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Detection Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Guardant Health

Senior Security Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$134K - $184K/yr

Own and enhance detection engineering workflows, including testing, tuning, false-positive reduction, and coverage analysis. * Manage and optimize EDR tooling (e.g., CrowdStrike), including telemetry ...

xAI

Detection & Response Engineer

Palo Alto, CA

$200K - $340K/yr

We are seeking a skilled and proactive Detection & Response Engineer to join our security team. In this critical role, you will be responsible for detecting, investigating, and responding to security ...

Guardant Health

Senior Security Engineer

Palo Alto, CA

$134K - $184K/yr

Own and enhance detection engineering workflows, including testing, tuning, false-positive reduction, and coverage analysis. * Manage and optimize EDR tooling (e.g., CrowdStrike), including telemetry ...

xAI

Detection & Response Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$200K - $340K/yr

We are seeking a skilled and proactive Detection & Response Engineer to join our security team. In this critical role, you will be responsible for detecting, investigating, and responding to security ...

xAI

Detection & Response Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

They are seeking a skilled Detection & Response Engineer to join their security team, responsible for detecting, investigating, and responding to security incidents across their cloud-native and AI ...

Sandisk

Senior Security Engineer

Milpitas, CA · On-site

$130K - $179K/yr

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR/XDR) * Email Security Engineering * Vulnerability Scan Engineering * Act as technical owner for SOC platforms, including alignment with architecture requirements ...

xAI

Detection & Response Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

They are looking for a proactive Detection & Response Engineer to monitor, investigate, and respond to security incidents in their cloud-native and AI-focused infrastructure, ensuring the protection ...

Sandisk

Senior Security Engineer

Milpitas, CA · On-site

$130K - $179K/yr

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR/XDR) * Email Security Engineering * Vulnerability Scan Engineering * Act as technical owner for SOC platforms, including alignment with architecture requirements ...

Sandisk

Senior Security Engineer

Milpitas, CA · On-site

$131K - $217K/yr

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR/XDR) * Email Security Engineering * Vulnerability Scan Engineering * Act as technical owner for SOC platforms, including alignment with architecture requirements ...

Tanium

IT Security Engineer

Emeryville, CA · On-site

Required : • 3-5 years of experience in a security engineering, security operations, or detection engineering role • Experience securing AI/ML workloads or applying AI-assisted tooling to ...

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All JobsDetection Engineer JobsDetection Engineer Jobs in California

Detection Engineer information

See California salary details

$10.8K

$153.2K

$188.5K

How much do detection engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 12, 2026, the average yearly pay for detection engineer in California is $153,151.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $140,029.00 and $168,917.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a Detection Engineer do?

A Detection Engineer is responsible for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating security threats by developing detection rules, monitoring security systems, and responding to potential incidents. They work with security tools like SIEMs, EDRs, and IDS/IPS to detect malicious activity and improve threat detection capabilities. Additionally, they collaborate with security teams to enhance defensive strategies and automate detection processes.

What kind of projects or tasks does a Detection Engineer typically work on?

As a Detection Engineer, you can expect to work on designing, implementing, and refining security detection strategies to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities in company systems. Daily responsibilities often include developing detection logic, analyzing security alerts, conducting threat hunting exercises, and collaborating with incident response teams. You may also work closely with other cybersecurity professionals to evaluate the effectiveness of existing security measures and recommend improvements. This dynamic environment offers opportunities to work on complex technical challenges while directly contributing to the organization’s overall security posture.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Detection Engineer position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Detection Engineer, you need strong analytical skills, a solid understanding of cybersecurity principles, and experience with threat detection and response, often supported by a degree in computer science or a related field. Proficiency with security information and event management (SIEM) tools, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and certifications like GIAC or CISSP are commonly required. Attention to detail, proactive problem-solving abilities, and effective communication enhance effectiveness in this role. These skills are crucial as Detection Engineers must accurately identify security threats, collaborate with teams, and minimize potential risks to the organization.

What are the most commonly searched types of Detection Engineer jobs in California? The most popular types of Detection Engineer jobs in California are:
What are popular job titles related to Detection Engineer jobs in California? For Detection Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Detection Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Detection Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Detection Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Detection Engineer job openings:
Detection Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Detection Engineer job openings in California as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 99% Full Time, and 1% Part Time. Highlights an 87% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $153,151 per year, or $73.6 per hour.
Senior Security Engineer

Senior Security Engineer

Guardant Health

Palo Alto, CA • On-site

$134K - $184K/yr

Full-time

Posted 11 days ago

Job description

Company Description
Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant® is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visit guardanthealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook.
Position Summary:
The Senior Security Engineer, reporting to the Associate Director of Security Engineering, will be responsible for designing, building, and operating Guardant Health's security logging, detection, and response capabilities. This role is highly focused on security data engineering, SIEM architecture, detection engineering, and incident response, with a strong emphasis on cloud and endpoint visibility.
You will be a hands-on technical leader working across SOC and Security Engineering disciplines to evolve how Guardant Health detects and responds to threats. This role offers the opportunity to wear many hats - from building scalable logging pipelines and modernizing our SIEM, to crafting high-fidelity detections and responding to real-world incidents. You'll also help shape our emerging strategy around AI-powered defense, including how we securely log, monitor, and assess AI and agent activity across the enterprise.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
  • Design, build, and operate scalable security logging and data pipelines for on-prem, cloud, endpoint, identity, and SaaS platforms.
  • Serve as the SIEM subject matter expert, including architecture, onboarding of new log sources, data normalization, performance tuning, and cost optimization and regulatory requirements.
  • Develop and maintain high-fidelity threat detection content, including rules, analytics, and behavioral detections across endpoint, cloud, and identity data.
  • Own and enhance detection engineering workflows, including testing, tuning, false-positive reduction, and coverage analysis.
  • Manage and optimize EDR tooling (e.g., CrowdStrike), including telemetry ingestion, detections, response actions, and integrations with the SIEM.
  • Support and participate in incident response, including investigation, containment, eradication, and post-incident reviews.
  • Build dashboards, metrics, and reports to measure detection coverage, SOC effectiveness, and security posture.
  • Monitor and help secure AWS and cloud-native environments, including CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, workload logs, and SaaS integrations.
  • Evaluate and implement AI-assisted security capabilities for defense and detection, while also defining how AI systems, agents, and usage are logged, monitored, and assessed for risk.
  • Develop documentation, runbooks, and operational playbooks for SOC and security engineering workflows.
  • Partner closely with IT, cloud, infrastructure, threat & vulnerability, and security architecture teams.
  • Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership within the SOC and security engineering functions.
  • Stay current on emerging threats, detection techniques, attacker tradecraft, and security data engineering best practices.

Required Qualifications:
  • 5+ years of experience in security engineering, security operations, or detection engineering.
  • Deep hands-on experience with SIEM platforms, including building detections and managing large-scale log ingestion.
  • Strong experience migrating or modernizing SIEM and logging architectures.
  • Proven experience with EDR platforms, preferably CrowdStrike.
  • Have led SIEM migrations, including planning, data model mapping, detection parity, and validation.
  • Strong background in threat detection and incident response within a SOC environment.
  • Experience designing and operating security logging pipelines at scale.
  • Hands-on experience securing AWS and cloud environments.
  • Experience working with identity and access logs, including Okta.
  • Understanding of AI and machine-learning use cases in security, including detection, automation, and governance considerations.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience with detection engineering frameworks (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK).
  • Experience building SOAR or response automation.
  • Experience in healthcare, biotech, or other regulated environments.
  • Security certifications such as CISSP, GIAC, GCED, GCIA, or cloud security certifications.

Hybrid Work Model:This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies. Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.
The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. This range does not include benefits or, if applicable, bonus, commission, or equity. Each candidate's compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, education, job-related skills, job duties, and business need.Primary Location: Palo Alto, CAPrimary Location Base Pay Range: $130,300 - $179,200Other US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $110,755 - $152,320If the role is performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is: $117,270 - $161,280
Employee may be required to lift routine office supplies and use office equipment. Majority of the work is performed in a desk/office environment; however, there may be exposure to high noise levels, fumes, and biohazard material in the laboratory environment. Ability to sit for extended periods of time.
Guardant Health is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our hiring processes for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health conditions, or sincerely held religious beliefs. If you need support, please reach out to Peopleteam@guardanthealth.com
A background screening including criminal history is required for this role. GH will consider qualified applicants with criminal arrest or conviction histories in a manner consistent with applicable law including but not limited to the LA County Fair Chance Policies and the Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code Section 12952).
Guardant Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
To learn more about the information collected when you apply for a position at Guardant Health, Inc. and how it is used, please review our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants.
Please visit our career page at: http://www.guardanthealth.com/jobs/

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