Associate Director, AI & Application Security HYBRID ROLE

Job Description

This is a hybrid position that requires 3 days a week in our Boston office

Vertex is seeking an Associate Director AI & Application Security to lead security for AI-enabled applications platforms and services across the enterprise. This role is responsible for securing AI throughout the full lifecyclefrom design and development to deployment and ongoing operationsincluding generative AI agentic workflows traditional machine learning and AI embedded in enterprise applications.

This leader will help define how Vertex securely adopts and scales AI across Azure AWS and GCP as well as third-party and foundation model platforms such as Microsoft Copilot / Azure OpenAI Anthropic Google Gemini and AWS Bedrock. The role will partner closely with technical and business stakeholders to establish pragmatic guardrails strengthen secure development practices and reduce risk without slowing innovation.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in cloud security and application security along with strong judgment technical credibility and the ability to influence decisions in fast-moving evolving environments. This role also requires practical experience applying security and risk frameworks relevant to AI and modern application environments.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead AI and application security across the full lifecycle of AI-enabled systems from design and development through deployment and operations.
• Define and evolve security standards guardrails and control expectations for AI systems used across Vertex.
• Apply and operationalize industry-recognized security frameworks and control models including:
  • NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF)
  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)
  • OWASP Top 10
  • OWASP Top 10 for LLM and Generative AI Applications
• Secure AI workloads and AI-enabled applications across cloud and SaaS environments with emphasis on:
  • policy enforcement
  • data protection
  • logging and telemetry
  • monitoring and operational visibility
• Lead threat modeling and misuse-case analysis for AI systems including risks such as:
  • prompt injection and prompt abuse
  • sensitive data leakage
  • tool or action abuse
  • unsafe outputs
  • model misuse
• Define and mature AI guardrails including monitoring detection logging and misuse or negative testing practices.
• Establish secure development expectations for AI-enabled applications and services including secure coding practices and appropriate separation of development and production environments.
• Build and lead application security testing practices for AI-enabled applications and supporting services including SAST DAST automated scanning and retesting processes.
• Partner with Cloud Security Security Operations Privacy Legal Data Science and Engineering teams to align security controls with business technical and regulatory requirements.
• Influence architecture and platform decisions through practical risk-based guidance that can scale with AI adoption.
• Communicate risks tradeoffs and recommendations clearly to both technical teams and senior leadership.

Knowledge and Skills

• Cloud security architecture and controls across Azure and AWS
• Familiarity with GCP security concepts and services
• Secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices
• Secure coding standards and code review practices
• SAST DAST automated security scanning and remediation workflows
• OWASP Top 10 and common application and API security risks
• Familiarity with OWASP guidance for LLM/GenAI applications
• API security identity and access management secrets management and service-to-service trust
• Logging telemetry monitoring and detection for cloud-native environments
• Threat modeling and misuse-case analysis
• Familiarity with AI security risks including:
  • prompt injection
  • data leakage
  • model misuse
  • tool or action abuse
  • unsafe outputs
  • policy enforcement
• Familiarity with AI platforms and providers such as:
  • Microsoft Copilot / Azure OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Google Gemini
  • AWS Bedrock
  • emerging AI platforms and services

Education and Experience

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Security Engineering or a related field or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience in application security product security cloud security or a related cybersecurity discipline.
• Strong experience securing cloud environments particularly Azure and AWS; familiarity with GCP is a plus.
• Deep knowledge of application security fundamentals and secure software development practices.
• Experience securing APIs platforms and complex distributed systems.
• Experience leading threat modeling architecture reviews and risk-based security assessments.
• Experience applying security and risk frameworks in engineering environments including familiarity with NIST AI RMF NIST CSF and common application security standards.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with engineering and platform teams to embed security into design and delivery processes.
• Experience securing generative AI applications agentic workflows or machine learning-enabled services.
• Experience defining AI guardrails and monitoring strategies at scale.
• Excellent communication and influence skills with the ability to engage both technical teams and senior leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in biopharmaceutical or other GxP-regulated environments with strong privacy and data protection requirements.

#LI-HYBRID

Pay Range:

Disclosure Statement:

Flex Designation:

Flex Eligibility Status:

In this Remote-Eligible role you can choose to be designated as:
1. Remote: work remotely five days per week and come into the office on occasion youre always welcome on-site; or select
2. Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
3. On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertexs Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.

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Company Information

Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.

Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a persons race color sex gender identity or expression age religion national origin ancestry ethnicity disability veteran status genetic information sexual orientation marital status or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities in accordance with applicable law.

Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager or contact Talent Acquisition at