Staff Network Security Engineer

About the role

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

We are looking for a Staff Network Security Engineer to play a critical role in securing our global network infrastructure.

As a Staff Network Security Engineer at DigitalOcean, you will join a dynamic team dedicated to revolutionizing cloud computing and AI. In this role, you will act as a key technical leader, responsible for securing our global network infrastructure by partnering with engineering teams to advise on secure architecture. This position, which reports to the Manager, Security Defense Engineering, involves architecting and building automated security tools and championing best practices to ensure our network remains resilient against evolving threats across our edge, backbone, and datacenter environments.

What You’ll Do:

Define and enforce network security architecture standards and principles to ensure our networks are architected with security as a foundational element

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to security and network engineering teams, serving as a subject matter expert on network security-related matters

Lead network security assessments, including threat modeling, intrusion detection, and protocol-level analysis to identify and mitigate sophisticated attack vectors

Develop and deploy advanced security automation, tooling, and infrastructure-as-code to continuously validate security posture and enforce compliance at scale

Collaborate with network engineers to integrate security controls and telemetry within SDN, BGP/MPLS, and network automation platforms

Participate in incident response efforts related to network security incidents

Drive the security review process for all network infrastructure or product changes, ensuring designs adhere to established security standards and best practices before deployment

Promote security best practices through documentation, tooling, and cross-team collaboration

What You’ll Add to DigitalOcean:

8-10 years of experience in network security engineering, network penetration testing, or security-focused infrastructure roles

Excellent communication skills to effectively collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, explaining complex security concepts and advocating for security best practices

Deep understanding of Layer 2/3/4 networking protocols (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, VRRP, LACP) and their security implications

Deep understanding of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack vectors and mitigation strategies, including packet filtering, rate limiting, and scrubbing services

Extensive experience in designing and building secure networks from the ground up

Experience leading projects and providing technical guidance to cross-functional teamsProficiency in scripting/programming languages such as Python or Go for automation and tooling

Familiarity with Corero, Cloudflare, Juniper, Arista, or Ciena network platforms

Strong Linux experience and familiarity with firewall, routing, and DNS security

Understanding and experience with Network Intrusion Detection principles and tooling

Knowledge of MPLS, BGP-LU, and SDN architectures from a security perspective

Hands-on experience with observability tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK stack

Comfortable with Git-based workflows and collaborative development

Bonus Skills Include:

Open-source contributions related to network security

Background in security incident response or red/blue team operations

Compensation Range:

$168,800 - $211,000

*This is a hyrbid role

JR: 2026-8009

#LI-Hybrid
Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean

We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.

We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.

We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.

We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.