Principal Engineer, AI Security

Lila Sciences; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 171,000 - 230,534; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus potential

Generous early equity

Job summary

A technology-driven company located in Cambridge is seeking a Principal Security Engineer focused on AI Security. In this role, you will define security strategies for integrating AI tools across the enterprise, ensuring safe and compliant usage of both internal and third-party AI systems. Ideal candidates have over 8 years of experience in information security, including hands-on experience with designing enterprise security controls. You will need strong communication skills and familiarity with AI and cloud technologies. A competitive salary and equity options are offered.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in information security.
• Hands‑on experience with designing security controls in enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with AI tools and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP).

Responsibilities

• Define and implement security controls for AI tools.
• Conduct red teaming and adversarial testing for AI usage.
• Develop and enforce data protection controls for AI systems.

Skills

Information security expertise

Cloud and application security

AI/ML systems familiarity

Threat modeling experience

Strong communication skills

Job description

As a Principal Security Engineer focused on AI Security, you will define and drive the technical strategy for securing how AI is used across Lila's enterprise. You will operate as a senior individual contributor, partnering with IT and business teams to ensure safe and compliant adoption of AI tools and platforms.

While Lila builds AI-powered systems, this role is primarily focused on securing the use of third-party and internally deployed AI tools across the enterprise — ensuring sensitive data, intellectual property, and scientific workflows are protected as AI becomes deeply embedded in how work gets done.

What You'll Be Building

• Enterprise AI Security Strategy — Define and implement security controls and guardrails for the use of AI tools (e.g., LLM APIs, SaaS AI platforms, and internal AI services) across the organization.
• AI Gateway & Agentic Gateway Security — Design and implement AI gateway controls to manage and monitor access to external and internal AI systems. Secure agentic workflows by enforcing identity, authorization, tool-use constraints, and policy controls for autonomous or semi-autonomous agents.
• AI Red Teaming & Adversarial Testing — Conduct red teaming and adversarial testing focused on enterprise AI usage, including prompt injection, data exfiltration, jailbreaks, and abuse of connected tools and plugins.
• Data Protection for AI Usage — Develop and enforce controls to prevent sensitive data leakage through AI systems, including input/output filtering, data classification, tokenization, and secure handling of prompts, embeddings, and outputs.
• AI Threat Modeling (Enterprise Context) — Develop threat models focused on enterprise AI usage, including risks such as data leakage, prompt injection, model misuse, supply chain risks from AI vendors, and unauthorized agent actions.
• Vendor & Platform Security — Assess and guide secure adoption of third-party AI vendors and platforms, including evaluating data handling practices, model behavior, and integration risks.
• Incident Response for AI Usage — Define and support response approaches for AI-related incidents, such as sensitive data exposure, policy violations, or misuse of AI tools.
• Cross-Functional Technical Leadership — Partner with Legal, Compliance, IT, and Engineering to align AI usage with regulatory requirements, data governance policies, and responsible AI practices.
• Security Enablement — Contribute to internal guidance and education on safe AI usage, including secure prompting, data handling, and appropriate use of AI tools.
• Security Tooling & Implementation — Evaluate and implement tooling for AI security, including AI gateways, DLP integrations, monitoring solutions, and policy enforcement mechanisms.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• 8+ years of experience in information security, with strong expertise in enterprise, cloud, or application security.
• Hands‑on experience designing and implementing security controls in enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with AI/ML systems and how modern AI tools (LLMs, copilots, APIs) are used in practice.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP), SaaS security, and zero‑trust architectures.
• Experience with data protection technologies (e.g., DLP, data classification, access controls).
• Practical experience with threat modeling, red teaming, or adversarial testing.
• Strong communication and influence skills across technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Bonus Points For

• Experience securing enterprise use of LLMs, copilots, or generative AI platforms.
• Familiarity with AI gateways, prompt filtering, or model interaction controls.
• Experience evaluating or securing third‑party AI vendors and APIs.
• Background in regulated environments (biotech, healthcare, defense, or government).
• Knowledge of privacy‑enhancing technologies or confidential computing.
• Contributions to AI/ML security research or community.

Compensation

We offer competitive compensation including bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.

Expected Base Salary Range

$171,000 - $230,534 USD

About LILA

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard‑coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.

LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai.

Lila Sciences is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.

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