Principal AI Security Architect

Cisco

About The Position

As a Principal AI Security Architect, you will join a specialized team within Security and Trust Organization serving as the senior software security technical advisor for Cisco’s Customer Experience (CX) organization. We act as partners, to the business, embedding ourselves directly into product management and software development cycles. Our mission is to ensure the secure design, development, and delivery of Cisco’s most critical platforms, including the Cisco IQ ecosystem. We work with our product management and engineering counterparts, providing the technical authority and architectural guidance necessary to accelerate innovation while maintaining a robust security and risk posture. In this role, you will provide expert technical leadership to product, platform, and offer teams, ensuring that software development and AI functionality is integrated securely from inception to delivery.

Requirements

10+ years’ experience in the software industry with a focus on security, deep hands-on experience in cloud-native architectures (eg: AWS/Azure) and AI/ML integration.
Demonstrated ability to secure AI models and applications, specifically addressing LLM-related vulnerabilities and data privacy concerns.
Strong background in secure software development lifecycles (SDLC), architecture validation for large-scale, complex ecosystems and preferably in threat modeling.
Experience in quantifying security risks and providing clear guidance with influence to product managers and engineering leads.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience working with large-scale customer support or technical assistance platforms (e.g., TAC engineering environments).
Deep understanding of AI safety, ethical AI, and global data protection regulations as they apply to cloud-based SaaS offerings.
Experience integrating security checkpoints into fast-paced, high-velocity CI/CD pipelines.
A track record of mentoring senior-level engineers and fostering a security-first culture within high-performing technical teams.

Responsibilities

Strategic AI Guardrails: Define and implement security guardrails for AI-embedded applications. You will proactively address risks such as prompt injection, data leakage, privacy violations, and unauthorized cross-customer data access.
Architectural Leadership: Serve as the authority on secure cloud architecture within AWS and Azure environments. Review complex designs to ensure they meet Cisco’s security standards before they reach the market.
Risk-Based Decision Making: Evaluate the security risk of new releases (Critical, High, Medium, Low) and provide actionable, technical remediation paths to product teams, helping them ship securely without sacrificing speed.
Collaborative Partnership: Act as a trusted advisor to senior engineering leadership. You will translate complex security requirements into business outcomes, ensuring that security is viewed as an accelerator for the CX ecosystem and TAC tooling.
Cross-Functional Influence: Collaborate across the broader Cisco ecosystem, including Operations and IT, to ensure that security patterns are repeatable, scalable, and aligned with our overall AI safety and governance frameworks.

Benefits

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance.
Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies: 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.