Principal Customer Engineer

A rare founding hire. You will build an AI security services practice across North America from the first customer up, with the independence of a startup and the install base, brand, and balance sheet of a major global security organization behind every conversation you have. About the opportunity This is the founding North America post-sales hire for a fast-scaling AI security business that now sits inside a larger, established security leader. The platform is at the front of its category. The Fortune 500 install base is already there. What is missing is the person who turns that into a services motion. You will be the connective tissue between the customers who buy the platform, the engineers who build it, and the field teams who sell it. You will own the long-term success of enterprise customers, prove the technology in the highest-stakes environments, and shape how the entire North America practice takes form. In short: you operate like a founder, with an enterprise behind you. There is a clear path to lead the practice as it scales. What you will own Customer success and delivery (your center of gravity) Own the long-term success of enterprise customers from go-live onward: adoption, expansion, renewal, and measurable risk reduction. Lead the delivery of AI security engagements: threat modeling, guardrail design, red-team exercises, control frameworks, and implementation advisory against the platform. Embed alongside customer security and engineering teams, translating their AI risk exposure into outcomes they can see and defend to their board. Turn what you find in delivery into clear, executive-ready narratives that drive decisions, not just technical artifacts. Pre-sales and commercial (the second gear) Act as the senior technical voice in enterprise sales cycles: presenting, demonstrating, and defending the proposition to CISOs, security architects, and engineering leaders. Lead discovery that surfaces real risk exposure and shape it into a compelling case for the platform and the services around it. Partner with sales on scoping, solution design, and proposals that win complex, multi-stakeholder deals across the Fortune 500. Build and practice (founding scope) Help shape the strategy, roadmap, and success of the AI security offering in North America. Define repeatable delivery methods, and feed patterns from the field back into product direction. Lay the foundations of the North America team, and grow into leading it as the function scales. Requirements The essentials 8+ years in a senior post-sales technical role: customer engineering, solutions architecture, professional services, or security consulting at principal level. Deep, credible knowledge of AI and ML security: adversarial attacks, prompt injection, data poisoning, model inversion, supply-chain risk, and the threat landscape around LLMs and agentic systems. A track record of owning enterprise customer relationships and outcomes, from first deployment through expansion. Comfort across the full sales cycle without losing technical credibility. You can hold a room with a CISO and go deep with a security engineer in the same afternoon. Proven delivery leadership: you have scoped, led, and closed out complex technical engagements with enterprise clients. The mindset (this counts as much as the CV) Entrepreneurial: you are energized by a blank page and comfortable building the road as you walk it. Commercial: you understand deal mechanics, pipeline, and what it takes to win, and you care about the number. Curious: you follow emerging technology because you want to, and you have built with AI systems yourself. Owner's instinct: you take accountability for the long game, not just the launch. Strongly preferred Hands-on experience securing LLM deployments in enterprise environments: RAG architectures, agentic frameworks, fine-tuning, and the security considerations of each. Background in offensive security, red teaming, or adversarial ML research. You understand how these systems are attacked, not only how they are defended. Familiarity with AI governance and compliance frameworks: NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, ISO 42001, SOC 2. Domain depth in a regulated vertical: financial services, healthcare, defense, or critical infrastructure. A public presence: speaking, writing, research, or a recognized reputation in AI security. Experience standing up a practice, service line, or methodology from the ground up. Why this role This is a buildout, not a maintenance role. You get the autonomy and pace of a startup with the reach of a global enterprise: a Fortune 500 install base to grow into, a platform at the front of its category, and a genuine hand in how AI security services take shape across North America. There is a clear path to lead the North America practice as it scales, in a business that values technical depth and commercial impact equally. Benefits Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision) Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D) Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays) Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity) Training & Development