Staff Security Engineer

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

Requirements:

• 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