Lead AI Security Engineer

Skillfield; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Skillfield is a specialist technology consultancy focused on cyber, data and AI security. We seek a Lead AI Security Engineer to build foundations for deploying AI agents securely, including MCP gateways, PAM uplift, and robust identity strategies for humans, AI agents and non-human identities.

You will hands-on code, configure platforms, and drive a small team to deliver secure, production-ready patterns across client projects in a hybrid Melbourne setting.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on IAM engineering experience with Microsoft Entra ID (Entra ID, PIM, workload identities).
• Strong knowledge of OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and SCIM with practical security deployments.
• Experience implementing PAM and secrets management for service accounts and machine identities.

Responsibilities

• Build and harden secure access paths for AI agents, including MCP and AI gateways.
• Implement agent/workload identity with OAuth 2.0 token exchange, delegated auth and short‑lived credentials.
• Deliver PAM uplift for human and non-human identities using Entra ID, PIM and Azure Key Vault.
• Secure APIs and MCP servers end to end including authz, rate limiting and monitoring.
• Automate security controls with IaC and CI/CD pipelines across clients.
• Instrument AI agents, gateways and MCP servers with logging and monitoring.
• Coach and review a small engineering team, setting high quality standards.
• Turn proofs of concept into production-ready reusable patterns for Skillfield.

Skills

IAM engineering

OAuth 2.0 / OIDC

Scripting: Python/Go/TypeScript

Mentoring / technical leadership

CI/CD awareness

Tools

Terraform

Bicep

Azure Key Vault

Microsoft Entra ID

Entra Agent ID

Job description

About Skillfield

Skillfield is a specialist technology consultancy operating at the intersection of cyber, data and AI. We partner with enterprise clients to protect, transform and enable their organisations through thoughtful, outcome-focused solutions. Our reputation is built on impact, not effort.

About the Role

Location: Melbourne, hybrid

We're looking for a Lead AI Security Engineer to build the security foundations that let our clients put artificial intelligence (AI) agents into production safely. AI agents now call application programming interfaces (APIs), hold credentials and act on behalf of people. Securing them is fundamentally an identity problem, and you'll be the engineer who solves it.

You'll guide and develop a small team of engineers delivering Skillfield's next-generation security offerings: securing API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoints, uplifting privileged access management (PAM) across humans, AI agents and non-human identities (NHI), and building agentic identity and AI gateway capabilities for enterprise clients. This is a hands-on role. You'll write code, configure platforms and ship working solutions, not just review designs.

What you'll do

• Build and harden secure access paths for AI agents, including MCP gateways, AI gateways, guardrails ans policy enforcement pointsImplement identity for agents and workloads: OAuth 2.0 token exchange, delegated authorisation, workload identity federation and short-lived credentials
• Deliver PAM uplift for human and non-human identities on Microsoft Entra ID, using Privileged Identity Management (PIM), workload identities and Azure Key Vault, including secrets management and just-in-time access
• Secure APIs and MCP servers end to end, from authentication and authorisation to rate limiting, input validation and monitoring
• Automate security controls with infrastructure as code (IaC) and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines so they're repeatable across clients
• Instrument AI agents, gateways and MCP servers with logging and monitoring, so misuse can be detected and investigated
• Coach and support a small team of engineers, reviewing their work and setting a high bar for quality
• Turn proofs of concept into production-ready, reusable patterns that become part of Skillfield's offerings
• Collaborate directly with client teams to understand their environment, and spot delivery risks early

About you

• Substantial hands-on experience in identity and access management (IAM) engineering, with real implementations on Microsoft Entra ID, including Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), workload identities and Entra Agent ID
• Deep working knowledge of OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM)
• Hands-on experience implementing PAM and secrets management, including for service accounts and machine identities
• Strong scripting or programming skills (Python, Go or TypeScript) and experience with IaC tools such as Terraform or Bicep
• Experience mentoring or guiding engineers, formally or as a technical lead on delivery\

Great to have

• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure infrastructure, including networking, Azure Key Vault, managed identities and Azure API Management
• Hands-on experience building or securing large language model (LLM) and agent-based systems on Azure AI Foundry, including Azure OpenAI, and agent frameworks such as LangGraph or Semantic Kernel
• Familiarity with AI-specific threats and controls, such as the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, prompt injection defences and MCP security
• Consulting or client-facing delivery experience is highly regarded

Why Skillfield?

• Be part of a team serious about doing work that matters
• Join a culture that values clarity, autonomy and shared success
• Enjoy flexibility, strong support and performance-based recognition

Skillfield is committed to an inclusive workplace. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, let us know and we'll work with you.