Technical Controls Validation Specialist, Offensive Security Operations - USDS

Why Join Us
Creation is the core of TikTok's purpose. Our platform is built to help imaginations thrive. This is doubly true of the teams that make TikTok possible.
Together, we inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we all believe in and aim towards achieving every day.
To us, every challenge, no matter how difficult, is an opportunity; to learn, to innovate, and to grow as one team. Status quo? Never. Courage? Always.
At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That's how we drive impact - for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
Join us.

About the Team
TikTok Offensive Security Operation team is seeking a Security Engineer (Security Posture Analysis). This role is highly technical and solution focused. The individual contributor (IC) will utilize their deep knowledge and skills in offensive and defensive disciplines to assess risks and the effectiveness of protective, detective, and responsive security controls against adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) within the TikTok USDS environment. This requires an IC who can work cross-functionally with security monitoring and response teams, administrators, users, and leadership to help them understand the risks and recommend actionable solutions.

To succeed in this role, the candidate must have strong skills in penetration testing or red teaming as well as a deep understanding of threat detection and incident response, threat detection engineering, and/or DevSecOps. The candidate should possess breadth and depth of knowledge in secure coding principles, security architecture, hardening of operating systems, identity and access management, networking protocols, firewalls, databases and middleware applications, threat hunting, forensics, scripting and programming.

In order to enhance collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, among other things, at this time, our organization follows a hybrid work schedule that requires employees to work in the office 3 days a week, or as directed by their manager/department. We regularly review our hybrid work model, and the specific requirements may change at any time.

Responsibilities:
- Execute offensive test cases against controls in the environment: 1) Determine if the control presents risk to the environment, 2) determine its effectiveness against offensive test cases, and 3) provide reasonable and actionable recommendations to resolve risks and improve the controls effectiveness.
- Perform threat modeling against systems and controls to understand underlying architecture and focus on risky areas, develop security testing requirements and use-cases, identify potential threats/vulnerabilities/misconfigurations, quantify criticality to help prioritize and plan for remediation methods.
- Utilize attacker tools, tactics, and procedures to perform analysis and identify vulnerabilities, mis-configurations, and gaps in protective, detective, and responsive security controls.
- After an assessment, consult and provide guidance on recommending solutions around gaps in security controls and control enhancements.
- Synthesize and report findings, develop remediation recommendations, and track implementation through to completion.
- Look for automation opportunities to automate testing and monitoring efficiency of controls on an ongoing basis.
- Operate breach & attack simulation tools to assess the effectiveness of security controls.

Qualifications

- Experience with at least one or more of the following: penetration testing, red teaming, purple teaming, threat hunting, or threat detection engineering
- Experience with reading, writing, and editing code written in various programming languages, such as Go, Python, Bash, C/C++, C#, and Java
- Strong understanding of protective, detective, and responsive security controls: Endpoint detection & response, security information & event management (SIEM), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), next-generation firewalls, etc.
- Experience in testing Operating Systems: Windows, *nix, MacOS, Android, iOS
- Experience with tools like Burp Suite Pro, Splunk, SentinelOne, Nessus, Metasploit, Safebreach, Cobalt Strike, SQLMap, Frida, Android Studio, XCode, MobSF, Drozer
- Knowledge of various cloud platforms (preferably OCI, Azure and AWS) and frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK and OWASP Top 10 Web and Mobile
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; you are clear, concise, confident, and unafraid to present your ideas

Preferred Qualifications:
- Industry certifications such as OSCP, OSCE, OSWE, GPEN, GCIH, GWAPT, CISA, CDPSE, CISSP, CISM, CRIS or GXPN
- Experience with bypassing security controls and conducting reverse engineering on other controls such as Endpoint Defense and Response (EDR) solutions to understand how adversaries can defeat it
- Contributions to the security community such as research, public CVEs, bug-bounty recognitions, open-source projects, blogs, publications, etc
- Deep understanding of security monitoring and response platforms and tools such as endpoint detection & response (EDR), security information & event management (SIEM) such as Splunk and Elastic Stack, and cloud access security broker (CASB)
- Experience with server administration, TCP/IP networking, vulnerability identification and exploitation, vulnerability exploit code development, offensive security operation coordination and communication, vulnerability tracking and remediation, mobile testing
- Experience with methodologies on both static and dynamic analysis for different application types and platforms

D&I Statement
TikTok 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 TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. 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.

Accommodation Statement
TikTok 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://shorturl.at/ktJP6

Data Security Statement
This role requires the ability to work with and support systems designed to protect sensitive data and information. As such, this role will be subject to strict national security-related screening.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $137750 - $237500 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.

Our company benefits are designed to convey company culture and values, to create an efficient and inspiring work environment, and to support our employees to give their best in both work and life. We offer the following benefits to eligible employees:

We cover 100% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, approximately 75% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account(HSA) with a company match. As well as Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life and AD&D insurance plans. In addition to Flexible Spending Account(FSA) Options like Health Care, Limited Purpose and Dependent Care.

Our time off and leave plans are: 10 paid holidays per year plus 17 days of Paid Personal Time Off (PPTO) (prorated upon hire and increased by tenure) and 10 paid sick days per year as well as 12 weeks of paid Parental leave and 8 weeks of paid Supplemental Disability.

We also provide generous benefits like mental and emotional health benefits through our EAP and Lyra. A 401K company match, gym and cellphone service reimbursements. The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.