STEM OPT Security Software Engineer Jobs
Security Software Engineer roles qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension if your degree falls under an eligible CIP code in computer science, cybersecurity, or a related engineering field. Employers must be enrolled in E-Verify, and you'll need a signed I-983 training plan before your extension starts.
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Get Access To All JobsLocation:
San Jose
Team:
Security
Employment Type:
Regular
Job Code:
A61751C
Responsibilities
The Security Engineering team at ByteDance builds and operates the core systems that protect one of the world's largest internet platforms and its global user community. We tackle challenges that span threat detection and response (TDR), infrastructure protection, and the emerging frontier of AI and LLM system security — all at the scale of TikTok and ByteDance. Our engineers combine deep systems-building expertise with strong security fundamentals to deliver high-impact, production-grade solutions in a fast-paced, globally distributed environment. If you thrive on ownership, love solving ambiguous problems, and want your work to safeguard products used by billions, this is the team.
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.
Online Assessment
Candidates who pass resume screening will be invited to participate in Our Company's technical online assessment.
Responsibilities
- Build and iterate on threat detection, prevention, and response (TDR) systems for large-scale platforms, critical infrastructure, and globally distributed endpoints.
- Support the security of LLM-based systems and AI agent systems by identifying attack surfaces, developing defensive mechanisms, and improving safe deployment.
- Contribute to rapid exploration in LLM and AI agent security through prototyping, evaluation, security analysis, machine learning, and AI agentic approach.
- Develop, test, deploy, and improve distributed security systems with a focus on reliability, observability, and scalability.
- Work with cross-functional teams to translate product and security needs into engineering solutions and deliver impactful security capabilities.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's/ Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related discipline.
- Solid fundamentals in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, operating systems, computer networks, and databases.
- Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Go, Java, Rust, Python, or C++, with the ability to write clean, reliable, and maintainable code.
- Foundational understanding of back-end development, distributed systems, or cloud-native infrastructure through coursework, internships, research, or project experience.
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to think critically, break down complex problems, and learn quickly in a fast-evolving technical environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Internship, research, or project experience building AI/LLM applications, AI agent systems, or related back-end and distributed systems.
- Familiarity with core security concepts such as authentication, authorization, threat detection, vulnerability mitigation, and secure system design.
- Research experience, or strong technical understanding, in the security of LLM-based systems and AI agent architectures, including areas such as prompt injection, tool misuse, model abuse, and agent workflow security.
- Demonstrated interest in security and emerging technologies through coursework, competitions, open-source contributions, personal projects, or publications.
Job Information
Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $316800 annually.
Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
-
Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
-
Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
-
Exercising sound judgment.
About us
Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.
Why Join ByteDance
Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.
As ByteDancers, we strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our Company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
ByteDance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
Reasonable Accommodation
ByteDance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at
https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
Location:
San Jose
Team:
Security
Employment Type:
Regular
Job Code:
A61751C
Responsibilities
The Security Engineering team at ByteDance builds and operates the core systems that protect one of the world's largest internet platforms and its global user community. We tackle challenges that span threat detection and response (TDR), infrastructure protection, and the emerging frontier of AI and LLM system security — all at the scale of TikTok and ByteDance. Our engineers combine deep systems-building expertise with strong security fundamentals to deliver high-impact, production-grade solutions in a fast-paced, globally distributed environment. If you thrive on ownership, love solving ambiguous problems, and want your work to safeguard products used by billions, this is the team.
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.
Online Assessment
Candidates who pass resume screening will be invited to participate in Our Company's technical online assessment.
Responsibilities
- Build and iterate on threat detection, prevention, and response (TDR) systems for large-scale platforms, critical infrastructure, and globally distributed endpoints.
- Support the security of LLM-based systems and AI agent systems by identifying attack surfaces, developing defensive mechanisms, and improving safe deployment.
- Contribute to rapid exploration in LLM and AI agent security through prototyping, evaluation, security analysis, machine learning, and AI agentic approach.
- Develop, test, deploy, and improve distributed security systems with a focus on reliability, observability, and scalability.
- Work with cross-functional teams to translate product and security needs into engineering solutions and deliver impactful security capabilities.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's/ Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related discipline.
- Solid fundamentals in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, operating systems, computer networks, and databases.
- Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Go, Java, Rust, Python, or C++, with the ability to write clean, reliable, and maintainable code.
- Foundational understanding of back-end development, distributed systems, or cloud-native infrastructure through coursework, internships, research, or project experience.
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to think critically, break down complex problems, and learn quickly in a fast-evolving technical environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Internship, research, or project experience building AI/LLM applications, AI agent systems, or related back-end and distributed systems.
- Familiarity with core security concepts such as authentication, authorization, threat detection, vulnerability mitigation, and secure system design.
- Research experience, or strong technical understanding, in the security of LLM-based systems and AI agent architectures, including areas such as prompt injection, tool misuse, model abuse, and agent workflow security.
- Demonstrated interest in security and emerging technologies through coursework, competitions, open-source contributions, personal projects, or publications.
Job Information
Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $316800 annually.
Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
-
Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
-
Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
-
Exercising sound judgment.
About us
Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.
Why Join ByteDance
Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.
As ByteDancers, we strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our Company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
ByteDance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
Reasonable Accommodation
ByteDance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at
https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
See all STEM OPT Security Software Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new STEM OPT Security Software Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Security Software Engineer
Verify your CIP code before applying
Check that your degree's CIP code appears on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List. Cybersecurity and computer science programs typically qualify, but information systems degrees sometimes don't, so confirm with your DSO before accepting an offer.
Filter employers by E-Verify enrollment status
Before sending applications, confirm each employer is enrolled in E-Verify using the E-Verify employer search. Security software roles often appear at defense contractors and regulated financial firms, which are enrolled by compliance requirements, making them reliable targets.
Align your I-983 training plan to the role
Work with your hiring manager to map the Security Software Engineer job duties to specific learning objectives in the I-983. USCIS requires a demonstrable connection between your degree field and the role's technical scope, so vague job descriptions create extension risk.
Target employers with cleared or regulated environments
Use Migrate Mate to find Security Software Engineer openings filtered for STEM OPT-eligible employers. Defense, fintech, and healthcare IT employers often have structured onboarding for work-authorization candidates and existing E-Verify infrastructure already in place.
Address security clearance timing during offer negotiation
Many Security Software Engineer roles list clearance eligibility as preferred rather than required at hire. Clarify during the offer stage whether the role requires an active clearance on day one, since sponsoring your STEM OPT extension and initiating a clearance process run in parallel.
Submit your STEM OPT extension application 90 days early
File your STEM OPT extension application with USCIS up to 90 days before your initial OPT expires. If your I-765 is pending on your OPT end date, your cap-gap protection keeps your work authorization continuous while USCIS adjudicates the extension.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a cybersecurity degree qualify for the STEM OPT extension for Security Software Engineer roles?
Cybersecurity degrees typically qualify if the program's CIP code appears on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List. Common qualifying codes include 11.1003 (Computer and Information Systems Security) and related computer engineering fields. Confirm your specific CIP code with your DSO before filing, since the degree program determines eligibility, not the job title itself.
What E-Verify requirement applies to employers hiring Security Software Engineer STEM OPT students?
Any employer hiring you on a STEM OPT extension must be enrolled in E-Verify at the worksite level where you'll work, not just at the company's headquarters. You can verify enrollment through the E-Verify employer search before accepting an offer. Without active E-Verify enrollment, the employer cannot legally employ you on the 24-month extension.
How should the I-983 training plan reflect Security Software Engineer job duties?
The I-983 must connect your specific engineering or computer science degree to the role's technical responsibilities. For Security Software Engineer positions, this means documenting learning objectives around secure code development, vulnerability assessment, or systems architecture that directly relate to your degree field. USCIS reviews this connection during adjudication, so generic job descriptions weaken the filing.
How does cap-gap protection work if my initial OPT expires while my STEM OPT extension is pending?
If you file your STEM OPT extension application before your initial OPT EAD expires, cap-gap protection automatically extends your work authorization while USCIS processes the I-765. You can continue working as a Security Software Engineer during this period without interruption. Carry both your expired EAD and your I-20 with the STEM OPT extension recommendation as proof of authorized status.
Where can I find Security Software Engineer jobs from employers already set up to hire STEM OPT students?
Migrate Mate lists Security Software Engineer roles filtered for employers with E-Verify enrollment and a history of hiring F-1 students on OPT. Searching there saves you from applying to companies that will stall or withdraw offers once they learn the E-Verify and I-983 requirements apply. You can also cross-reference the O*NET occupation profile to identify which degree fields align with the role's defined skill set.