Principal Security Architect

Royal Bank of Canada•Toronto, ON

7h•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a seasoned enterprise security architect to develop and implement security frameworks for AI systems. As the Enterprise Security Architect, you will be a key member of our architecture team, responsible for designing, defining, and deploying secure patterns and standards that ensure the highest level of security and compliance for our AI initiatives. The scope of this role is significant, as the security reference architectures and governance frameworks you develop will be used by all AI implementations across the enterprise, impacting thousands of users and critical business systems. You will play a critical role in ensuring that our organization safely adopts AI innovation while meeting regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions and maintaining business objectives.

Requirements

5+ years of enterprise security architecture experience.
Deep knowledge of security frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, Zero Trust) and cloud-native security technologies.
Understanding of AI/ML systems architecture including LLMs, vector databases, and agentic AI patterns.
Knowledge of financial services regulations (OSFI guidelines, SR 11-7, Model Risk Management) and AI-specific regulations (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF)
Strong communication skills with ability to translate complex technical concepts into business language for executive audiences.
Experience with threat modeling, risk assessment frameworks, and security analysis for emerging technologies.
Understanding of authentication protocols (OAuth 2.1, OIDC, SAML, mTLS) and enterprise integration patterns.

Nice To Haves

Security certifications (CISSP, SABSA) or cloud security certifications (AWS Security Specialty, Azure Security Engineer)
Experience with AI security tools and adversarial testing methodologies.
Previous experience implementing AI systems in regulated financial environments and algorithmic trading security requirements.
Active participation in AI security research communities (OWASP AI Security, MITRE ATLAS) or published thought leadership.
Multi-jurisdictional regulatory experience and cross-border data governance knowledge for AI systems.
Experience with FINOS frameworks, SPIFFE/SPIRE for workload identity, or service mesh architectures for AI workloads.
Previous experience in large financial services organizations.

Responsibilities

Define security reference architectures and reusable security patterns for AI systems that solution architects can effectively implement.
Work closely with solution architects to ensure they properly apply security patterns and select appropriate technologies for agentic AI / Gen AI implementations.
Recommend security capabilities and technologies to platform teams to enable secure operation of AI platforms.
Develop security standards and best practices that become reusable patterns across the enterprise.
Research emerging AI security threats and translate findings into actionable guidance for solution architects and platform teams.
Create architectural blueprints and decision frameworks that guide teams toward secure AI implementations.
Map regulatory requirements (OSFI E-23, SR 11-7, EU AI Act) to architectural patterns and provide compliance guidance to implementation teams.
Assess and recommend security technologies and tools that platform teams should adopt to build secure AI platforms.
Collaborate with enterprise architecture teams to ensure AI security patterns integrate with broader enterprise standards.
Present architectural guidance and recommendations to senior stakeholders and technical teams.