Lead Security Engineer

📋 Job Overview

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

🏢 About The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

🎯 The Role

Are you a security-minded individual who not only enjoys identifying security vulnerabilities but also looks forward to helping close out concerns? If so, our infrastructure team is looking for a security leader who can identify and prioritize our biggest security concerns as well as contribute to resolving them. In this role, you’ll work collaboratively across the organization to understand our technical landscape, organize and prioritize security concerns, and directly contribute to projects to secure our systems. If you enjoy taking initiative, learning about new systems, and making a real impact, we want you on our team.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain documentation for Ai2's organizational approach to security, including policies, standards, and system security plans (SSPs).
• Maintain and prioritize a backlog of security investments.
• Investigate and respond to security incidents, lead root-cause analysis, and drive remediation to closure.
• Build systems and tooling that improve security compliance, observability, and governance (e.g., audit logging, access control, vulnerability management, configuration baselines).
• Partner across research and engineering teams to address security concerns.
• Define and evolve security standards, secure-development practices, and documentation to raise the organization's overall security maturity.
• Evaluate and secure SaaS platforms and tools that make up our environment (vendor risk assessments, access reviews, data handling review, multi-tenant data isolation).
• Serve as the organization's trusted voice on security: act as a hands-on advisor and sounding board to organizational leaders, helping translate security risk into practical, actionable guidance for teams without deep security expertise.

📌 Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and 8–10 years of overall software/infrastructure engineering experience.
• Hands-on experience conducting security and compliance audits, and directly implementing or assessing controls. For example, experience with NIST 800-171.
• A track record of stepping up to ambiguous, high-stakes problems rather than waiting for a fully scoped mandate — this role will require building a program largely from the ground up.
• Strong ability to advise non-security technical leaders (e.g., engineering directors/managers) — translating technical risk into clear, actionable recommendations they can act on without a security background.

🎁 Benefits

• Our base salary range is $176,400 - $264,600, and in addition we have generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.
• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at [email protected].