Senior Associate - AI AppSec Engineer

New York Life; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 177,000; Full time

Job summary

New York Life is seeking an AI Application Security Engineer to secure AI applications and agentic systems across development and production environments. You will embed secure-by-default practices throughout the AI lifecycle using Google Cloud Vertex AI and related platforms.

You will partner with AI engineers, data scientists, MLOps, and Model Risk Management to automate security controls in CI/CD and IaC, reduce risk, and enable scalable innovation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field; 5+ years in application/security or related area.
• Hands-on experience securing production AI platforms; Vertex AI preferred; SageMaker/Azure ML acceptable.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement application security controls for AI apps and agentic systems.
• Build security guardrails to mitigate AI threats (prompt injection, data exfiltration, model abuse).
• Integrate security controls into CI/CD and IaC processes, focusing on Vertex AI workflows.

Skills

5+ years security

Vertex AI experience

CI/CD security

Python automation

AI lifecycle security

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Google Cloud Vertex AI

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Job description

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week

Business Unit

Technology, Data, AI and Ventures (TDAV)

Business Unit Overview

Within the Tech, Data, AI, Ventures (TDAV) organization, our work is guided by a shared vision: deploying the power of technology, data, AI and ventures to accelerate sustainable competitive advantage for New York Life's businesses. We build solutions that power how we serve policy owners, agents, advisors and employees while delivering measurable business outcomes.

Across technology, data, AI, cyber, product, digital experience, architecture and infrastructure, TDAV combines the scale and investment of an industry leader, access to leading-edge technologies and the opportunity to help shape how a world-class financial services company competes in the AI era — all backed by the stability and purpose of a mutual company built to last.

Role Overview

New York Life is moving from AI experimentation into production, agentic, and automated decisioning systems. As an AI Application Security Engineer, you will help ensure these systems are built and operated securely by embedding application security controls, guardrails, and secure-by-default practices throughout the AI development lifecycle.

As part of the Application Security team, you will work hands-on to secure AI applications, agentic systems, and supporting AI platform services across development and production environments. Leveraging Google Cloud Vertex AI as the enterprise AI platform, you will partner closely with AI engineers, data scientists, MLOps platform teams, and Model Risk Management to integrate AI security into application development, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code workflows, and cloud platforms. This individual contributor role requires strong technical expertise, collaborative problem solving, and a passion for building scalable security capabilities that enable innovation while reducing risk.

What You'll Do

• Design and implement application security controls for AI applications, agentic systems, and tool-invoking workflows, ensuring secure-by-default patterns are embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Build and operationalize security guardrails that protect against emerging AI threats, including prompt injection, indirect prompt injection, unsafe tool invocation, data exfiltration, model abuse, and other evolving attack techniques.
• Integrate AI security controls into existing application security, CI/CD, SSDLC, and infrastructure-as-code processes while helping secure AI platform workflows across data ingestion, model training, deployment, serving, and runtime execution with a primary focus on Google Cloud Vertex AI.
• Partner with MLOps platform teams, AI engineers, data scientists, cloud engineering, and Model Risk Management to review identity architectures, automate security controls, remediate findings, and establish reusable security standards across enterprise AI initiatives.
• Develop Python-based automation, security tooling, detection capabilities, and technical guidance that improve the organization's ability to securely deploy, monitor, and scale AI solutions in production.

What You'll Bring

Required Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline (or equivalent practical experience) with 5+ years of experience in application security, cloud security, security engineering, or a closely related field.
• Hands-on experience securing production AI platforms, with experience in Google Cloud Vertex AI preferred; comparable experience with Amazon SageMaker or Azure Machine Learning will also be considered.
• Strong understanding of AI application and model lifecycles, including data ingestion, training, model registry, deployment, online and offline serving, and secure environment separation across development, training, staging, and production.
• Experience implementing security controls within CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code environments, along with knowledge of cloud IAM, least-privilege principles, service accounts, workload identity, and non-human identity management.
• Knowledge of modern application security practices including authentication and authorization, secure API design, software supply chain security (SLSA, SBOMs, signed artifacts), secrets management, and AI-specific threat models.
• Proficiency in Python for automation, security tooling, and detection engineering, with the ability to independently implement, troubleshoot, and evolve security solutions in partnership with cross-functional teams.

Preferred Skills

• Experience securing agentic AI systems or orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Vertex AI Agent Builder, ADK, CrewAI, or similar production AI workflows.
• Familiarity with AI security frameworks including MITRE ATLAS, OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, NIST AI RMF, Google Secure AI Framework (SAIF), or comparable industry guidance.
• Experience supporting AI governance or security controls within a regulated industry, including collaboration with model risk management, model validation, or second-line risk organizations.
• Experience with policy-as-code technologies, AI detection engineering, or AI security and guardrail solutions such as OPA/Rego, Cloud Custodian, Sentinel, Lakera, Protect AI, NeMo Guardrails, Llama Guard, or Vertex AI Safety Filters.

Pay Transparency

Salary Range: $124,000-$177,000

Overtime eligible: Exempt

Discretionary bonus eligible: Yes

Sales bonus eligible: No

Actual base salary will be determined based on several factors but not limited to individual’s experience, skills, qualifications, and job location. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition to base salary, employees may also be eligible to participate in an incentive program.

Company Overview

At New York Life, our 180-year legacy of purpose and integrity fuels our future. As we evolve into a more technology-, data-, and AI-enabled organization, we remain grounded in the values that drive lasting impact.

Our diverse business portfolio creates opportunities to make a difference across industries and communities—inviting bold thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and purpose-driven innovation. Here, you’ll find the rare balance of long-standing stability and forward momentum, supported by an inclusive team that honors tradition while embracing progress.

As a Fortune 100 mutual company, we offer a place to grow your skills, contribute to meaningful work, and deliver solutions that matter. Your ideas drive what’s next, and your growth powers it.

Our Benefits

We provide a full package of benefits for employees – and have unique offerings for a modern workforce, including leave programs, adoption assistance, and student loan repayment programs. Based on feedback from our employees, we continue to refine and add benefits to our offering, so that you can flourish both inside and outside of work.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

At New York Life, fostering an inclusive workplace is fundamental to who we are and how we serve our communities. We have a longstanding commitment to creating an environment where individuals can contribute their best and succeed together. This foundation is rooted in our core values of humanity and integrity, ensuring that every employee feels valued and supported. By embracing a broad range of perspectives and experiences, we achieve greater success and fulfill our promise of providing financial security and peace of mind to families across all communities.

Recognized as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, New York Life is committed to improving local communities through a culture of employee giving and volunteerism, supported by the Foundation. We're proud that due to our mutuality, we operate in the best interests of our policy owners.