Distinguished Engineer (DE) for AI & Product Security

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About the Team

About the Role

The Distinguished Engineer (DE) for AI & Product Security is a pivotal hands-on technical leadership role responsible for defining and driving the security strategy across our core product portfolio with a special emphasis on the security lifecycle of AI technologies Large Language Models (LLMs) and cloud-native applications. This role ensures security is fundamentally built into new technologies and will serve as the top technical expert driving architectural decisions and security governance across the organization.

Responsibilities

1. AI/ML Security Architecture and Strategy (40%)

• Secure AI/MLSDLC: Define and evangelize the secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) for all AI/ML models and applications ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of training data model weights and inference results.

• LLM Governance and Control: Design and implement architectural patterns and tooling to manage and restrict the flow of proprietary data into and out of external commodity LLMs.

• Adversarial AI Defense: Develop novel security countermeasures against prompt injection model inversion data poisoning and other advanced adversarial machine learning attacks targeting our products.

• AI Safety: Guide the team in creating auditable and safety-aligned standards for internal AI tools (e.g. Sana AI).

2. Product and Cloud Security Leadership (30%)

• Architectural Review: Lead the most complex and sensitive security reviews for critical products and services.

• Defense in Depth: Modernize on the companys Zero Trust model implementation strategy guiding engineering teams on micro-segmentation identity-based access and least-privilege principles within product infrastructures.

3. Mentorship Influence and Research (30%)

• Technical Advocacy: Act as the primary technical voice for Cybersecurity & Trust representing the security organization in cross-functional working groups executive forums and with external parties.

• Mentorship: Mentor senior and principal engineers across engineering teams raising the collective security bar and fostering a culture of secure development.

• External Research: Maintain deep expertise in emerging AI and Product threats and contribute to the external security community through patents publications or industry standards development.

About You

• Experience: 12 years of experience in Software Engineering Infrastructure or Product Security with at least 5 years operating at a Principal/Staff level or higher.

• Expertise: Deep demonstrable expertise in the security implications of cloud-native architectures (Kubernetes Serverless) and a strong command of modern AI/ML development frameworks and security concerns.

• Architecture: Proven history of designing security controls that scale across large heterogeneous production environments.

• Compliance: Extensive experience architecting products to meet global regulatory and industry standards including GDPR HIPAA ISO 27001 and SOC 2. Must have a proven track record of translating complex compliance mandates into automated technical controls and compliance-as-code within a CI/CD pipeline specifically addressing emerging AI regulations (e.g. EU AI Act) and data residency requirements.

• Communication: Exceptional ability to translate complex technical risks into business impact for executive audiences and the Board of Directors.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science Electrical Engineering or a related field.

• Experience with advanced security analytics and threat modeling for complex distributed systems.

• Active participation in AI security research or industry working groups

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidates compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including but not limited to geography experience skills job duties and business need among other things. For more information regarding Workdays comprehensive benefits please click here.

Our Approach to Flexible Work

With Flex Work were combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections maintain a strong community and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways so rather than a number of required days in-office each week we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers prospects and partners (depending on role). This means youll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business team and personal needs while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote home office roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.

Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

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