Supports cloud, application, infrastructure, container, and Kubernetes security engineering. Contributes to multi-cloud controls, IAM policies, policy-as-code guardrails, vulnerability triage, compliance evidence gathering, security automation, and secure AI system monitoring. The role also involves scripting, documentation, root-cause analysis, and collaboration with Engineering, IT, Compliance, and senior security engineers.
Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.
Why join Coupa?
- Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.
- Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.
- Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.
Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.
The Impact of an Associate Security Engineer at Coupa:
Coupa's Security Engineers keep our enterprise, product, platform, and customer data safe. As an Associate Security Engineer, you'll build your foundation in cloud, application, and infrastructure security by contributing to real, well-scoped engineering work alongside experienced teammates. You'll partner with Engineering, IT, and Compliance, learn how we build durable, automated security tooling instead of one-off fixes, and grow your root-cause analysis skills with mentorship and regular feedback.
This is a role for someone early in their security career who wants hands-on ownership of growing scope — with the support to get there.
What You'll Do:
- Support the design and implementation of multi-cloud security controls — VPC segmentation, security groups/NACLs, and least-privilege IAM policies — on well-scoped tasks, with guidance from senior engineers. Build familiarity with permission boundaries and Organizations/SCPs along the way.
- Contribute to policy as code and IaC security guardrails in CI/CD pipelines: write and tune rules, reduce false positives, and help keep pre-merge and pre-deploy checks reliable.
- Assist in hardening containerized workloads and Kubernetes clusters, including image scanning, admission control, pod security standards, and network policies.
- Triage vulnerability findings from application packages, container images, and third-party dependencies. Gather context on exploitability and business impact, and escalate complex or ambiguous findings to senior teammates.
- Help the Risk & Compliance team gather technical evidence for audit frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP), and learn what auditable evidence looks like.
- Write and maintain scripts and small automations that make security work faster and more repeatable.
- Learn from mentors through pairing, design reviews, and feedback on your remediation plans. Document what you learn and help improve runbooks.
- Support the secure design, deployment, and operational monitoring of enterprise AI systems, models, and agentic workflows.
- Help design and develop internal AI-driven security tools, automation scripts, and guardrails to improve threat detection and vulnerability remediation.
What You Will Bring to Coupa:
- 0–2 years of experience in security, cloud, DevOps, IT, or software engineering. Internships, co-ops, research, and hands-on personal or lab projects count.
- Foundational knowledge of cloud security concepts (AWS, GCP, or Azure) — IAM, networking, and common misconfigurations — gained through work, coursework, labs, or certifications.
- Working scripting skills in Python, Bash, or JavaScript, and interest in building or extending internal security tooling.
- Familiarity with vulnerability scanning concepts (dependency and container scanning). Exposure to CI/CD pipelines is a plus.
- Basic awareness of common compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP) and a willingness to learn how they translate into technical controls.
- Curiosity and a habit of asking why — you want to understand the cause of a vulnerability, not just what the scanner reported.
- Clear written and verbal communication, and comfort asking questions, asking for help, and escalating early.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience (bootcamps, military, self-directed learning, or similar).
- Entry-level certifications are a plus: Security+, ISC2 CC, AWS Cloud Practitioner or AWS/GCP/Azure security certifications.
The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.
At Coupa, we are 100% committed to creating and nurturing an environment that supports your physical, mental, and community well-being. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits designed to help you and your family thrive:
Global Well-Being Perks (For All Employees Globally)
- Global Wellness Days: Enjoy two designated, company-wide paid wellness days off each year (typically the first Friday in March and the last Friday in September) so the entire global team can unplug, step away, and recharge together .
- Birthday Time-Off: Celebrate your day! Coupa provides a paid day off on your birthday or another day of your choice within your birthday month .
- Volunteer Time Off (VTO): Giving back is in our DNA. We offer 40 hours of paid VTO annually to support the community initiatives and volunteer programs you are passionate about .
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Access free, confidential, 24/7/365 counseling and resources for emotional support, work-life solutions, financial advice, legal guidance, and support for new parents .
- Business Travel Protection: Travel with peace of mind. Zurich Travel Assist provides medical, safety, pre-trip planning, and emergency support during any business travel .
- Referral Bonus Program: Share the Coupa experience! Receive generous monetary referral bonuses when you successfully refer talented friends or acquaintances who are hired into open roles .
Please note: In addition to these global well-being perks, Coupa offers highly competitive, location-specific benefits packages (which include comprehensive medical/dental insurance, retirement/pension plans, and life or accident protection) tailored to your primary work location. Your recruiter will walk you through the specific regional benefits package for this role during the interview process.
Coupa complies with relevant laws and regulations regarding equal opportunity and offers a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, or evaluating performance are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees.
Please be advised that inquiries or resumes from recruiters will not be accepted.
By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have read Coupa’s Privacy Policy and understand that Coupa receives/collects your application, including your personal data, for the purposes of managing Coupa's ongoing recruitment and placement activities, including for employment purposes in the event of a successful application and for notification of future job opportunities if you did not succeed the first time. You will find more details about how your application is processed, the purposes of processing, and how long we retain your application in our Privacy Policy.
Coupa Foster City, California, USA Office
Coupa Foster City Office
950 Tower Ln, Foster City, California, United States, 94404 2121
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