Head of Secure Data Center Scaling

Security Level 5 is a Bay Area AI security nonprofit working with AI labs and US intelligence agencies to defend frontier models from priority nation-state-level threats. We move fast, and we’re tripling headcount this year.

The Mission

We’re hiring for what’s plausibly the most difficult, urgent, and interesting challenge in AI security engineering this decade (for humans, at least): designing and building the first datacenter purpose-built to Security Level 5, the standard for defending frontier AI labs against attackers with the resources of a nation-state and billion-dollar budgets. We’re working on the first SL5 components this year and aiming for an at-scale SL5 datacenter build in 2027.

We wrote the first version of the standard with input from CISOs and senior security staff at the frontier labs, and US security and intelligence officials. Now we’re designing the SL5 architectures purpose-built for frontier AI workloads, and standing up the reference tech stack to guide labs’ buildouts. This stack has to hold against nation-states, not destroy researchers’ productivity, not cost more than labs can pay, and ship in 2-3 years.

What you’d work on

• Taking generic large-datacenter build plans, our SL5 datacenter prototyping work, the SL5 Standard, other relevant external materials, and producing a practical roadmap for a full-scale SL5 build.
• Schedule and delay estimates, sequencing, and identification of long-lead items: permitting, shell, power, cooling, accelerator procurement, ICD 705 physical work.
• Translating SL5 physical and zoning requirements into constraints a design and construction team can actually build to.
• Working with our technical track partners to incorporate their input on builds and security requirements that can’t be retrofitted later.

Information/Data Security (InfoSec), Network Operations Center, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Intelligence Agencies, Nonprofit, Budgeting, Network Operations Center, Writing Skills, Laboratory, Architectural Design

• Have led large datacenter builds with touch points across every phase, from siting and power through commissioning.
• Can produce credible schedule and cost estimates that survive contact with implementation.
• Have built under regulated, classified, or otherwise security-constrained conditions.

Bonus

ICD 705 / SCIF experience

Logistics

Bay Area, in-person. This role’s base salary range is $250,000 - $500,000 USD per year. We may be open to paying exceptional and/or highly experienced employees more than this. We also provide full benefits, including healthcare, dental, vision, 401k match, and more.