomes.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD tooling such as Terraform, Helm, GitHub Actions, or similar technologies.
- Experience investigating and resolving moderately complex production or security issues using logs, metrics, and debugging tools.
- Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly, with an understanding of security considerations such as sensitive data exposure, unsafe automation, access boundaries, or insecure use of generated code and infrastructure changes.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience building preventative guardrails or automated controls that are adopted by multiple engineering teams.
- Familiarity with production access control patterns for engineers and service identities.
- Experience with Kubernetes, service-to-service trust models, workload identity, or runtime security controls.
- Experience improving cloud posture management, hardening baselines, or drift detection programs.
- Familiarity with security considerations for AI-assisted engineering workflows, including code generation or code review tooling.
- Experience partnering with Risk, Compliance, or Audit teams in a regulated environment.
- Security certifications such as AWS Security Specialty, GCP Professional Cloud Security Engineer, CISSP, or equivalent practical expertise.
Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote
Time zone requirements The team operates on all continental US time zones.
Travel requirements As a digital first company, the majority of your work can be accomplished remotely. The majority of our employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S or Canada (outside of Quebec) but are expected to spend high quality time in-person collaborating via regular onsites and in-person meetings. The onsite cadence varies depending on the team and role; most teams meet once or twice per quarter for 2-4 consecutive days at a time.
What you'll love
At Upstart, our benefits are designed to support your health, financial well-being, family, and personal growth. Here's what you can expect:
- Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees
- Affordable medical, dental, and vision coverage, with multiple plan options - Upstart covers 90% to 100% of the cost depending on the plans you choose
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans
- Income protection benefits, including company-paid Basic Life, AD&D, and Short- and Long-Term Disability coverage, with options to purchase supplemental coverage
- Paid time off, sick and safe time, and company holidays
- Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments
- Family-centered benefits through Carrot and Cleo, supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources
- Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service
- Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you
- Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from
- Connection and community through team events and onsites, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our four offices, located in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all, we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices.
If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please email candidate_accommodations@upstart.com
See all OPT Infrastructure Security Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT Infrastructure Security Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as an Infrastructure Security Engineer
Lead with clearance eligibility early
Many infrastructure security roles require or prefer security clearances. Be upfront that as an OPT student you're not currently clearance-eligible. This filters out roles where sponsorship is impossible and saves time for both sides.
Highlight STEM OPT's 36-month window
Degrees in computer science, information security, or electrical engineering typically qualify for STEM OPT extension. Mentioning your 36-month authorization window directly addresses employer concerns about short work authorization timelines.
Target cloud-heavy security teams
Companies building on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud have high demand for infrastructure security engineers and a documented history of H-1B sponsorship. These environments also align well with skills common in OPT candidate backgrounds.
Get certified before you apply
Certifications like CompTIA Security+, CISSP, or AWS Security Specialty make your profile competitive with domestic candidates. Hiring managers in this field treat certifications as strong proxies for hands-on readiness in a short interview window.
Focus your resume on infrastructure-specific tools
Generic security experience won't stand out. Emphasize specific tools like Terraform, Ansible, Palo Alto firewalls, or SIEM platforms. Employers filling infrastructure security roles want candidates who can contribute to existing tech stacks immediately.
Research employers' H-1B filing history before applying
Check which companies have consistently filed H-1B petitions for security engineering roles using public OFLC disclosure data. Applying to proven sponsors dramatically improves your odds of finding a role that converts to long-term status.
Infrastructure Security Engineer OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Do Infrastructure Security Engineer jobs qualify for STEM OPT extension?
Yes, in most cases. If your degree is in computer science, cybersecurity, information systems, or a related STEM field, your infrastructure security role will typically qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, giving you up to 36 months total. Your degree must appear on the STEM Designated Degree Program List, and your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify.
Do infrastructure security employers commonly sponsor H-1B visas?
Yes. Large technology companies, financial institutions, and cloud service providers regularly sponsor H-1B visas for infrastructure security engineers. The role typically qualifies as a specialty occupation given its degree requirements in computer science or a related field. You can browse infrastructure security roles from verified sponsoring employers on Migrate Mate.
Can I work in infrastructure security if a role mentions a security clearance requirement?
It depends on whether the clearance is required or preferred. Most OPT students are not eligible for U.S. security clearances, which typically require U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residence. If a posting lists clearance as required, the role is almost certainly not accessible to you. Roles where clearance is listed as preferred but not required are worth pursuing.
What counts as a qualifying employer for STEM OPT in this field?
Your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and the work must be directly related to your degree. For infrastructure security engineers, roles at technology companies, consulting firms, financial services companies, and healthcare organizations commonly satisfy both requirements. Government contractors may also qualify unless the specific position requires a clearance that restricts non-citizens.
How do I find Infrastructure Security Engineer jobs that are open to OPT candidates?
The most efficient approach is to search platforms that filter specifically for visa-friendly employers. Migrate Mate is built for F-1 OPT students and surfaces infrastructure security roles from employers with a demonstrated record of sponsoring work visas. This removes the guesswork of cold-applying to companies that may not sponsor at all.