Principal AI Security Engineer

The role

You will lead the technical direction for securing AI applications, autonomous agents, and AI-enabled engineering workflows. You will design and build security controls and work directly with engineering, platform, and security teams.

What you will do

• Define and implement security architecture for LLM applications, RAG, autonomous agents, and AI-powered products.
• Engineer protections against prompt injection, data exfiltration, insecure tool execution, and excessive agency.
• Establish secure patterns for model access, authorization, secrets management, and sensitive data protection.
• Build secure harnesses and guardrails for AI coding assistants and autonomous development agents.
• Secure MCP servers, agent tool integrations, and AI-enabled development workflows.
• Build automated security testing and evaluation for AI applications and agents, including AI red teaming.
• Implement monitoring and detection for suspicious AI behavior and unauthorized tool execution.
• Establish technical direction and engineering standards for AI security.
• Co-own the security evaluation framework for new AI models and third-party tools.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical decisions across security, platform engineering, and software development.

Required qualifications

• Demonstrated Staff or Principal-level technical leadership in security engineering, application security, or cloud security.
• Deep security engineering experience with demonstrable hands-on work on LLM or agent systems.
• Familiarity with OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, MITRE ATLAS, and NIST AI RMF.
• Strong understanding of LLM architectures, agentic systems, RAG, and modern AI development frameworks.
• Experience building AI security evaluations, red-teaming capabilities, or model security gateways.
• Strong software engineering skills, including proficiency in Python or another modern programming language.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures, APIs, containers, IAM, and modern software delivery practices.
• Ability to design and implement security controls, automation, and reusable engineering components.
• Experience threat modeling complex systems and translating security requirements into practical solutions.
• Strong technical leadership skills with the ability to influence architecture and engineering decisions across teams.

Nice to have

• Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, OpenAI APIs, Azure AI, Google Vertex AI, or similar technologies.
• Experience securing MCP servers, autonomous coding agents, or agentic workflows.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Terraform, Kubernetes, and CI/CD security.
• Experience in financial services, payments, or other regulated environments.

Benefits

• Flexible working culture
• Incentive programs
• Unlimited PTO
• Generous paid parental leave
• Family support policies
• Company-sponsored 401k match
• Learning and wellness subscription stipend
• Industry-leading employer-sponsored insurance for you and your dependents, with several 100% Zip-covered choices
• Casual dress code at the Union Square office

Before you apply

• Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
• Zip participates in the federal government's E-Verify program.

About the company

Zip Co Limited (ASX: ZIP) is a digital financial services company offering point-of-sale credit and digital payment services. It operates in Australia and New Zealand and the US.