Junior – Applied AI Security Research Engineer - NextHub Bari

Junior - Applied AI Security Research Engineer - NextHub Bari

Deloitte is looking for an Applied AI Security Research Engineer to join the Deloitte NextHub, based in Bari, with a hybrid working model.

The team leverages frontier AI models to build new security capabilities in the following areas:

• AI Security;
• Application Security.

The team combines expertise in cybersecurity, AI, and software engineering to turn AI research, experimentation, and model development into tools capable of testing real-world AI models, agents, and applications.

Your role

You will work with LLMs and other frontier AI models to develop new cybersecurity capabilities, from early-stage research and experimentation through to production. Working alongside senior specialists, you will contribute to bothAI research and development and backend and frontend development, while maintaining a comprehensive understanding of the solutions being developed and how their different components interact.

You will have the opportunity to propose ideas, experiment with new approaches, train, evaluate, and adapt models, and see your solutions applied in real-world scenarios.

In particular the Junior resource will be integrated into a work team, working alongside senior colleagues and responsible for:

• research, evaluate, train, and adapt LLMs for cybersecurity use cases, experimenting with fine-tuning techniques and assessing their capabilities, effectiveness, and limitations;
• design experiments, benchmarks, and evaluation pipelines to compare different models and approaches;
• develop backend services, orchestration layers, and asynchronous REST APIs using Python/FastAPI;
• design React/TypeScript interfaces to make complex security workflows accessible and easy to use;
• develop data models, integrations, containers, and CI/CD pipelines;
• turn prototypes and research outcomes into robust capabilities, contributing to architectural decisions while balancing security, performance, and user experience.

You will also have the opportunity to grow through:

• dedicated training, technical mentoring, and e-learning platforms;
• international certifications to strengthen your technical and specialist expertise.

What we offer

The annual gross compensation for the Analyst position ranges between EUR 22.000 and EUR 25.000.

In the case of an internship, a traineeship allowance is provided.

The employment level will be defined during the selection process, based on the candidate’s profile and in accordance with the Italian National Collective Labour Agreement for the Tertiary, Distribution and Services sector (CCNL Terziario Distribuzione e Servizi).

The specific compensation package - including any variable components (such as MBO) and additional benefits - will depend on the assessment of the candidate’s profile against the requirements of the role.

Requirements

• Bachelor's and/or Master's degree in a STEM discipline;
• foundational development skills in Python, React, TypeScript, and SQL;
• interest in LLMs, machine learning, and training and fine-tuning techniques;
• knowledge of Web/API vulnerabilities and related mitigations, with reference to OWASP;
• hands-on cybersecurity experience, including through university projects, personal labs, or CTFs;
• familiarity with Git, networking, and secure coding;
• strong communication skills in both Italian and English;
• teamwork, technical curiosity, and problem-solving skills.

Nice to have

These are not mandatory requirements, but familiarity with one or more of the following areas would be considered a plus:

• interest in topics such as prompt injection, jailbreaking, adversarial ML, AI red teaming, and recent research on LLM security;
• experience with frameworks and techniques for LLM training, fine-tuning, and evaluation;
• familiarity with Redis for caching and asynchronous pipeline orchestration;
• experience with SQLAlchemy for asynchronous and type-safe database access;
• knowledge of TanStack Query for server-state management in frontend applications;
• experience with Tailwind CSS for developing interfaces consistent with a design system.

Make an Impact that Matters

Deloitte is a global leader in professional services, operating in over 150 countries with a network of more than 460,000 professionals.

In Italy, Deloitte is located in 24 cities with approximately 13,400 professionals supporting clients through services in Audit & Assurance, Technology & Transformation, Strategy, Risk & Transactions Advisory, and Tax & Legal.

As a global network, we are committed to addressing key social, economic, and environmental challenges. WorldImpact is our global program that brings together initiatives designed to create a positive impact on people, clients, the environment, and communities.

Through Impact for Italy, the Italian branch of WorldImpact, Deloitte has launched projects in collaboration with institutions, non-profit organizations, universities, and other stakeholders-leaving a lasting legacy across the country.

The search complies with Legislative Decree 198/2006, Legislative Decree 215/03 and Legislative Decree 216/03 and is open to candidates of any sexual orientation or expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity and religious belief. This announcement has been designed in respect of diversity and inclusion.