AI Security Engineer

AlignityX; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

AlignityX seeks an AI Security Engineer to help build the next generation of security operations. You will design and deploy autonomous AI agents that integrate with enterprise security platforms, bridging AI engineering, software development and cybersecurity in real-world deployments.

You are a builder who can turn ambiguous security problems into executable architecture, with 4+ years AI/ML and 2+ years software development, working on-site in McLean, VA five days a week.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS/AI/EE/CE or related field plus 4+ years AI/ML experience, or a relevant Master’s degree plus 2+ years.
• 1) 2+ years of software development experience using Python, Go, Scala or Java.
• 2) Strong fundamentals to build production-grade systems.
• 3) Experience with AI/ML technologies beyond basic API integration or prompt engineering.
• 4) Ability to turn ambiguous technical problems into executable architectures.
• 5) Genuine interest in applying AI to cybersecurity and security operations.
• 6) Willingness to work on-site in McLean, Virginia five days a week.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver production-grade AI capabilities for agentic security systems.
• Translate SOC playbooks into deterministic agentic pipelines using DAGs and multi-agent routing.
• Build and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation workflows with real-time security context.
• Evaluate and optimize LLM performance for accuracy, latency and cost.
• Create human-in-the-loop escalation and handoff between AI agents and analysts.
• Engineer safeguards against prompt injection, data poisoning and model abuse.
• Deploy and scale AI workloads in containerized cloud environments.

Skills

Python

Go

Scala

Java

Software development

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/AI/EE/CE or related field

Master’s degree in related field

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

AutoGen

CrewAI

Semantic Kernel

Kubernetes

EKS

AKS

Pinecone

Qdrant

Milvus

Weaviate

Job description

NOTE: This role does not provide Sponsorship

The Opportunity

We’re partnering with a leading enterprise software company to hire an AI Security Engineer to help build the next generation of security operations: an Agentic SOC.

This is not a traditional SOC or cybersecurity engineering position. We’re looking for an AI/ML engineer and strong software builder who wants to apply advanced AI technologies to real-world security problems.

You’ll design and deploy autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents that operate within an enterprise security environment, integrating with technologies including SIEM, EDR/XDR and threat intelligence platforms.

The work sits directly at the intersection of AI engineering, software engineering and cybersecurity, with an opportunity to build systems that are still largely uncharted territory.

What You’ll Build

You’ll have direct ownership for designing and delivering production-grade AI capabilities, including:

• Agentic AI Systems: Design, test and deploy autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents integrated with enterprise security platforms.
• Multi-Agent Orchestration: Translate traditional SOC playbooks and analyst workflows into deterministic and heuristic agentic pipelines using DAGs and multi-agent routing.
• Production RAG: Build and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation workflows incorporating real-time security context, network topology and historical incident data.
• LLM Performance Engineering: Evaluate and optimize models for accuracy, context-window utilization, latency, scalability and cost.
• Human-in-the-Loop Systems: Partner with Tier 3 security analysts and threat hunters to create intelligent escalation and handoff mechanisms between AI agents and humans.
• AI Security: Engineer safeguards against prompt injection, data poisoning, model/tool abuse and other emerging LLM vulnerabilities.
• Cloud-Native AI: Deploy and scale AI workloads within containerized cloud environments.

What We’re Looking For

Above all, you are a builder.

You’ve moved beyond AI experimentation and can demonstrate experience developing software and AI/ML technologies that solve real problems.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related field plus 4+ years developing AI/ML algorithms or technologies, OR a relevant Master’s degree plus 2+ years of experience
• 2+ years of software development experience using Python, Go, Scala or Java
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and the ability to build clean, production-grade systems
• Experience developing AI/ML technologies beyond basic API integration or prompt engineering
• Ability to take an ambiguous technical problem and turn it into an executable architecture and working solution
• Genuine interest in applying AI to cybersecurity and security operations
• Ability to work on-site five days per week in McLean, Virginia

Highly Valuable Experience

We’re particularly interested in candidates with experience in several of the following:

• LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI or Semantic Kernel
• Multi-agent architectures and orchestration
• Production RAG systems
• Pinecone, Qdrant, Milvus, Weaviate or other vector databases
• Kubernetes, EKS or AKS
• SIEM, EDR/XDR or threat-intelligence platforms
• Security operations or threat intelligence
• LLM evaluation and performance optimization
• OWASP Top 10 for LLMs
• AI guardrails, prompt-injection prevention and secure agent/tool execution

Who Will Thrive Here

You’ll likely love this opportunity if you’re the engineer who wants to build what doesn’t have a playbook yet.

You care about model performance, but you care just as much about architecture, reliability, and what happens when an AI system encounters something unexpected in production.

You’re comfortable working alongside security experts without needing to have spent your entire career in cybersecurity. Conversely, if you come from security, you have developed meaningful AI/ML and software engineering depth rather than simply using AI-enabled security tools.

This team moves quickly, expects a high level of ownership, and values engineers who challenge assumptions, experiment intelligently, and ultimately ship.

Compensation

Base Salary: $100,000–$200,000 (Total Comp variable based on: Base + Bonus + RSU's)

Actual compensation will depend on experience, technical depth and qualifications. The total rewards package also includes a discretionary performance bonus, comprehensive benefits and potential eligibility for equity awards.

Location

This position is on-site four to five days per week. Candidates must be able to work from the McLean office on a full-time basis.