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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Fence Engineer

💰 $85,000 - $155,000

EngineeringSecurityCloudDevOpsInfrastructure

🎯 Role Definition

As a Fence Engineer, you are the architect and guardian of our system boundaries. You don’t just build walls; you design, automate, and manage the intelligent, resilient, and dynamic "fences" that protect our data, applications, and users. This pivotal role sits at the intersection of security engineering, platform development, and DevOps, focusing on creating robust isolation, enforcing strict access controls, and ensuring the integrity of our entire technology stack. You will be empowered to define and implement the future of our security posture, from the network edge to the application layer.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Cloud Engineer
  • Security Analyst
  • Systems Engineer / Administrator
  • Software Engineer (with a security or infrastructure focus)

Advancement To:

  • Senior or Principal Fence Engineer
  • Cloud Security Architect
  • Manager, Infrastructure Security
  • DevSecOps Lead

Lateral Moves:

  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
  • Solutions Architect
  • Data Governance Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, implement, and meticulously manage the virtual 'fences' of our cloud environment, including VPCs, subnets, security groups, and network ACLs, to ensure strict network segmentation and traffic control.
  • Engineer and maintain robust multi-tenant architectures, creating strong logical 'fences' between customer environments to guarantee data privacy and prevent resource contention or noisy neighbor problems.
  • Define, enforce, and audit 'gatekeeper' policies for our entire infrastructure using advanced Identity and Access Management (IAM) frameworks, rigorously adhering to the principle of least privilege.
  • Champion and implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Terraform or Pulumi to define, version, and manage all our security 'fencing' infrastructure in a repeatable, auditable, and automated manner.
  • Drive the evolution of our security posture towards a Zero Trust model, where no entity is trusted by default and every access request is rigorously verified, effectively challenging the traditional perimeter concept.
  • Configure, tune, and manage Web Application Firewalls (WAF) to act as the primary 'perimeter fence' against common web exploits, OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, and malicious bot traffic.
  • Secure our containerized workloads by implementing and enforcing Kubernetes network policies, pod security policies, and service mesh configurations (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) to create micro-segmentation 'fences' between services.
  • Deploy, operate, and monitor sophisticated intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to actively patrol our digital 'fence lines' for suspicious activity and automate threat responses.
  • Implement and manage centralized secret management solutions (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) to secure and tightly control access to credentials, API keys, and tokens.
  • Architect and enforce strict ingress and egress traffic filtering rules, meticulously controlling what data and connections are allowed to cross our network 'fences' to prevent data exfiltration and command-and-control communication.
  • Proactively identify and remediate 'weak spots' in our fences by leading vulnerability scanning programs, coordinating penetration testing efforts, and driving the patching and remediation lifecycle.
  • Develop a comprehensive logging and monitoring strategy to maintain 24/7 visibility on all 'fence' access points, generating actionable alerts for security events, policy violations, and anomalous behavior.
  • Serve as a key technical expert during security incidents, responsible for rapidly identifying breaches, isolating affected systems, 'mending the fences', and conducting detailed post-mortem analysis to strengthen our defenses.

Secondary Functions

  • Automate the construction and validation of our security 'fences' by embedding security scanning, policy-as-code (e.g., Open Policy Agent), and compliance checks directly into CI/CD pipelines.
  • Construct and deploy dynamic 'fencing' mechanisms like rate limiters, circuit breakers, and bulkheads to protect services from cascading failures and denial-of-service attacks.
  • Ensure all data is protected both at rest and in transit by implementing and managing end-to-end encryption protocols and robust key management systems.
  • Collaborate closely with software development teams to provide expert guidance on secure coding practices and architectural patterns, helping them build applications that are 'fence-aware' from inception.
  • Design and document infrastructure solutions that meet and exceed industry compliance standards (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI DSS), ensuring our 'fences' are certifiably secure.
  • Conduct regular threat modeling exercises to anticipate how an adversary might try to bypass or break our 'fences', and proactively design effective countermeasures.
  • Manage and secure our DNS infrastructure, implementing measures like DNSSEC to prevent spoofing and redirection attacks.
  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis related to security events and network traffic.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap, particularly regarding security and governance.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data protection needs into tangible engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies within the infrastructure and security teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Cloud Networking Expertise: Deep, hands-on knowledge of cloud networking constructs in AWS, Azure, or GCP (VPCs, subnets, routing, peering, Security Groups, NACLs).
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): High proficiency with tools like Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation for building and managing immutable infrastructure.
  • Container & Orchestration Security: Strong experience with Docker and Kubernetes security, including network policies, pod security standards, and service mesh (e.g., Istio).
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM): Expertise in designing and managing complex IAM policies, roles, and service accounts, along with experience in SSO, SAML, or OAuth 2.0.
  • Security Tooling: Practical experience with Web Application Firewalls (WAF), IDS/IPS, and vulnerability scanning tools (e.g., Nessus, Qualys, Snyk).
  • Scripting & Automation: Advanced scripting ability in languages such as Python, Go, or Bash for automating security tasks and building custom tools.
  • Zero Trust Principles: Solid understanding and practical application of Zero Trust security models and network architecture.
  • CI/CD & DevSecOps: Experience integrating security controls and testing into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
  • Observability & Monitoring: Proficiency with monitoring and logging tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, or Splunk for security event correlation.
  • Cryptography & Secrets Management: Knowledge of encryption standards (TLS), PKI, and experience with secrets management tools like HashiCorp Vault or AWS/GCP Secrets Manager.

Soft Skills

  • Analytical & Problem-Solving Mindset: A natural ability to dissect complex security problems and devise effective, robust solutions.
  • Systems-Level Thinking: The capacity to understand how individual components fit into the larger ecosystem and the security implications of their interactions.
  • Meticulous Attention to Detail: A precise and thorough approach, understanding that minor misconfigurations can have major security consequences.
  • Strong Communication & Collaboration: Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • High Degree of Ownership: A proactive and accountable work ethic, with the drive to see security initiatives through from conception to completion.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience in a technical role.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
  • Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM, AWS/Azure/GCP Security Specialty).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Cybersecurity
  • Information Technology
  • Network Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-7 years in a related role.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years of proven experience in a Cloud Security, DevSecOps, or Platform Engineering role with a security focus.
  • Hands-on experience building, defending, and scaling large-scale, multi-tenant cloud environments.
  • A demonstrable track record of automating security processes and embedding security into the development lifecycle.
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