Security Engineer - Platform Security

Plaid; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Plaid in Washington, DC seeks a security-focused professional to be the first line of defense for AI security. You will review new AI technologies to identify risks before they ship and design controls that keep pace with AI advances.

You will build guardrails, identity management, and detection systems to enable aggressive AI use without compromising safety. Join Plaid to lead secure AI adoption.

Qualifications

• Must have hands-on experience securing AI technologies and related tooling.
• Experience deploying guardrails or sandboxes, or managing AI identities.
• Experience running AI security reviews or mitigating prompt injection.

Responsibilities

• Review AI systems for security risk before and after deployment.
• Design and deploy guardrails, sandboxes, and controls that constrain AI actions.
• Track AI identities and access, balancing risk with agility.
• Detect and mitigate prompt injection across Plaid's AI surface.
• Lead AI-focused security reviews and set minimal security bar.

Skills

AI security

Guardrails

AI identities

Prompt injection

Security tooling

Job description

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. Plaid works with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., Raleigh, London, and Amsterdam.

The Platform Security team (PlatSec) defends Plaid against attackers. We own laptop security, cloud security, AI security, detection and response, and red teaming. Right now we're in growth mode. AI has expanded Plaid's attack surface faster than most security teams can adapt, and we're building the guardrails, identity controls, and detection systems to keep pace without slowing the business down. If you like solving problems nobody's solved yet, this is that team.

About the role

You'll be Plaid's first line of defense on AI security. You'll review new AI technologies to find security risks before they ship, then design and implement the controls that close them. You'll build the guardrails, identity management, and detection systems that let Plaid use AI aggressively without getting burned.

Responsibilities

• Review AI systems and integrations for security risk before and after deployment.
• Design and deploy guardrails, sandboxes, and other controls that contain what AI agents can do.
• Build or implement systems to track and manage AI identities, so we know what access every AI has been granted and can balance risk with agility.
• Detect and mitigate prompt injection across Plaid's AI surface area.
• Run AI-focused security reviews and set the bar other teams build to.

Your impact: fewer AI-related incidents, faster AI shipping, and controls that scale. Plaid wants to be a leader in AI, internally and externally, and we can’t do that safely without you.

Qualifications

• Must-have: hands-on experience securing AI technologies, including at least one of: deploying guardrails or sandboxes, managing AI identities, detecting or mitigating prompt injection, running AI security reviews, or implementing AI security tooling (built or bought).
• Nice-to-haves:Experience at a frontier AI lab or on a security team defending production AI systems at scale.
• Experience on a Infrastructure Security, Cloud Security, Platform Security, Corporate Security, Security Operations (SecOps), and/or Detection & Response teamSoftware security review, SDLC, vulnerability discovery, and/or offensive security experience

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at .

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice [here](Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.