Principal AI Security Engineer

Lead the technical direction for securing AI applications, autonomous agents, and AI-enabled engineering workflows at Zip.

Architect and build scalable security controls for LLM applications, RAG systems, and agentic AI platforms.

Develop AI security testing, automation, and secure-by-default engineering practices to enable safe innovation at scale.

Remote-first opportunity for US-based employees, with the option to work in person from our Manhattan office.

Start your adventure with Zip

Join Zip's Security team and help shape how we securely build and operate AI-powered systems. AI is transforming how we develop software, operate our platforms, and deliver products. As our Principal AI Security Engineer, you'll lead the technical direction for securing AI applications, autonomous agents, and AI-enabled engineering workflows.

This is a hands‑on engineering role for someone who has built and secured AI solutions in production. You'll work directly with engineering, platform, and security teams to design and implement scalable security controls that enable innovation without introducing unnecessary risk.

We're looking for a builder who can establish architectural direction, write code, and turn complex AI security challenges into practical engineering solutions.

• 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, excessive agency, and other AI-specific threats.
• Establish secure patterns for model access, NHI access, authorization, secrets management, and sensitive data protection.
• Design security boundaries for AI agents interacting with enterprise systems, APIs, databases, and cloud infrastructure.

• Establish secure‑by‑default patterns that allow developers to adopt AI without bypassing security controls.
• Develop secure harnesses and guardrails for AI coding assistants, autonomous development agents, and AI‑generated software.
• Secure MCP servers, agent tool integrations, and AI‑enabled development workflows.
• Build reusable security components, APIs, and automation that integrate directly into engineering platforms and CI/CD pipelines.

• Build automated security testing and evaluation capabilities for AI applications and agents.
• Develop approaches for AI red teaming, prompt injection testing, and security regression testing.
• Implement monitoring and detection for suspicious AI behavior, unauthorized tool execution, and sensitive data exposure.
• Post incidence response - agent misalignment (exceeds authority, unauthorized action).
• Partnering with the Agentic Platform team on controls to prevent recurrence.
• Leverage AI to automate security engineering activities, including threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, and remediation.

• Establish Zip's technical direction and engineering standards for AI security.
• Partner with engineering teams to take secure AI solutions from architecture through production.
• Design risk-tiering logic aligned with Zip's 5-level AI automation classification.
• Co‑own the security evaluation framework for new AI models and third‑party tools. Evaluate emerging AI technologies and security capabilities, making pragmatic build‑versus‑buy decisions.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical decisions across security, platform engineering, and software development.

• Demonstrated Staff or Principal‑level technical leadership in security engineering, application security, or cloud security..
• Deep security engineering experience plus…