Principal Engineer, AI/ML Security

digitalocean98; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Equity

Professional development support

Local team events

Mental health resources

Job summary

digitalocean98 is seeking a senior AI security leader to define the organization’s AI security direction and advise executives on major risks. You will work hands-on with security, product, engineering, and data science teams to build protections and test them against evolving attacks in a cloud environment.

You will define multi-year roadmaps, guide the integration of AI security controls into customer-facing products, and lead adversarial testing and governance discussions with senior

Qualifications

• 10+ years in cybersecurity, incl. 4–5 years AI/ML security or security data science in production/cloud.
• Evidence of owning and driving organization-wide security or AI programs and strategy.
• Deep practical understanding of attacks/defenses (evasion, poisoning, model extraction, membership inference, prompt injection).

Responsibilities

• Define AI security strategy and multi-year roadmap.
• Guide integration of AI security controls into customer-facing products, review initiatives from design to launch.
• Build and deploy security models, guardrails, tools, and automation with engineering/data science partners; monitor performance and drift.
• Lead adversarial testing and red-team exercises (prompt injection, jailbreaking, evasion, data/model poisoning).
• Threat-model the AI lifecycle: data pipelines, training, evaluation, model serving, RAG, agents, monitoring.
• Establish governance policies, advise on high-risk decisions, explain risk posture to senior leadership.]
• CoT_job_summary_short":"COMPANY NAME: digitalocean98\nKEY POINTS: AI security strategy, cross-functional leadership, product integration"
• job_summary_short":"<p>digitalocean98 is seeking a senior AI security leader to define the organization’s AI security direction and advise executives on major risks. You will work hands-on with security, product, engineering, and data science teams to build protections and test them against evolving attacks in a cloud environment.</p><p>You will define multi-year roadmaps, guide the integration of AI security controls into customer-facing products, and lead adversarial testing and governance discussions with senior leadership. This is a strategic, hands-on leadership role with opportunities for equity and impact.</p>
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• perks:[{"name":"Annual bonus"},{"name":"Equity"},{"name":"Professional development support"},{"name":"Local team events"},{"name":"Mental health resources"}]
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Skills

Python

Go

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor’s / Master’s in CS / InfoSec / Math

Job description

Role overview

This senior technical leadership role focuses on securing AI systems and applying machine learning to security operations in a cloud environment. You will set the organization's AI security direction, advise leaders on significant risks, and work hands-on with security, product, engineering, and data science teams to build protections and test them against evolving attacks.

Responsibilities

• Define an AI security strategy and multi-year roadmap, including priorities as products and threats change.
• Guide the integration of AI security controls into customer-facing products and review major initiatives from design through launch.
• Build and deploy security models, guardrails, tools, and automation with engineering and data science partners; monitor performance and drift.
• Lead adversarial testing and red-team exercises covering prompt injection, jailbreaking, evasion, and data or model poisoning.
• Threat-model the AI lifecycle, including data pipelines, training, evaluation, model serving, retrieval-augmented generation, agents, and ongoing monitoring.
• Establish governance policies and controls, advise on high-risk decisions, and explain risk posture and investment needs to senior leadership.

Requirements

• 10+ years in cybersecurity, including 4-5 years focused on AI/ML security, adversarial machine learning, or security data science in a production technology or cloud environment.
• Evidence of owning and driving organization-wide security or AI programs and strategy.
• Deep practical understanding of attacks and defenses such as evasion, poisoning, model extraction, membership inference, and prompt injection.
• Strong Python and Go programming skills, with experience building security tools and automation.
• Ability to assess AI/ML architectures and translate research into engineering guidance and policy.
• Experience communicating technical risk to executives and supporting decisions about priorities and investment.

Nice to have

• A bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, information security, mathematics, or a related field.
• Hands-on familiarity with AI red-team and defensive tools and model supply-chain frameworks.
• Experience engaging with the external AI security community.

Benefits and work setup

• Annual bonus and possible equity, subject to plan terms and location.
• Flexible time off.
• Professional development support.
• Local team events.
• Mental health resources.

specific offerings vary by location.