Sr. Platform Engineer II (Cloud Security)

What you'll do:

We are looking for an experienced Cloud Security Engineer to define and drive our cloud and edge security strategy from the ground up. This is a greenfield opportunity to architect, implement, and evolve the security posture for our production infrastructure across GCP and Cloudflare. You’ll own security for the systems that underpin our trading infrastructure, mission-critical services that demand high performance, low latency, and 99.95%+ uptime.  

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in high-stakes environments, embraces DevSecOps principles, and understands the importance of security automation at scale. You’ll work closely with SREs, Platform Engineers, and the Security team to ensure we build secure systems by design.  

You’ll be part of the Platform Engineering team, which owns the systems and infrastructure that power NinjaTrader’s trading platform. We run entirely in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and make extensive use of Kubernetes, Terraform, and modern CI/CD pipelines to enable secure and scalable software delivery. While NinjaTrader has a centralized Security team focused on IT, governance, and compliance, this role will focus exclusively on cloud and infrastructure security from within the engineering organization. 

In this role you will: 

• Define and implement cloud and edge security architecture across GCP, Kubernetes, and Cloudflare. 
• Lead the creation and enforcement of IAM policies and role-based access controls across infrastructure and services. 
• Manage and configure Cloudflare settings including DNS zones, domains, WAF rules, bot protection, DDoS mitigation, and Zero Trust policies. 
• Design and integrate DevSecOps practices into CI/CD pipelines to ensure secure-by-default software delivery. 
• Build tooling and workflows to support “security as code”—automating policies, monitoring, and controls via Terraform and other IaC tools. 
• Monitor cloud environments for misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and active threats using GCP-native and third-party tools. 
• Partner with the centralized Security team to align cloud initiatives with company-wide risk management and compliance goals. 
• Contribute to internal threat modeling, incident response planning, and postmortem analysis from a cloud perspective. 
• Champion secure engineering best practices across teams and provide mentorship on cloud security topics. 

What you'll need:

• 8+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure and/or security engineering, with at least 3 years focused on GCP. 
• Proven track record of designing and implementing cloud security architecture in production environments. 
• Deep understanding of GCP services (IAM, VPC, GKE, SCC, Cloud Armor) and Kubernetes security. 
• Strong hands-on experience with Cloudflare, including WAF, DNS, access control, and traffic management. 
• Proficiency with Terraform and other Infrastructure-as-Code tools, including automated security guardrails. 
• Experience integrating security into CI/CD workflows and developer pipelines (DevSecOps). 
• Scripting and automation skills (e.g., Python, Bash, Go) to support tooling and infrastructure. 
• Strong knowledge of cloud threat models, vulnerability management, and secure system design is essential. 
• Familiarity with security tools such as Wiz, Security Command Center, or custom GCP monitoring solutions. 
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills; able to influence engineers and leadership across departments. 
• Bonus: Relevant certifications (e.g., GCP Professional Cloud Security Engineer, CISSP, OSCP) or experience in low-latency, high-uptime environments such as trading or financial systems. 

Bonus points for:

• Experience in the trading industry 
• Contributions to open-source projects

Compensation:

The salary range for this role will be $150,000.00 - $190,000.00 USD annually. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of up to 12%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. Additional details on our total compensation package and benefits are listed below.

Location: 
This role is based in Chicago, IL. There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
Hybrid:
For Chicago-based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

• 20 additional flex remote days annually
• 5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays