Security Engineer - Detection & Response

Overview:You are an AI-powered Security Engineer responsible for identifying and responding to malicious or suspicious activity across our environment with speed and confidence. This role leads the engineering work behind these capabilities—designing scalable systems to detect threats and trigger automated responses. You will integrate AI into detection and response workflows to accelerate rule development, streamline enrichment, and reduce investigation time, with human validation ensuring precision and alignment.

As a cloud-first SaaS company relying on a broad portfolio of SaaS tools, we generate large volumes of event data across identity, endpoint, infrastructure, and collaboration systems. The scale and complexity of this telemetry demand improved detection engineering and automation.

This is a platform engineering role focused on building and operating a modern detection pipeline integrated with security automation workflows. You will use Python, structured data, and widely adopted frameworks for mapping adversary behaviors and response logic to drive faster, more effective security outcomes. This role is not a support or triage position but a strategic contributor to our security infrastructure.

About Nerdy:

At Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) - the company behind Varsity Tutors - we’re redrawing the blueprint of learning. Our Live + AI™ platform fuses real-time human expertise with proprietary generative-AI systems, setting a new bar for measurable academic impact at global scale. We recruit the kind of technologists and operators you’d bet on as solo founders - people who turn ambiguous problems into shipping code, iterate faster than markets move, and compound their advantage with every data point. In an era where great employees can deliver 10-times the leverage of the merely good, we back those who play to win.

Fortune favors the bold. Join us.

How we compete:

• AI-Native at every levelFrom the CEO to day-one hires, everyone builds and ships with generative AI. If you’re not wielding AI, you’re not done.
• Entrepreneurial velocityMove at founder speed, prototype in hours, and measure in real user outcomes. Slow teams die.
• Free-market rigorIdeas rise or fall on merit and results - no committees, no politics, no cap on upside.
• Full-stack ownershipYou design, build, and run what you ship; accountability is a feature, not a bug.
• Reward for contributionPay rises with impact, not years. Outstanding results earn outsized rewards. We evaluate both what you achieve and how you achieve it: living our leadership principles and using AI effectively are formally measured and rewarded.
• Relentless explorationPush the frontier of generative AI in live learning and - because only the paranoid survive - questioning every legacy assumption along the way.
• Is ApoliticalYou stay focused on mission-aligned outcomes, not distractions or unrelated causes.

If you’re a technically minded builder who thrives on open competition, personal responsibility, and the chance to redefine how the world learns - while continually stretching the limits of what generative AI can do - come do the most ambitious and rewarding work of your career here. Learn more atnerdy.com.Nerdy’s shareholder letters below explain our latest products and strategy:

• Q2-2025 Shareholder Letter
• Q1-2025 Shareholder Letter
• Q4-2024 Shareholder Letter

Qualifications:Required:

• 5+ years in security engineering, detection engineering, or threat-focused automation roles.
• Strong knowledge of MITRE ATTCK framework, detection logic, and IOC/IOA patterns.
• Familiarity with MITRE D3FEND for defense-in-depth and response playbook design.
• Hands-on experience designing, deploying, or managing SIEM platforms (vendor-neutral mindset preferred).
• Strong Python scripting skills for integrations, enrichment logic, and playbook development.
• Experience working with structured data formats such as JSON, YAML, logs, and metrics.
• Familiarity with SaaS logging constraints and cloud-native telemetry, preferably AWS.
• Understanding of event-driven architecture and API-driven integrations.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to accelerate scripting, generate or translate detection rules, or assist with enrichment workflows, always with human validation for accuracy.
• Comfortable working autonomously and cross-functionally to deliver reliable detection outcomes.

Preferred:

• Experience building or maintaining detection pipelines using Elastic, Panther, or similar platforms.
• Experience with detection-as-code practices, managing detection logic as version-controlled code with testing and CI/CD.
• Experience writing detection rules in formats such as Sigma, including contributing to open-source or internal detection libraries. E
• Experience with MITRE frameworks: ATTCK (adversary techniques), D3FEND (defensive techniques), and ATLAS (AI-related attacks).
• Experience with OWASP guidance on application telemetry and detection (e.g., AppSensor, Logging Cheat Sheet). U

Responsibilities:

• Implement and operate detection systems, including a scalable cloud-native SIEM platform supporting ingestion from identity, endpoint, SaaS, and infrastructure sources.
• Develop and maintain detection coverage maps aligned to MITRE ATTCK techniques, threat modeling, and incident history.
• Leverage AI to accelerate detection rule creation, enrichment, and triage insights, and conduct AI-assisted threat hunting to surface novel behaviors and codify them as deterministic detections.
• Build detection observability tools and dashboards to monitor rule effectiveness, alert volumes, and system performance.
• Design and implement SOAR workflows and automated response playbooks with built-in observability, rollback, and reliability controls.
• Leverage AI within SOAR for adaptive enrichment, workflow generation, and documentation, while continuously tuning automation based on incident outcomes.
• Lead incident response activities as part of the incident commander rotation, and drive continuous improvement of runbooks and playbooks using lessons learned and AI support for timelines and summaries.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and business stakeholders to embed detection and response into system design, operational processes, and organizational priorities.

Unlock Your Full Potential at Nerdy:

Join our worldwide team—work from home, get great pay, and help shape the future of learning. Here’s what you get:

• Competitive USD Compensation: Enjoy a market-leading rate paid in U.S. dollars.
• 100% Remote (Home Country Only): Work from anywhere in your home country—no relocation required, no borders crossed.
• Flexible Time Off: Our flexible PTO lets you recharge on your own terms and when you need it the most.
• Local Holiday Pay: We honor your nation’s official holidays with paid time off—celebrate what matters to you.
• Continuous Learning: Get a free, all-inclusive learning membership for you and your household—including 1-on-1 tutoring hours, unlimited on-demand classes, and access to our full suite of learning products and services.
• Supercharge with AI: Gain exclusive access to cutting-edge AI tools that boost your productivity, making you feel almost super-human (cape not included).
• Feedback-Rich, Collaborative Culture: Tap into regular training, peer reviews, and a team that treats every team member as a vital collaborator and owner in our success.
• Make a Global Impact: Your expertise fuels an innovative platform used by learners around the world—be part of something transformative.

The Bottom Line:

If you're driven by impact, energized by ownership, and excited to help shape what’s next, you’ll thrive here. We move fast, think big, and reward those who deliver. This isn’t a traditional corporate environment - it’s a place to do the most meaningful work of your career.