Principal AI Security Architect

Engg; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead software security architecture across our platforms and services. You will bridge strategy with hands-on engineering to ensure secure cloud-to-box solutions and mentor engineering teams.

You will shape Model Context Protocol (MCP) access, spec-driven security contracts, and guard against AI-driven threats while guiding DevSecOps, threat modeling, and secure-by-design patterns for distributed applications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 15+ years of software engineering and application security architecture experience.
• Experience with security frameworks such as OWASP Top 10, API Top 10, CWE/SANS 25.
• Experience with identity and access governance (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, mTLS, SPIFFE/SPIRE, RBAC/ABAC/ReBAC).
• Experience in at least one backend language (Python, Go, TypeScript/Node.js, Rust, or Java).
• Experience securing cloud-native architectures (Kubernetes, AWS/GCP/Azure, API gateways, service meshes).

Responsibilities

• Define and drive security architecture across software platforms and services.
• Mentor engineering teams and engage with customers.
• Lead threat modeling and secure-by-design engineering across architectures.
• Implement automated security gates in CI/CD pipelines (SAST, DAST, IAST).
• Develop policy-as-code frameworks to enforce security baselines.

Skills

Security architecture

Threat modeling

DevSecOps

CI/CD security gates

Zero-trust

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or Engineering

Tools

OWASP

OPA/Rego

Semgrep

CodeQL

SAST/DAST/IAST

Job description

Cisco is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead software security architecture across our platforms and services. You will bridge strategy with hands-on engineering to ensure secure cloud-to-box solutions and mentor engineering teams.

You will shape Model Context Protocol (MCP) access, spec-driven security contracts, and guard against AI-driven threats while guiding DevSecOps, threat modeling, and secure-by-design patterns for distributed applications.