Principal AI Engineer

TENEX.AI; United States; Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and benefits package

Opportunity for growth and development

Work with cutting-edge technologies

Job summary

A leading AI-driven cybersecurity firm is looking for a Principal AI Engineer to lead the design and development of high-performance AI systems. This role involves mentoring AI engineers, optimizing cybersecurity solutions, and collaborating with product teams. The ideal candidate has over 10 years of software engineering experience, extensive knowledge in LLM architecture, and strong leadership and communication skills. Join a growing company at the forefront of AI-driven cybersecurity innovation.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development.
• Hands-on experience with modern programming languages.
• Ability to mentor and influence teams.

Responsibilities

• Design & build the AI layer for autonomous detection.
• Develop large-scale LLMs and feature pipelines.
• Mentor AI engineers and uphold code quality.

Skills

Software Engineering

Architecture Expertise

API Design

Deep knowledge of LLM architecture

Microservices architecture

Strong problem-solving skills

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

Python

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Company Overview

TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the MDR landscape.

As a Principal AI Engineer at TENEX, you will be a key technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing scalable, high-performance AI systems. You will play a crucial role in shaping the architecture of our AI-driven cybersecurity solutions while mentoring engineering teams and driving technical innovation.

Culture is one of the most important things at TENEX.AI—explore our culture deck at culture.tenex.ai to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work.

Location: This role will require Monday - Thursday onsite in any of our locations. WFH Friday.

Job Responsibilities

• Design & build the AI layer that powers autonomous detection, RAG-backed investigation, and auto-remediation workflows.
• Develop and productionize large-scale LLMs, graph-based reasoning engines, and streaming feature pipelines that operate on billions of security events.
• Own evaluation & reliability—from prompt libraries and fine tuning to red-team testing, latency budgets, and fallback strategies.
• Mentor & grow a cohort of AI engineers; run design reviews, uphold code quality, and instill a security-first mindset.
• Partner tightly with Product, Detection Engineering, and Customer Success to translate real-world attacker behavior into robust ML and rule-based detections.
• Push the frontier—experiment with retrieval-augmented generation, tool-calling agents, and multi-modal models (text + logs + graphs) to keep defenders decisively ahead.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Software Engineering & Architecture Expertise
  • 10+ years of experience in software development, engineering production systems using modern programming languages (Python, Go, Rust, or Java).
  • Deep knowledge of LLM architecture, prompt engineering, and Vector database workflows.
  • Hands-on experience building agents, orchestration frameworks (LangChain/LangGraph, Agno AGI, or custom), and evaluation harnesses.
  • Deep understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and event-driven systems.
  • Strong fundamentals in API design (REST/gRPC) and distributed systems.
  • Clear, concise communication skills and a bias for collaborative problem-solving.
• Nice-to-have
  • Prior work in cybersecurity (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, or MDR).
  • Experience with graph databases or security-focused knowledge graphs.
  • Familiarity with cloud infrastructure security (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
  • Background leading teams in high-growth startups or enterprise SaaS.
• Soft Skills
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
  • Excellent communication and leadership abilities.
  • Ability to mentor and influence engineering teams.
  • Passion for cybersecurity and automation.

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Relevant certifications (AWS/GCP Professional Engineer, Kubernetes, or security-related credentials) are a plus.

Why Join Us?

• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and Google SecOps solutions.
• Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your knowledge in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.

If you’re passionate about combining cybersecurity expertise with artificial intelligence and have experience with Google SecOps and Chronicle, we encourage you to apply!

We practice pay transparency and reward performance. Offers reflect equity, experience, skills, education, and certifications. Base salary for this position in San Jose: $190,000 - $250,000.