Principal AI Security Engineer

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal AI Security Engineer to lead our AI security strategy and serve as the primary technical owner for AI risk management across our platform. This role is responsible for ensuring our AI framework is secure, developing modern AI-native security capabilities, and helping the organization stay ahead of the AI security curve while maintaining efficient software development practices.

You'll have the chance to:

• Lead technical AI security strategy across ML and Generative AI infrastructure, serving as the primary technical owner for the Model Risk Office from a security perspective
• Build comprehensive AI security tools, frameworks, and AI-powered security solutions that enable secure AI/ML systems at scale
• Drive AI risk management across all technical areas including model security, adversarial attacks, data privacy, and AI supply chain security while partnering with legal and privacy teams on governance

This role is an individual contributor position with mentoring responsibilities, focused on maturing our AI security function as we scale our machine learning and generative AI capabilities. If you are passionate about AI security and looking to shape the future of secure AI in fintech, we would love to have you on board!

The Impact You’ll Have

• Lead AI security strategy and risk assessment across customer-facing AI products, fraud detection models, LLMs, and recommendation systems
• Build and maintain AI security frameworks, tools, and monitoring capabilities for model validation and ongoing risk management
• Conduct security assessments of AI/ML model architectures, training pipelines, and deployment infrastructure
• Develop security controls specifically designed for AI/ML systems including adversarial attack prevention and bias mitigation
• Mentor security engineers and cross-functional teams on AI security best practices
• Partner closely with AI/ML engineering, data science, product security, and compliance teams
• Create secure AI development lifecycle practices and self-service security capabilities
• Drive technical decisions for AI security architecture and implementation across the organization

Who You Are

• A minimum of 10 years related security engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience
• Strong background in data and ML security (generative AI experience preferred but flexible for the right candidate)
• Deep understanding of AI/ML security risks including adversarial attacks, model poisoning, data privacy, and bias
• Experience with cloud AI/ML platforms (AWS Bedrock, Azure AI, GCP AI Platform, etc.)
• Proven ability to build security frameworks and tools from the ground up
• Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.)
• Experience with security assessment methodologies and risk management frameworks
• Experience with compliance and control frameworks (PCI DSS, SOX, SOC2, ISO27001, GDPR, NIST CSF)

Nice to Have

• Financial services or fintech experience strongly preferred
• Experience with payment processing systems and fraud detection models
• Knowledge of AI governance and model risk management practices
• Background in data science or machine learning engineering
• Experience with privacy-preserving ML techniques (differential privacy, secure multi-party computation)
• Experience with Kubernetes and containerized AI/ML workloads
• Experience with IaC tools such as Terraform for AI infrastructure
• CISSP, CCSP, CISA, or other appropriate security certifications
• Experience building and scaling security programs in high-growth environments

Compensation and Benefits

Marqeta is a Flex First company which allows you to choose your best working environment, whether that be from home or at a company office. To support Flex First, we calibrate pay to a competitive value according to working location. Compensation is aligned according to three tiers within the United States:

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