Staff / Principal Security Engineer, AI Safety and Security
Hybrid (Cambridge / London / San Francisco)$192k - $306kfull-timePosted 4d ago
About the role
Senior security practitioner to lead threat modeling, testing, and protection development at the intersection of AI safety and security for Lila Sciences. Focus on dangerous misuse, protection of models/data, and practical improvements across AI systems, deployments, and scientific workflows.
Responsibilities
- Threat-model consequential systems and capabilities. Investigate how dangerous misuse or compromise could occur across models, deployed services and scientific workflows. Identify actors, access routes, failure paths, and protections.
- Test the assumptions behind our defenses. Examine architectures, code, configurations and operational evidence. Run focused adversarial tests, build prototypes and investigate weaknesses, including when several protections depend on the same underlying system.
- Shape the protections needed for safe deployment. Turn dangerous-capability assessments into concrete security requirements. Assess how compromise of models, sensitive assets or supporting systems changes the safety assessment.
- Make evidence-based recommendations. Define what evidence would demonstrate that important controls and safeguards work together. Combine findings from model evaluations and security testing, explain remaining uncertainty, and recommend improvements or conditions for use.
- Carry findings through to practical improvements. Work with Security, Safety and engineering owners to prioritize changes, specify acceptance criteria and verify results. Recommend gaps to address first and why.
- Anticipate what more capable systems will require. Identify when stronger protections are needed and help plan security work with long lead times; update assessments as systems evolve.
- Develop methods that others can use. Turn investigations into threat models, assessment methods and technical guidance for Safety and Security teams.
Qualifications
- Substantial hands-on security experience and deep expertise in at least one relevant discipline (security architecture, application or infrastructure security, offensive security, or incident response).
Skills
Required:Security depth across disciplinesThreat modelingSecurity testing and evaluationCross-functional collaborationWritten communicationCuriosity about AI safety and scientific systems
Benefits
- Competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous equity.
- U.S. Benefits: medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, flexible time off, holidays, parental leave, educational assistance, commuter benefits, lunch program.
- International Benefits: region-tailored benefits; USD salary applies to U.S. positions.
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Lila Sciences
Pioneering Scientific Superintelligence
Pioneering Scientific Superintelligence to solve humankind’s greatest challenges.
Scientific SuperintelligenceAIAutonomous LabsLife SciencesChemical SciencesMaterials Sciences
More open roles at Lila Sciences
- Staff IT Systems Engineer, Endpoints4d agoCambridge, MA · Business Operations
- Principal Network Engineer4d agoCambridge, MA · Business Operations
- Contractor, P2P Specialist4d agoCambridge, MA · Corporate Development
- Staff / Principal Research Engineer, AI Safety Mitigations4d agoHybrid (Cambridge, MA; London, UK; San Francisco, CA) · AI
- Specialist / Senior Procurement Specialist4d agoCambridge, MA · Corporate Development