Staff Security Engineer

This position is remote based in the US

Applicants outside of the US will not be considered for this role

Company Overview

Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that integrate into enterprise operations and deliver measurable results for our clients. We're all in on AWS, combining deep UX capability with senior engineering talent to get AI into production fast and keep it there.
We’ve earned the trust of leaders across Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing and more, and earned a reputation as the nimble alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Founded in 2009, with delivery centers in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, we are smaller, faster, and more senior by design. Our teams average 15+ years of experience. We move fast, sweat the details, and build things that actually ship.

Position Overview

We’re looking for a Staff Security Engineer to lead the security of the cloud applications and AI systems we build and ship for clients. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who can define security architecture and standards, own the hardest security problems end-to-end, and provide technical leadership across teams.

In this role, you will work as a key technical leader on a cross-functional team, defining security architecture across cloud infrastructure, application code, and AI/LLM workloads. You’ll lead threat modeling and security reviews, mentor more junior engineers, partner closely with engineering and leadership, and ensure the systems we ship are secure, reliable, and built to last.

Why This Role Matters

At Robots & Pencils, we design AI systems for a human world. Our name says it all. Robots and pencils means engineering paired with creativity, because every agent we ship has to work for real people in real workflows. That balance is baked into how we operate.
Every role here contributes directly to that mission. Here, you shape how AI systems integrate into enterprise operations, how teams move at real velocity, and how products create measurable impact for clients and the people they serve. We ship production-ready AI in 30 to 45 days. That pace demands people who take ownership, lead with craft, and care deeply about what they put their name on.

What You’ll Do

Craft & Delivery

Define security architecture and engineering standards across web, API, and cloud-native systems, leading the hardening of complex services

Lead threat modeling and security design reviews across applications and AI systems, setting how risk is identified and prioritized

Architect cloud security controls across identity, network, and data layers, owning IAM strategy, secrets management, and encryption

Lead the integration of security automation into CI/CD pipelines, driving shift-left detection and policy-as-code across teams

Lead detection engineering, logging, and incident response practices across production systems

Own the security of AI and LLM-powered applications in production, defining defenses against prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse, and agentic-AI threats

Lead the design and integration of AI services into production security workflows, including LLM APIs, tool and function calling, and multi-step agent flows for detection and triage

Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude, Cursor, and other modern AI assistants to ship higher-quality work at pace

Collaboration & Communication

Partner with product, engineering, and leadership to shape security strategy and align technical direction with business outcomes

Translate complex security tradeoffs, risks, and opportunities into clear narratives that drive decision-making across technical and non-technical stakeholders

Lead security reviews and technical discussions, raising the bar for engineering rigor and constructive challenge across the team

Engage closely with engineering, data, and client teams to align security work with broader business priorities and measurable outcomes

Leadership & Influence

Define security architecture and engineering standards, bringing depth on tradeoffs, long-term implications, and responsible AI practices

Mentor and grow junior and mid-level engineers, multiplying impact through coaching, code reviews, and pairing on hard problems

Take ownership of the most ambiguous and highest-stakes pieces of work, driving them through to production with care for reliability, cost, and safety

Staff Security Engineer at Robots & Pencils