Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm that builds AI co-workers and enterprise cloud applications. The Staff Security Engineer will lead security architecture, threat modeling, cloud and application security, security automation, incident response, and protection of AI/LLM-powered systems. The role also provides technical leadership, stakeholder collaboration, and mentorship across engineering teams.
Responsibilities
- Define security architecture and engineering standards across web, API, and cloud-native systems, leading the hardening of complex services
- Lead threat modeling and security design reviews across applications and AI systems, setting how risk is identified and prioritized
- Architect cloud security controls across identity, network, and data layers, owning IAM strategy, secrets management, and encryption
- Lead the integration of security automation into CI/CD pipelines, driving shift-left detection and policy-as-code across teams
- Lead detection engineering, logging, and incident response practices across production systems
- Own the security of AI and LLM-powered applications in production, defining defenses against prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse, and agentic-AI threats
- Lead the design and integration of AI services into production security workflows, including LLM APIs, tool and function calling, and multi-step agent flows for detection and triage
- Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude, Cursor, and other modern AI assistants to ship higher-quality work at pace
- Partner with product, engineering, and leadership to shape security strategy and align technical direction with business outcomes
- Translate complex security tradeoffs, risks, and opportunities into clear narratives that drive decision-making across technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Lead security reviews and technical discussions, raising the bar for engineering rigor and constructive challenge across the team
- Engage closely with engineering, data, and client teams to align security work with broader business priorities and measurable outcomes
- Define security architecture and engineering standards, bringing depth on tradeoffs, long-term implications, and responsible AI practices
- Mentor and grow junior and mid-level engineers, multiplying impact through coaching, code reviews, and pairing on hard problems
- Take ownership of the most ambiguous and highest-stakes pieces of work, driving them through to production with care for reliability, cost, and safety
Skills
- This position is remote based in the US
- Applicants outside of the US will not be considered for this role
- 7+ years of professional security or software engineering experience, with at least 3 years leading application and cloud security initiatives
- Deep expertise in application security, secure coding practices, and the OWASP Top 10
- Strong experience with threat modeling, penetration testing, vulnerability management, and secure code review
- Deep cloud security expertise across identity, network, and data layers
- Strong experience embedding security automation and policy-as-code into CI/CD pipelines
- Strong experience with detection engineering, logging, and incident response at scale
- Strong experience securing AI and LLM-powered applications, including prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse, and agentic-AI threats
- Experience with security, compliance, and governance frameworks
- Demonstrated leadership and technical mentoring experience across a team or organization
- Strong stakeholder communication skills, with the ability to translate technical depth across audiences
- Demonstrable, day-to-day usage and expert knowledge of AI-forward tools such as Claude and Cursor
- Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to navigate highly ambiguous technical and business challenges with sound judgment
Benefits
- Paid time off
- Medical/dental/vision insurance for eligible employees
- 401(k) for eligible employees
Company Overview
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