Staff Security Architect

Lambda Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401k match

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Lambda is seeking a senior security architect to define data protection and platform security across its AI infrastructure. You will shape secure-by-default patterns for GPU clusters, multi-cloud control planes, and data lifecycles. The role emphasizes confidential computing, KMS/HSM, DLP, and zero-trust policies in a fast-paced startup setting.

You will mentor engineers, author architectural whitepapers, and align security roadmaps with cross-functional teams, including IT, Legal, and Product.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of total engineering experience with 5+ years specializing in security architecture, platform security, or data protection at cloud/infrastructure scale.
• Deep expertise in data security concepts including encryption key management (KMS/HSM), cryptographic protocols, DLP, and confidential computing primitives.
• Proven track record of designing multi-tenant platform security architecture across heterogeneous infrastructure (bare-metal GPU clusters, hypervisors, KVM, Kubernetes, and public cloud).
• Strong technical skills in prototyping security designs and reference code in Python, Go, or similar languages.
• Demonstrated experience with threat modeling methodologies (STRIDE, PASTA, etc.) and security design reviews for high-consequence systems.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with a track record of partnering effectively with IT, Legal, and HR.
• Ability to balance robust enterprise security controls with employee experience and productivity.
• Thrives in fast-moving, high-growth startup environments where building scalable structure is required.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and standardize end-to-end data protection strategy across data classification, KMS/HSM, and DLP.
• Define data lifecycle security controls for training datasets, checkpoint storage, and model artifacts across cloud and on‑prem storage.
• Drive confidential computing architectures and hardware-backed data security guarantees for high-consequence workloads.
• Establish robust zero-trust data access policies and fine-grained authorization frameworks for sensitive APIs and data repositories.
• Design and enforce core platform security architectures across multi-tenant GPU infra, bare-metal clusters, hypervisors, and Kubernetes.

Skills

Security architecture

Data protection

KMS/HSM

Threat modeling

Zero-trust

Multi-tenant security

Python

Go

Kubernetes

Terraform

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Python

Go

KVM

Job description

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is a leader in AI cloud infrastructure serving tens of thousands of customers. Our customers range from AI researchers to enterprises and hyperscalers. Lambda's mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. One person, one GPU.

If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us.

*Note: This position requires presence in our Bellevue, San Francisco, or San Jose office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.

About the Role

Lambda Security protects some of the world's most valuable digital assets: invaluable training data, model weights representing immense computational investments, and the sensitive inputs required to leverage best of breed AI models. We're responsible for securing every byte that powers breakthrough artificial intelligence.

Reporting to the CISO, you'll be a principal technical leader responsible for shaping Lambda's overall security architecture, with a primary focus on Data Protection and Platform Security. Your work will define secure-by-default foundational patterns across our core AI infrastructure, hardware/GPU platform layers, multi-cloud control planes, and end-to-end data lifecycles.

You will directly impact the security posture of our high-performance computing environment by architecting robust data loss prevention (DLP), encryption at rest and in transit, key management (KMS/HSM), confidential computing, and tenant isolation models. Leveraging Lambda's hosted LLMs, you'll pioneer AI-driven security architecture capabilities—such as automated threat modeling, sensitive data discovery, and platform policy verification.

If you're excited about setting the architectural vision for data protection and platform security in the world's most demanding AI infrastructure, we want to talk.

We value diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skills, and we are excited to hear from candidates who can bring unique perspectives to our team.

What You’ll Do

Data Protection Architecture:

• Architect, design, and standardize end-to-end data protection strategy, encompassing data classification, cryptographic key management (KMS/HSM), data loss prevention (DLP), and privacy-preserving controls across customer data and AI model weights
• Define data lifecycle security controls for training datasets, checkpoint storage, and model artifacts across cloud and on-premises storage layers
• Drive confidential computing architectures, envelope encryption, and hardware-backed data security guarantees for high-consequence customer workloads
• Establish robust zero-trust data access policies and fine-grained authorization frameworks for sensitive platform APIs and data repositories

Platform Security & Infrastructure Hardening:

• Design and enforce core platform security architectures across multi-tenant GPU infrastructure, bare-metal clusters, hypervisors, and container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes)
• Define strong tenant isolation, sandboxing, and secure virtualization controls to protect against cross-tenant side-channel and platform escape vulnerabilities
• Conduct comprehensive threat models, architectural reviews, and risk assessments for core platform services and platform control planes

Automation & Strategic Innovation:

• Prototype reference implementations and security controls in Python or Go to demonstrate secure platform integration patterns
• Pioneer AI-powered architectural security capabilities leveraging Lambda's hosted LLMs for automated threat modeling, automated policy validation, and data discovery
• Assess third-party vendor risks and build automated tooling to evaluate SaaS vendor security postures

Strategic Leadership & Alignment:

• Partner closely with Platform, Engineering, Product, and Infrastructure leaders to embed security architecture into long-term product roadmaps
• Author technical whitepapers, architectural blueprints, and customer-facing trust documentation highlighting Lambda's platform security and data protection posture
• Mentor senior engineering talent across the organization on secure design principles, platform security patterns, and threat modeling

What We Think a Candidate Needs to Demonstrate to Succeed

• 10+ years of total engineering experience with 5+ years specializing in security architecture, platform security, or data protection at cloud/infrastructure scale
• Deep expertise in data security concepts including encryption key management (KMS/HSM), cryptographic protocols, DLP, and confidential computing primitives
• Proven track record of designing multi-tenant platform security architecture across heterogeneous infrastructure (bare-metal GPU clusters, hypervisors, KVM, Kubernetes, and public cloud)
• Strong technical skills in prototyping security designs and reference code in Python, Go, or similar languages
• Demonstrated experience with threat modeling methodologies (STRIDE, PASTA, etc.) and security design reviews for high-consequence systems
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with a track record of partnering effectively with IT, Legal, and HR
• Ability to balance robust enterprise security controls with employee experience and productivity
• Thrives in fast-moving, high-growth startup environments where building scalable structure is required

Nice to Have

• Excitement about leveraging our direct access to state-of-the-art LLMs to revolutionize enterprise security—imagine AI-assisted access reviews, automated SaaS risk assessments, and intelligent policy generation.
• Experience building enterprise security and IAM programs at high-growth tech companies or cloud providers
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, HIPAA) and audit preparation
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) for managing enterprise identity and SaaS configurations
• Deep technical background allowing hands-on contribution when needed
• Experience with both build and buy decisions for security tooling
• Experience driving or providing significant evidence for compliance audits, such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, or FedRAMP.

Salary Range Information

The annual salary range for this position has been set based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

About Lambda

• Founded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fast
• Our investors notably include TWG Global, US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, and Crescent Cove
• We have research papers accepted at top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOG
• Our values are publicly available: https://lambda.ai/careers
• We offer generous cash & equity compensation
• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
• Wellness and commuter stipends for select roles
• 401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)
• Flexible paid time off plan that we all actually use

Equal Opportunity Employer

Lambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.