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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Lead Security Engineer - **Company:** The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence - **Location:** Seattle, WA, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $176,400.0 - $264,600.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Audit Trail, Software as a Service, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Software Vulnerability Management, Data Processing, Software Security, Build Tools, Machine Learning Operations - **Published:** September 4, 2026 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/thealleninstitute/jobs/8165479 ## About the Role * Bachelor's Degree and 8-10 years of overall software/infrastructure engineering experience. * 5+ years focused specifically on security engineering, application security, or security architecture, ideally including time owning a security program. * Hands-on experience conducting security and compliance audits, and directly implementing or assessing controls. For example, experience with NIST 800-171. * A track record of stepping up to ambiguous, high-stakes problems rather than waiting for a fully scoped mandate - this role will require building a program largely from the ground up. * Strong ability to advise non-security technical leaders (e.g., engineering directors/managers) - translating technical risk into clear, actionable recommendations they can act on without a security background. Physical Demands and Work Environment: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. * Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. * The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. * The ability to observe details at close range. * Can work under deadlines. ## Description Are you a security-minded individual who not only enjoys identifying security vulnerabilities but also looks forward to helping close out concerns? If so, our infrastructure team is looking for a security leader who can identify and prioritize our biggest security concerns as well as contribute to resolving them. In this role, you'll work collaboratively across the organization to understand our technical landscape, organize and prioritize security concerns, and directly contribute to projects to secure our systems. If you enjoy taking initiative, learning about new systems, and making a real impact, we want you on our team., As a Security Engineer, you would be a key part of our core infrastructure team, with a unique opportunity to improve the security of our groundbreaking initiatives. If you join our team, you will lead our company's security program: establishing how we conduct security evaluations of programs, auditing systems for security concerns, prioritizing security investments, and working across the company to reduce our security risks. We have a beautiful new office right across from Lake Union in Seattle; catered lunches five times a week; great pay and benefits; smart, friendly, and helpful coworkers; and even a couple of kayaks and paddleboards you can take out on sunny days. Your Next Challenge: The essential functions include, but are not limited to, the following: * Establish and maintain documentation for Ai2's organizational approach to security, including policies, standards, and system security plans (SSPs). * Maintain and prioritize a backlog of security investments. * Conduct in-depth security assessments to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities across cloud infrastructure, ML pipelines, and application code. * Investigate and respond to security incidents, lead root-cause analysis, and drive remediation to closure. * Build systems and tooling that improve security compliance, observability, and governance (e.g., audit logging, access control, vulnerability management, configuration baselines). * Partner across research and engineering teams to address security concerns. * Define and evolve security standards, secure-development practices, and documentation to raise the organization's overall security maturity. * Evaluate and secure SaaS platforms and tools that make up our environment (vendor risk assessments, access reviews, data handling review, multi-tenant data isolation). * Serve as the organization's trusted voice on security: act as a hands-on advisor and sounding board to organizational leaders, helping translate security risk into practical, actionable guidance for teams without deep security expertise., Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship., Select... Will you now, or in the future, require visa sponsorship for employment at Ai2? * Select... This role is in Seattle. If you are not currently local, are you willing to relocate? * I hereby certify that all information in my application is true and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that Ai2 may perform a background investigation to make inquiries regarding my education, work experience, credit record, criminal history, and references to determine my suitability for employment. I authorize Ai2. to secure any information necessary to make a decision. I understand that Ai2 will adhere to the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if applicable, and other applicable state and federal statutes concerning the securing of information, handling, utilization, and release of information obtained in the pre-employment investigation. I understand that any material misrepresentation or omission on this application may be grounds for rejection of my application or termination of any subsequent employment with Ai2. * Select... Voluntary Self-Identification For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. As set forth in The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. Gender Select... Are you Hispanic/Latino? Select... Race & Ethnicity Definitions If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows: A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability. A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service. An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense. An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985. Veteran Status Select... ## Related Videos - [Resilient by Design: Building Robust Architectures in High-Stakes Financial Systems](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2106-resilient-by-design-building-robust-architectures-in-high-stakes-financial-systems) - [Modern Data Architectures need Software Engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1030-modern-data-architectures-need-software-engineering) - [Thinking Differently - How to Make Money from Cyber Attacks & Cheats](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/745-thinking-differently-how-to-make-money-from-cyber-attacks-cheats) - [Security Pitfalls for Software Engineers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/726-security-pitfalls-for-software-engineers) - [The New AI Security Stack: Observe, Detect, Protect](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100302-the-new-ai-security-stack-observe-detect-protect) - [No Keys for the Robot: GitOps as the Control Plane for Autonomous Agents](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100095-no-keys-for-the-robot-gitops-as-the-control-plane-for-autonomous-agents) ## Related Articles - [How to Become an AI Engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/331-how-to-become-an-ai-engineer) - [Dev Digest 134 - Where pixels sing?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/477-dev-digest-134-where-pixels-sing) - [What is Software Engineering in the Age of AI?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/640-what-is-software-engineering-in-the-age-of-ai) - [Events like RSAC Get You CISOs. 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