Senior Application Security Engineer, AI and Machine Learning

Who We Are

Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems-designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.

Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.

We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.

The Way We Work

The people who thrive here are builders who move fast, communicate openly, take ownership, and continuously improve themselves, their teams, and our company. Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Move with Urgency: We move quickly, make thoughtful decisions, and keep momentum. We value action over perfection and learn by shipping.
• Take Ownership: We own outcomes, not just our individual work. We make decisions that move the company forward and follow through.
• Communicate Openly: We communicate directly, seek to understand, and create clarity for others. Honest conversations help us move faster together.
• Build Great Teams: We lead by example, empower others, and create healthy teams where people can do their best work.
• Raise the Bar: We're always improving ourselves. We learn from feedback, consistently challenge ourselves to grow, and focus on the work that matters most.
• Think Long-Term: We design for what's next. We create scalable systems, simplify complexity, and use AI and automation to amplify our impact.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for a Senior Application Security Engineer to help secure our AI, machine learning, and inference platforms. This is a hands on technical role focused on building security into modern AI infrastructure, inference systems, and developer platforms.

You will work closely with platform engineers, ML engineers, and infrastructure teams to identify risks, design secure architectures, and build security tooling that enables engineers to move quickly and safely.

This role is execution focused. You will drive technical implementation, perform deep security reviews, and help build out our application security capabilities alongside the CISO and engineering leadership.

This role is hybrid out of our Seattle or San Francisco offices, with an in-office requirement of at least 2 days per week and occasional team and company offsites. We are not able to provide visa sponsorship for this role at this time. 

What You’ll Do

Secure AI and Machine Learning Systems

• Perform threat modeling across AI platforms, inference services, and ML pipelines
• Identify risks such as prompt injection, model extraction, adversarial inputs, and data leakage
• Review model serving architectures and inference pipelines
• Partner with ML engineers to secure training, fine tuning, and deployment workflows
• Help design isolation and security controls for multi tenant AI workloads

Application Security Engineering

• Perform architecture and design security reviews
• Conduct targeted code reviews for high risk components
• Identify security gaps in APIs, micro-services, and distributed systems
• Build secure patterns for authentication, authorization, and service to service communication
• Help engineering teams implement secure defaults and guardrails

Inference Platform Security

• Secure customer facing inference APIs and services
• Protect against abuse, model extraction, and adversarial behavior
• Design rate limiting, isolation, and workload protection controls
• Build monitoring and detection for anomalous inference behavior

AI Supply Chain and Model Security

• Evaluate open source models and dependencies
• Secure model artifacts and distribution pipelines
• Implement integrity validation and provenance controls
• Help secure container images and runtime environments

Security Automation and Tooling

• Build security automation for AI and application pipelines
• Integrate security scanning into CI/CD workflows
• Develop tooling to help engineers detect and fix issues early
• Improve developer experience with security guardrails

What You'll Need

Required Experience

• Strong background in application security engineering
• Experience performing threat modeling and architecture reviews
• Experience securing APIs and distributed systems
• Experience working in cloud environments such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Experience with containers and Kubernetes
• Strong scripting or programming skills such as Python, Go, or similar
• Experience working closely with engineering teams to implement security improvements

AI and Machine Learning Experience

• Experience securing ML pipelines, inference systems, or data platforms
• Familiarity with risks such as prompt injection, model extraction, and adversarial inputs
• Experience reviewing model serving architectures
• Understanding of training data security and data leakage risks

It's a Strong Plus If You Have

• Red team or offensive security experience
• Experience crafting payloads and evaluating CVEs for exploitability in diverse environments
• Experience with GPU infrastructure or high performance computing
• Experience with Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar frameworks
• Experience with LLM systems, RAG pipelines, or agent frameworks
• Experience building security automation pipelines
• Experience securing multi tenant infrastructure

What Success Looks Like

• Security is embedded into AI platform architecture early
• Engineering teams ship quickly with secure defaults
• Inference platforms are resilient against abuse and extraction
• Model pipelines are secure and auditable
• Security tooling scales with engineering growth

Why This Role Matters

This role sits at the intersection of application security, AI infrastructure, and developer platforms. You will help define how we secure modern AI systems while enabling engineers to move quickly and safely.

You will work closely with engineering leadership and the CISO to build practical, scalable security capabilities that support rapid innovation in AI and machine learning.

Compensation

We are committed to offering competitive compensation that reflects the value each team member brings to our mission. Final offers are based on factors such as experience, skills, geographic location, and role expectations. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package for eligible roles includes a discretionary bonus, a meaningful equity component, and comprehensive benefits.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is:

$180,000—$220,000 USD

Benefits and Perks

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support our employees’ health, well-being, and long-term success:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.
• Meaningful Equity: RSUs that give employees a stake in the company's long-term success.
• Retirement Savings: 401(k) matching (U.S.) and pension contributions (U.K.).
• Flexible Time Off: Unlimited PTO, company holidays, and floating holidays to support work-life balance.
• Company-Wide Winter Break: Two weeks of company closure each winter to disconnect and recharge.
• Paid Parental & Family Leave: Paid leave to support you and your family through life's important moments.
• Professional Development: Annual learning and development allowance to support your professional growth.
• Wellness Benefits: Wellness and work-from-home stipends to support your physical and mental well-being.
• Sabbatical Program: Four weeks of paid sabbatical leave after four years of service.
• Flexible Work: Flexible schedules and a hybrid work model for our office-based teams.
• In-Office Meals: Complimentary meals at our office hubs.

Benefits may vary by location, team, and role.

At Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.