Staff Application Security Engineer

Vestwell is seeking a Staff Application Security Engineer to help secure NestJS applications and the identity integrations that power its products. The role spans application security across the software development lifecycle and ownership of security for OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect implementations, both as an identity provider and as a relying party.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze NestJS and TypeScript applications for vulnerabilities related to authentication, authorization, input validation, injection, session management, API security, business-logic flaws, and data protection.
• Define and evolve secure development patterns for NestJS, including guards, interceptors, middleware, decorators, validation, error handling, logging, configuration, and dependency management.
• Own or contribute to the security architecture of OIDC capabilities when operating as an identity provider, including authorization, token, user-info, discovery, key-set, and logout endpoints.
• Own or contribute to the security architecture of OIDC capabilities when operating as a relying party, including client registration, redirect handling, authorization-code flows, token exchange, session establishment, and logout.
• Design, review, and assess OAuth 2.0 and OIDC flows, including authorization code with PKCE, refresh tokens, client authentication, scopes, consent, state, nonce, redirect URI validation, token lifetimes, and key rotation.
• Help define and enforce authorization models using RBAC and, where appropriate, claims-based or policy-based access control.
• Review access-control boundaries across services, APIs, tenants, users, roles, permissions, and administrative functions.
• Lead or participate in threat modeling, security design reviews, architecture reviews, and secure code reviews.
• Build security requirements, reusable libraries, reference implementations, and developer guidance that reduce recurring risk.
• Improve security testing and detection using SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, secret scanning, API testing, dependency monitoring, and targeted security testing.
• Partner with engineering teams to remediate vulnerabilities, prioritize findings by exploitability and business impact, and validate fixes.
• Monitor relevant application and identity security signals, support incident investigations, and contribute to playbooks for account takeover, token compromise, authorization bypass, credential abuse, and related events.
• Help maintain security documentation, standards, risk exceptions, and audit evidence needed for audits and customer assurance.
• Stay current on application security, identity security, OAuth/OIDC, browser security, API security, cloud security, and emerging attack techniques.

Required Qualifications

• Professional experience in application security, product security, software engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• Strong experience securing Node.js and TypeScript applications; hands-on experience with NestJS is required or highly preferred.
• Deep understanding of OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, including common implementation pitfalls and secure deployment patterns.
• Practical experience with both IdP and RP implementations, integrations, or security assessments.
• Strong understanding of authentication and authorization concepts, including RBAC, least privilege, separation of duties, claims, scopes, permissions, sessions, tokens, and service-to-service access.
• Ability to review code and architecture across APIs, web applications, background jobs, and distributed services.
• Experience with web and API security risks, including OWASP Top 10, OWASP API Security Top 10, broken access control, SSRF, injection, XSS, CSRF, insecure deserialization, request forgery, misconfiguration, and supply-chain risk.
• Familiarity with secure token handling, JWT validation, key management, JWKS, signing algorithms, rotation, revocation, and token storage considerations.
• Experience integrating security into CI/CD and developer workflows without unnecessary friction.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain security risks and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• A pragmatic, collaborative approach to identify meaningful risk, propose proportional controls, and support implementation.

Technologies

• NestJS, TypeScript, Node.js
• OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth 2.1, PKCE, JWT, JWKS
• RBAC
• SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, secret scanning, API testing, dependency monitoring
• Burp Suite, Semgrep, CodeQL, Snyk, Dependabot, OWASP ZAP
• OWASP ASVS, OWASP SAMM
• NIST SSDF, NIST 800-63

Preferred / Additional Experience

• Experience with OAuth 2.1 guidance, FAPI, PAR, JAR, DPoP, sender-constrained tokens, or other advanced OAuth security patterns.
• Experience with identity platforms or libraries such as Auth0, Okta, Keycloak, Cognito, Azure AD/Entra ID, or comparable systems.
• Experience with SAML integrations for single sign-on solutions.
• Experience with API gateways, service meshes, microservices, event-driven systems, and cloud-native deployments.
• Familiarity with containers, infrastructure as code, secrets management, and cloud IAM.
• Familiarity with security tooling such as Burp Suite, Semgrep, CodeQL, Snyk, Dependabot, OWASP ZAP, or equivalent tools.
• Familiarity with security standards and guidance such as OWASP ASVS, OWASP SAMM, NIST SSDF, NIST 800-63, and relevant OAuth/OIDC specifications.
• Experience conducting penetration tests, adversarial reviews, or purple-team exercises.
• Relevant security certifications or equivalent demonstrated experience.

Compensation

• Expected base salary range: $190,000 - $200,000 base.
• Eligibility to participate in the Company Bonus Pool.
• Eligibility to receive new hire equity in the Company.
• Salary bands are based on NY and other similar metro areas and may differ based on the final role location.

Work Model and Location

This role is based in the Scottsdale, AZ office with a hybrid work model. The role may also be based in the New York City, Austin, King of Prussia, or Scottsdale office as part of Vestwell’s hybrid in-office operation.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits
• Generous time off
• Employee Wellbeing Committee
• Hybrid work model with access to offices in Midtown Manhattan, Austin, King of Prussia, and Scottsdale
• Competitive 401(k) plan

Interview Process

• 1-2 introductory conversations to learn about your background and interests, and to learn more about Vestwell and the team.
• Role-dependent steps that typically include a skills or experience-based assessment such as a coding interview, portfolio review, or a deeper discussion of relevant experience.
• Successful candidates move on to a virtual or in-person interview panel.
• Before an offer, Vestwell completes a reference check with a current or former manager and a peer.
• The process emphasizes transparency, clear communication, and minimizing surprises.

Privacy Policy / Communications

Recruiting correspondence will only come from [email protected]. Any other domain not ending in vestwell.com is not the recruiting team. Vestwell also provides a Privacy Policy and California Privacy Rights Act information for eligible residents.