1. What is a Security Engineer at Ramp?

At Ramp, we are fundamentally rethinking how modern finance teams function in the age of AI. As a Security Engineer (specifically operating as a Senior Security Analyst within Corporate Security), you are the cornerstone of keeping our internal operations secure while enabling a fast-moving, AI-driven business. You will not be sitting in a SOC triaging Tier 1 alerts; this is a senior, hands-on individual contributor role (IC5) where you will own, architect, and scale core security programs across identity, endpoints, SaaS, and data.

Your impact will be felt across the entire organization. Ramp relies heavily on AI assistants and automated workflows, and your job is to ensure these capabilities are rolled out securely without blocking business velocity. You will be the primary driver for Insider Risk, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), SaaS posture, and endpoint security across both our corporate and FedRAMP-aligned environments.

This role is critical because it balances rigorous security controls with the pragmatic needs of a hyper-growth fintech platform. You will design strategies, implement technical controls, and measure outcomes, collaborating closely with IT, Engineering, Legal, and GRC teams. If you thrive on taking ownership of complex security challenges and building automated, scalable solutions, this role offers an unparalleled opportunity to shape the security posture of America's fastest-growing corporate card and bill payment platform.

2. Common Interview Questions

The following questions are representative of what candidates typically face during the Ramp interview process. They are not a checklist to memorize, but rather a reflection of the patterns and themes our interviewers focus on to assess your depth of knowledge and practical problem-solving skills.

Identity and SaaS Architecture

These questions test your ability to design and secure modern, cloud-first identity environments.

• Walk me through the architecture of a secure Okta deployment for a hyper-growth company.
• How do you handle the lifecycle management of third-party contractors requiring access to sensitive internal tools?
• Describe your approach to auditing and remediating overly permissive OAuth scopes in Google Workspace.
• What controls would you implement to ensure a smooth but secure Just-In-Time (JIT) access process?
• How do you balance the need for strict FedRAMP identity controls with maintaining a frictionless developer experience?

Endpoint and Zero Trust Implementation

These questions evaluate your hands-on experience managing and securing mixed device fleets.

• How do you enforce Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) for a fully remote workforce?
• Walk me through your strategy for deploying and tuning an EDR solution across a fleet of macOS and Windows machines.
• What is your process for managing and enforcing patch SLAs for critical vulnerabilities on employee laptops?
• How do you ensure that only corporate-managed, compliant devices can access our internal SaaS applications?
• Describe a time you had to troubleshoot a complex MDM deployment issue that was blocking user productivity.

Incident Response and DLP

These questions assess your ability to detect, investigate, and respond to internal security risks.

• How would you design a DLP program from scratch for a cloud-native organization?
• Walk me through how you would investigate an alert indicating a user downloaded an unusually large amount of data from a corporate repository.
• What metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of an Insider Risk program?
• How do you partner with Legal and HR/People teams during a sensitive internal investigation?
• Explain how you would tune DLP rules to minimize false positives without missing critical data exfiltration events.

Automation and Scripting

These questions gauge your ability to build tools and automate manual security processes.

• Write a script to query an API, extract user access logs, and identify anomalies.
• How would you automate the offboarding process to ensure all SaaS access is revoked immediately upon termination?
• Describe a tool or workflow you built that significantly improved the efficiency of your security team.
• How do you handle pagination and rate limiting when interacting with vendor APIs in your scripts?
• Walk me through how you would use automation to continuously monitor for configuration drift in our SaaS posture.

3. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for the Security Engineer interview at Ramp requires a strategic approach. Our interviewers are looking for candidates who can seamlessly blend deep technical knowledge with practical, business-enabling execution. Focus your preparation on the following key evaluation criteria:

Role-Related Knowledge – You must demonstrate deep, hands-on expertise in enterprise security architecture. Interviewers will evaluate your proficiency with modern identity providers (like Okta), collaboration suites (like Google Workspace), endpoint hardening (EDR, MDM), and SaaS security posture. You can show strength here by discussing specific implementations, configurations, and tuning strategies you have personally driven.

Problem-Solving Ability – Ramp operates in a complex, cloud-first environment. You will be evaluated on how you approach ambiguous security challenges, such as securing AI/agent workflows or balancing strict FedRAMP compliance with developer productivity. Strong candidates structure their thoughts clearly, identify potential gaps, and propose pragmatic, scalable remediations.

Execution and Automation – We are an agent-first company that despises manual toil. Interviewers want to see your ability to use scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell), APIs, or workflow tools to automate security operations like account hygiene, access reviews, and alert triage. Highlight past projects where your code directly reduced operational overhead.

Culture Fit and Communication – As a primary owner of cross-functional security programs, you must influence without authority. You will be assessed on how well you partner with non-security teams (IT, Engineering, People) to get things shipped. Clear communication—whether writing a runbook, summarizing risk tradeoffs, or explaining a control choice—is non-negotiable.

4. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Security Engineer at Ramp is designed to be rigorous, practical, and highly collaborative. We index heavily on real-world scenarios rather than abstract trivia. Expect a fast-paced process that mirrors the environment you will be working in, requiring you to think on your feet and communicate your decision-making process clearly.

Typically, the process begins with an initial recruiter screen to align on your background, expectations, and essential requirements (such as U.S. citizenship for FedRAMP environments). This is followed by a deep-dive conversation with the hiring manager to explore your past projects, your philosophy on corporate security, and your ability to own end-to-end programs.

The core of the evaluation takes place during the technical and cross-functional rounds. You will face architecture and system design discussions focused on identity and SaaS security, a practical automation/scripting assessment to gauge your ability to eliminate manual toil, and behavioral interviews assessing your stakeholder management and alignment with Ramp values.

This visual timeline outlines the typical sequence of your interview stages, from initial screening through the technical deep dives and final behavioral rounds. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you allocate sufficient time to brush up on both your architectural design skills and your hands-on scripting abilities before the technical onsite stages. Keep in mind that specific panel configurations may vary slightly based on interviewer availability and team needs.

5. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must prove your capability across several specialized domains. Our interviewers will dig deep into your past experiences to understand not just what tools you used, but how you designed and optimized them for scale.

Identity, Access, and SaaS Security

Identity is the new perimeter, and at Ramp, securing our SaaS stack is paramount. This area evaluates your ability to manage and harden modern identity providers and collaboration tools, ensuring secure access without introducing unnecessary friction. Strong performance means demonstrating a nuanced understanding of least privilege, Just-In-Time (JIT) access, and lifecycle management.

Be ready to go over:

• Okta and Google Workspace Administration – Hardening tenants, enforcing phishing-resistant MFA, and managing SCIM-based lifecycles.
• SaaS Posture Management (SSPM/CASB) – Remediating misconfigurations, enforcing key rotation, and gating risky OAuth scopes and integrations.
• Context-Aware Access – Designing policies that evaluate device posture and user context before granting access.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Break-glass access patterns, sovereign tenant management, and integrating strict FedRAMP controls into existing identity flows.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through how you would audit and remediate overly permissive OAuth applications in our Google Workspace environment."
• "How do you design a Just-In-Time (JIT) access model for engineers needing temporary production access?"
• "Describe your process for identifying and removing stale admin accounts across a diverse SaaS stack."

Endpoint Hardening and Zero Trust

Securing our macOS and Windows fleets is critical to protecting internal tools and data. This area tests your practical experience with endpoint management, disk encryption, and secure network access. A strong candidate will explain how to maintain high patch SLAs and enforce Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) policies seamlessly.

Be ready to go over:

• EDR and MDM Deployments – Scaling endpoint detection and response, and managing device configurations at scale.
• Zero Trust Architecture – Implementing and troubleshooting ZTNA/SSE solutions (e.g., Cloudflare WARP) for secure internal resource access.
• Vulnerability Management – Driving patch SLAs and managing configuration drift across mixed OS fleets.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Custom EDR detection engineering, handling offline or disconnected devices in a Zero Trust model.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "How would you roll out a new EDR agent to a fleet of 1,000 macOS devices without disrupting engineering workflows?"
• "Explain how you would configure a ZTNA policy to restrict access to an internal financial dashboard based on device posture."
• "What metrics do you track to ensure our endpoint hardening controls remain effective over time?"

Insider Risk and Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Protecting our data requires a delicate balance between strict controls and user privacy. You will be evaluated on your ability to design and lead Insider Risk and DLP programs from the ground up. Strong candidates will focus on high-signal detections, clear playbooks, and empathetic case handling.

Be ready to go over:

• DLP Strategy – Defining policies, configuring detections, and measuring policy efficacy (MTTD/MTTR).
• Insider Risk Playbooks – Handling investigations, collaborating with Legal and People teams, and stakeholder training.
• Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) – Tracking data flows and securing sensitive information across cloud environments.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Securing AI assistants and LLM workflows to prevent accidental data exfiltration.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a DLP policy to detect the exfiltration of customer PII via personal cloud storage without generating excessive false positives."
• "Walk me through your playbook for handling a suspected insider threat involving a departing employee."
• "How do you ensure AI assistants deployed internally do not inadvertently expose sensitive corporate data?"

Automation and Engineering

At Ramp, we expect security engineers to build, not just configure. This area assesses your ability to use scripting and APIs to automate repetitive security tasks. Strong performance involves writing clean, practical code to solve real operational problems.

Be ready to go over:

• Scripting and APIs – Using Python, Bash, or PowerShell to interact with vendor APIs (e.g., Okta, Jamf, CrowdStrike).
• Workflow Automation – Building automated access reviews, configuration checks, and alert triage pipelines.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – Managing security configurations using code repositories and CI/CD pipelines.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Building custom Slack bots for security approvals, serverless security automation (e.g., AWS Lambda).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Write a Python script that queries the Okta API to find all users who haven't logged in for 90 days and automatically suspends them."
• "How would you automate the process of verifying that all active endpoints have disk encryption enabled?"
• "Describe a time you used automation to significantly reduce the manual toil of a security operations team."

6. Key Responsibilities

As a Security Engineer on the Enterprise Security team, your day-to-day will be dynamic and highly impactful. You will be the primary owner of core enterprise security programs, taking responsibility for everything from initial strategy to hands-on implementation and ongoing measurement. You will not be following an existing playbook; you will be writing it.

A significant portion of your time will be spent managing and hardening our SaaS stack and sovereign environments. This includes actively operating Google Workspace and Okta tenants, enforcing strict access controls, and partnering with GRC to ensure alignment with NIST 800-53/171 and FedRAMP requirements. You will be expected to achieve this compliance without slowing down the business, which requires deep technical creativity and a strong partnership with IT and Engineering.

You will also focus heavily on automation and continuous improvement. You will write scripts and build workflows to automate access reviews, configuration checks, and alert triage. Collaboration is key; you will frequently write clear documentation, runbooks, and decision records, working closely with Legal, People, and Engineering teams to drive remediations and ensure new AI/agent capabilities are securely rolled out to the business.

7. Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be highly competitive for the Security Engineer role at Ramp, your background should demonstrate a strong mix of hands-on technical ownership and cross-functional leadership.

• Must-have skills and qualifications:

  • 3+ years of experience in enterprise/corporate security engineering or operations.
  • U.S. citizenship (strictly required due to the nature of our sovereign / FedRAMP-aligned environments).
  • Hands-on administration of modern identity providers and collaboration suites, ideally Okta and Google Workspace.
  • Practical experience implementing and tuning Insider Risk, DLP, SaaS posture, or endpoint security controls.
  • Comfort with automation using scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell) or workflow tools.
  • Strong communication skills, with the ability to write clear runbooks and explain risk tradeoffs to non-security partners.

• Nice-to-have skills and qualifications:

  • Experience operating sovereign, public-sector, or regulated tenants (e.g., FedRAMP, StateRAMP, NIST 800-53/171).
  • Background scaling security in a high-growth, cloud-first startup or scale-up environment.
  • Experience securing or enabling AI/agent workflows inside an enterprise.
  • Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM, Security+, GIAC).

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical is the interview process for this Corporate Security role? Very technical. While this role sits within Corporate Security, it is an IC5 engineering-adjacent position. You must be comfortable writing scripts, interacting with APIs, and deeply understanding the architecture of tools like Okta and Google Workspace.

Q: Why is U.S. citizenship required for this specific role? This role requires managing and operating within sovereign, FedRAMP-aligned environments. Due to strict federal compliance and regulatory requirements associated with these specific tenants, U.S. citizenship is a hard requirement.

Q: How much time should I spend preparing for the automation/scripting interview? Allocate significant time here if you do not code daily. You will be expected to write functional code (Python is highly recommended) to solve practical security operations problems, such as interacting with REST APIs and parsing JSON data.

Q: What differentiates a successful candidate from an average one at Ramp? Successful candidates demonstrate a deep sense of ownership and pragmatism. They don't just point out security flaws; they design scalable, automated solutions that secure the environment without acting as a roadblock to the business.

Q: What is the working model for this role? This is a hybrid role based in New York City. You are expected to work in-person at our HQ (near Madison Square Park) at least 2 days per week.

9. Other General Tips

• Focus on Business Enablement: At Ramp, security is a business enabler, not a department of "no." Always frame your answers around how you mitigate risk while maintaining or improving velocity for the rest of the company.
• Master the STAR Method: When answering behavioral or situational questions, use the Situation, Task, Action, Result framework. Be highly specific about your individual contributions, especially since this is an IC5 role.

• Know Your Frameworks, but Be Pragmatic: While experience with FedRAMP, SOC 2, or NIST is highly valued, interviewers want to see how you translate these rigid frameworks into practical, modern enterprise controls.
• Embrace the Agent-First Mindset: Ramp relies heavily on AI. Be prepared to discuss the unique security challenges introduced by internal AI assistants and LLMs, and how you would secure those workflows.

10. Summary & Next Steps

Joining Ramp as a Security Engineer means taking on a high-impact, high-visibility role at the forefront of fintech innovation. You will be instrumental in securing the infrastructure that powers automated finance for tens of thousands of businesses, all while navigating the unique challenges of an AI-driven, hyper-growth environment. This is a rare opportunity to build and scale modern, automated security programs from the ground up.

The compensation data above reflects the base salary range for this position. Keep in mind that Ramp offers a comprehensive total rewards package, which includes equity and exceptional benefits (such as 100% covered medical premiums and centralized home-office equipment). Your exact offer will depend on your performance during the interviews and your level of specialized experience, particularly regarding FedRAMP and enterprise automation.

Your preparation should focus heavily on the intersection of identity architecture, SaaS posture management, and practical automation. Review your past projects, refine your scripting skills, and be ready to articulate how you balance rigorous security with business velocity. For further insights and to continue honing your approach, explore additional resources and interview experiences on Dataford. You have the foundational skills required; now, focus on demonstrating your ability to execute at Ramp's exceptional scale. Good luck!