Principal AI Security Engineer

BetterUp • Austin, TX

80d • $232,000 - $366,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal AI Security Engineer is a strategic individual contributor role responsible for advancing BetterUp's product and application security posture across our AI-powered SaaS platform. This role operates at the intersection of secure engineering, AI governance, and regulatory alignment-guiding security by design in product development and scaling key security initiatives including ISO 42001 readiness, bug bounty programs, and customer-driven assurance. Serving as a technical thought leader and security domain expert, this role partners closely with Engineering, Product, and AI/ML teams to embed secure development practices into the SDLC, proactively manage risk, and drive customer trust through continuous improvement of our product security capabilities.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in application and product security roles within cloud-native and SaaS environments, with a strong emphasis on securing AI/ML systems, models, and data pipelines.
• Proven success delivering security enhancements with SOC2, NIST, OWASP, CIS Benchmarks; with a huge plus with ISO 42001.
• Hands-on experience with SAST/DAST tooling, threat modeling, secure code review, and vulnerability management pipelines.
• Experience collaborating with internal stakeholders (including the product, engineering and go-to-market teams) as well as external partners to ensure alignment of security goals with product roadmaps.
• Demonstrated ability to influence engineering teams and drive secure design decisions without formal authority.
• Strong understanding of secure development practices for distributed systems, microservices, APIs, and data pipelines.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting or operating bug bounty or coordinated vulnerability disclosure programs.

Responsibilities

• Translate emerging regulatory frameworks (e.g., ISO 42001, SOC2, OWASP ASVS) and customer assurance requirements into actionable engineering enhancements.
• Define and guide the secure design and implementation of features across web, mobile, and AI-powered services, ensuring security is embedded early in the product lifecycle.
• Scale and lead the bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure programs, partnering with researchers and triage teams to drive rapid remediation and learning loops.
• Partner with AI/ML teams to assess, mitigate, and monitor risks unique to GenAI and AI/ML model integration, including prompt injection, data leakage, and model manipulation.
• Provide deep expertise in secure coding practices, threat modeling, design reviews, and static/dynamic analysis to Engineering teams delivering core user-facing functionality.
• Serve as a security SME for AI-centric features, helping teams align with AI governance, privacy, and ethical use frameworks.
• Work closely with internal teams (Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Platform teams) as well as external partners to ensure alignment of security goals with product roadmaps.
• Serve as a bridge between security, compliance, and engineering-translating external regulatory and customer drivers into technical security requirements.
• Actively influence product development timelines and risk prioritization through strategic participation in design, architecture, and sprint planning forums.
• Lead application-level security architecture reviews and define secure patterns for authentication, authorization, data protection, and API security.
• Evaluate new technologies and services for security risks and support secure vendor selection and integration.
• Contribute to and help evolve BetterUp's secure development lifecycle and product security engineering standards.

Benefits

• Access to BetterUp coaching; one for you and one for a friend or family member.
• A competitive compensation plan with opportunity for advancement.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flexible paid time off.
• All federal/statutory holidays observed.
• 4 BetterUp Inner Workdays.
• 5 Volunteer Days to give back.
• Learning and Development stipend.
• Company wide Summer & Winter breaks.
• Year-round charitable contribution of your choice on behalf of BetterUp.
• 401(k) self contribution.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Personal and Laundry Services
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees