Principal AI Security Architect

The application window is expected to close on: 04/30/2026 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received . Meet the Team As a Principal AI Security Architect, you will join a specialized team within Security and Trust Organization serving as the senior software security technical advisor for Cisco’s Customer Experience (CX) organization. We act as partners, to the business, embedding ourselves directly into product management and software development cycles. Our mission is to ensure the secure design, development, and delivery of Cisco’s most critical platforms, including the Cisco IQ ecosystem. We work with our product management and engineering counterparts, providing the technical authority and architectural guidance necessary to accelerate innovation while maintaining a robust security and risk posture. Your Impact In this role, you will provide expert technical leadership to product, platform, and offer teams, ensuring that software development and AI functionality is integrated securely from inception to delivery. Your impact will include: Strategic AI Guardrails: Define and implement security guardrails for AI-embedded applications. You will proactively address risks such as prompt injection, data leakage, privacy violations, and unauthorized cross-customer data access. Architectural Leadership: Serve as the authority on secure cloud architecture within AWS and Azure environments. Review complex designs to ensure they meet Cisco’s security standards before they reach the market. Risk-Based Decision Making: Evaluate the security risk of new releases (Critical, High, Medium, Low) and provide actionable, technical remediation paths to product teams, helping them ship securely without sacrificing speed. Collaborative Partnership: Act as a trusted advisor to senior engineering leadership. You will translate complex security requirements into business outcomes, ensuring that security is viewed as an accelerator for the CX ecosystem and TAC tooling. Cross-Functional Influence: Collaborate across the broader Cisco ecosystem, including Operations and IT, to ensure that security patterns are repeatable, scalable, and aligned with our overall AI safety and governance frameworks. Minimum Qualifications 10 years’ experience in the software industry with a focus on security, deep hands-on experience in cloud-native architectures (eg: AWS/Azure) and AI/ML integration. Demonstrated ability to secure AI models and applications, specifically addressing LLM-related vulnerabilities and data privacy concerns. Strong background in secure software development lifecycles (SDLC), architecture validation for large-scale, complex ecosystems and preferably in threat modeling. Experience in quantifying security risks and providing clear guidance with influence to product managers and engineering leads. Preferred Qualifications Prior experience working with large-scale customer support or technical assistance platforms (e.g., TAC engineering environments). Deep understanding of AI safety, ethical AI, and global data protection regulations as they apply to cloud-based SaaS offerings. Experience integrating security checkpoints into fast-paced, high-velocity CI/CD pipelines. A track record of mentoring senior-level engineers and fostering a security-first culture within high-performing technical teams. Why Cisco? At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, ... (truncated, view full listing at source)