Director of Engineering, Security at Coupang

Department: Security & Privacy and Data Governance

Company Introduction

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

Role Overview

We are looking for a hands-on Director of Engineering with deep technical expertise and a passion for building secure, reliable, and scalable systems. This role combines technical architecture leadership with people and delivery management. You will lead a team of talented senior engineers while staying close to the code and system design.

Your Mission

Drive the security, quality, and reliability of our core platforms and AI systems while mentoring engineers, scaling engineering excellence, and partnering closely with product and leadership on strategic roadmaps. As our organization increasingly leverages AI, LLMs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) services, this role will define and enforce secure patterns for AI model training, hosting, and consumption at scale, ensuring innovation without compromising trust.

What You Will Do

Build and grow a high-performing team of senior/staff-level engineers across geographies, fostering autonomy, trust, and accountability.

Design and lead the architecture of secure, scalable backend systems using Java (Spring Boot) and AWS cloud-native services.

Integrate Generative AI capabilities (embeddings, RAG, LLM APIs) into product workflows responsibly and securely.

Define API security patterns and API authorization at scale for microservices and service mesh environments.

Lead design and implementation of authentication, authorization, and identity management solutions (SSO, OIDC, RBAC/ABAC, SCIM).

Champion cryptography and PKI systems, secure SDLC practices, and compliance frameworks.

Partner with leadership to deliver security-driven engineering roadmaps aligned with business priorities.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field.

8+ years in software development and security engineering.

Proven experience designing and developing large-scale distributed systems.

Expertise in Java, Spring Boot, and AWS architecture/services (EKS, S3, Lambda, RDS, IAM, KMS).

Strong knowledge of security architecture, authentication/authorization, cryptography, and PKI systems.

Preferred Qualifications

Recent hands-on experience (last 3–4 years) building secure, distributed systems at scale, with strong exposure to AI/ML development and hosting.

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) for identity and ML infrastructure.

Familiarity with Generative AI integration and secure deployment practices.

Exposure to data security principles, including encryption, secure data pipelines, and compliance frameworks.

Ability to influence technical direction and mentor engineers in security best practices.

Track record of delivering mission-critical, scalable systems in production environments.

Pay & Benefits

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for this position ranges from $159,000/year in our lowest geographic market to $351,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
Long-term/Short-term Disability
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
401K Plan with Company Match
18-21 days of the Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
12 Public Holidays
Paid Parental leave
Pre-tax commuter benefits
MTV - [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race (including traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hair styles), color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ,ancestry, national origin (including language use restrictions), age (40 and over), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, family status (including but not limited to marital or domestic partnership status), military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities or affiliations, ancestry, citizenship, family and medical leave status, status as a victim of any violent crime, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Coupang is also committed to providing a safe work environment for its employees and its consumers.   If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application of recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at  [email protected]

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