Principal AI Security Architect — Copilot Data Protection

Quest Oracle Community; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 137,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust seeks a Principal-level individual contributor to lead the secure enablement of Microsoft 365 Copilot and enterprise AI capabilities within the Cyber Team. This role owns end-to-end strategy, architecture, and operationalization of AI-driven data protection and compliance controls across Microsoft Purview, Defender, and M365 security services.

The Principal serves as the deep technical authority on AI data protection, shaping control strategy and safeguarding data at enterprise

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in cybersecurity, engineering, or a related field.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender (including Cloud Apps).
• Strong background in data protection, DLP technologies, and enterprise information security.
• Proven scripting and automation capability (PowerShell, Python, Power Automate).
• Experience operating within formal incident, problem, and change management processes (e.g., ServiceNow).

Responsibilities

• Act as hands-on design authority for Copilot and enterprise AI security controls across Microsoft Purview, Defender, and M365.
• Define and evolve the AI data protection reference architecture, mapping controls to AI threat models and regulatory expectations.
• Review and harden Copilot platform configurations, including web grounding, agents, plugins, and retention models.
• Ensure controls are designed for default-secure behavior, least privilege, and fail-safe operation.
• Design, implement, and operate AI-related controls spanning DLP, information protection, and data lifecycle management.
• Configure, deploy, troubleshoot, and operate controls across AD and EntraID environments.
• Support production changes through disciplined change management and approved deployment windows.
• Define AI-specific risk use cases, signals, and thresholds; build monitoring and automation.
• Develop runbooks for incident response, investigation, and evidence preservation.

Skills

AI security fundamentals

Threat modeling

Scripting & automation

Microsoft Purview

Microsoft Defender

PowerShell

Python

Power Automate

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in cybersecurity, engineering, or a related field

Tools

Microsoft Purview

Microsoft Defender

Sentinel

EntraID

ServiceNow

Job description

Northern Trust seeks a Principal-level individual contributor to lead the secure enablement of Microsoft 365 Copilot and enterprise AI capabilities within the Cyber Team. This role owns end-to-end strategy, architecture, and operationalization of AI-driven data protection and compliance controls across Microsoft Purview, Defender, and M365 security services.

The Principal serves as the deep technical authority on AI data protection, shaping control strategy and safeguarding data at enterprise