Director, Application & AI Security

Employer Direct Healthcare; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Short & Long Term Disability

Life Insurance

401k with company match

Flexible Time Off

Paid Parental Leave

Job summary

Lantern is the specialty care platform bringing high-quality care to patients and employers nationwide. We are seeking a Director of Application & AI Security to build and lead a growing security function focused on secure-by-design AI, PHI protection, and fast, safe product delivery.

The role oversees security across the software lifecycle, AI model governance, and data‑egress controls, with a plan to mature the secure-design standards and tooling used by engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in application or product security.
• 3+ years leading a security team.
• Proven AI/ML security ownership in production.
• Secure SDLC leadership across SAST/DAST/IAST and SBOM.
• Security architecture and threat modeling expertise.
• DevSecOps with CI/CD pipeline security.
• API security experience with regulated data.
• Cryptographic standards ownership.
• Ability to drive fast, secure delivery with governance.

Responsibilities

• Own application security across the development lifecycle and APIs.
• Coordinate AI/ML security including model/agent risk and data‑egress controls.
• Own security architecture and threat modeling for platforms.
• Lead DevSecOps and pipeline security with default scanning.
• Operate a single security-review intake with fast risk-based triage.
• Build and scale a security team from a senior IC and open roles.

Skills

Application security

AI/ML security

Leadership

Secure SDLC

Security architecture

DevSecOps

API security

Threat modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Snyk

GitHub Advanced Security

Wiz

Garak

PyRIT

Promptfoo

Job description

About Lantern Lantern is the specialty care platform connecting people with the best care when they need it most. By curating a Network of Excellence comprised of the nation's top specialists for surgery, cancer care, infusions and more, Lantern delivers excellent care with significant cost savings to employers and their workforces. Lantern also pairs members with a dedicated care team, including Care Advocates and nurses, for the entirety of their care journey, helping them get back to good health, back to their families and back to work. With convenient access to specialists nationwide, Lantern means quality care is within driving distance for most. Lantern is trusted by the nation's largest employers to deliver care to more than 6 million members across the country. Learn more about us at lanterncare.com.

Lantern is the specialty care platform, connecting people with high-quality, affordable specialty care close to home. We operate in a regulated healthcare environment (HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2), we handle protected health information at scale, and we are becoming an AI healthcare company, with AI adoption a top company priority.

The Director, Application & AI Security owns application and AI security end to end: the security of the software and the AI systems Lantern builds. It is the seat most directly tied to our AI strategy. The job is to make it safe to move fast, building the golden paths and secure defaults that let teams ship product and adopt AI without waiting in a permission queue, while keeping PHI and external-model data egress genuinely protected.

You will lead a growing function. At hire, the team includes a senior application security engineer, with several open roles to fill across security architecture, AI/ML security, DevSecOps, and product security. You will build that team and set the secure-design standards the whole engineering organization builds against.

Our security philosophy is open by default, secure by design. Security exists to help the business move fast, safely, and the default answer is "yes, safely," because guardrails are built into the platform, pipelines, and tooling rather than enforced by someone saying no. Gates exist only where risk genuinely warrants them, and even then they are automated, fast, and transparent.

Location:

Hybrid - at least 3 days/wk in our Dallas, TX office

Responsibilities:

Own application security across the development lifecycle, covering static, dynamic, and interactive analysis (SAST/DAST/SCA/IAST), code and dependency security, API security, and runtime protections such as WAF and API gateways, all delivered through engineering teams rather than filed as findings.

Own AI and ML security, including model and agent security, prompt-injection and tool-use risk, and data-egress controls for third-party model providers, plus continuous AI security posture management informed by the OWASP LLM Top 10, MITRE ATLAS, and AI risk-management standards (NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001).

Own security architecture and threat modeling, including secure-by-design review and ownership of cryptographic standards.

Own DevSecOps and pipeline security, with scanning as a default in CI/CD and MLOps/LLMOps pipelines, release gating calibrated to risk, and software supply chain and SBOM practice.

Own the security-review intake as a single front door with risk-based triage, reported against a turnaround commitment, so security accelerates the business rather than bottlenecking it.

Own the application and AI security tool stack and the secure-design standards behind it.

Key Deliverables in Your First Year:

• An AI golden path: an approved-model catalog and automated data-egress controls, so teams adopt AI on a governed route instead of case-by-case approvals.
• A secure SDLC paved road, with scanning in the pipeline by default and critical findings resolved within SLA.
• A single security-review intake that delivers fast, risk-based answers on a published turnaround.
• A built-out team, with the open roles filled and performing.

How You Will Work:

Much of this scope is delivered in partnership. Engineering carries remediation on application, API, and dependency findings. Platform Engineering operates the CI/CD pipelines you secure. AI Engineering builds the model integrations you govern on the security side, while the Governance, Risk & Compliance team owns AI use governance, meaning acceptable use, model inventory, and third-party model data-egress scoping, as the companion to your security accountability. Setting and holding clear service expectations across these partners is part of the role.

Requirements:

• A minimum of 8 years application or product security.
• A minimum of 3 years leading a team with function-level accountability.
• Demonstrated AI and ML security ownership at production scale, including model and agent security, prompt-injection and tool-use risk, and data-egress control for third-party model providers, with working fluency in the OWASP LLM Top 10, MITRE ATLAS, and AI risk-management standards (NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001).
• Secure SDLC leadership across static, dynamic, and interactive analysis (SAST/DAST/SCA/IAST), dependency and software supply-chain risk, SBOM practice, and remediation delivered through engineering teams.
• Security architecture and threat-modeling depth, with the standing to review a design and be heard by senior engineers.
• DevSecOps and pipeline security experience, including scanning as a default in CI/CD, risk-calibrated release gating, and pipeline secret handling.
• API security experience on a platform handling regulated data.
• A track record of delivering security as paved roads and secure defaults rather than review gates, with evidence of adoption.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience.

Strong Candidates Will:

• Healthcare or another regulated domain where PHI or comparable data flows through AI systems.
• Experience standing up an AI golden path, including an approved-model catalog, a governed adoption route, and automated egress controls.
• Experience building a single security-review intake with risk-based triage and a turnaround commitment.
• Cryptographic standards ownership, including customer-managed key models.
• Hands-on familiarity with tools such as Snyk, GitHub Advanced Security, AI security posture management (for example, Wiz), and AI-assisted code scanning.
• Familiarity with AI red-teaming and adversarial-testing tooling (for example, Garak, PyRIT, Promptfoo).
• Product security experience shipping customer-facing security features as differentiators.
• Experience hiring and building a team from a single senior individual contributor.
• CSSLP, OSWE, GWAPT, or equivalent.

Who Thrives in This Role:

• Guardrails over gates.
• You instinctively ask how to remove a queue rather than how to staff one.
• Engineering credibility.
• You earn influence with builders through technical depth, not process authority.
• Risk calibration.
• You reserve genuine gates for what earns them, namely PHI exposure, external model egress, and privileged access, and you keep even those automated and fast.
• Delivery orientation.
• You treat a roadmap as a commitment with dates.
• Team building.
• You can grow a function from one senior IC and a set of open roles.

Benefits:

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Short & Long Term Disability
• Life Insurance
• 401k with company match
• Flexible Time Off
• Paid Parental Leave

About You:

You use LOGIC in your decision making and understand that progress is critical to making change. You focus on the execution of your content while balancing a fast-paced environment and you take the time to celebrate both the small & big wins. INCLUSION is a core tenant of your personal beliefs. A diverse and inclusive environment is incredibly important to you. You understand and desire to be a part of a diverse team with different experiences and perspectives & you cherish the differences in each individual that you interact with. You have the GRIT , drive and ambition to tackle big problems. Big problems require big ideas and a team that supports new ideas. You care deeply for your customers are driven to keep HUMANITY in all decisions. Your customers aren’t just the individuals using your product. They are the driving factor in your motivation to make a change. Integrity guides you in life. Focusing on the TRUTH vs. giving people the answers they want to hear. You thrive in a Team Environment. Collaboration is key in innovation and creating change. These pillars of LIGHT are a reminder to our team that we are making a difference by providing guidance and support in navigating the often complex and confusing landscape of healthcare. We hope that through this LIGHT , individuals can find their way to the best care, resources, and support they need to get back to life.

Lantern does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.