Principal Security Engineer

Applications deadline: We are conducting interviews actively and aim to fill this role as soon as we find someone suitable.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We're looking for a Principal Security Engineer to own security at Apollo Research from end to end. You'll be the first dedicated security hire at Apollo. Security at Apollo exists to maintain the trust of our frontier AI lab partners and enable our research mission. This role sits within the engineering team and reports directly to the CEO.

YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO

- Build and own Apollo's security programme. Own the security roadmap, conduct risk assessments, and evolve the programme as the org grows. You decide what Apollo's security posture needs to look like given our size, threat model, and partner relationships.

- Maintain the trust of our frontier AI lab partners. Become the primary security point of contact for partner security teams. Build relationships with partner CISOs, produce and maintain technical documentation on Apollo's security practices, and demonstrate that our security posture meets the bar required for our ongoing partnerships. 

- Set security direction for engineering. Define security principles and AppSec strategy which the engineering team implements. Build paved roads that make the secure path easy for engineers.

- Define how Apollo uses AI tools, agents, and integrations. Decide what's approved, what data can go where, and how new tools get vetted. This is a live and evolving challenge, and you'll need to balance security with the fact that researchers need to use cutting-edge tools to do their jobs.

- Own the security tooling stack and automate security operations. Select, implement, and manage security controls including EDR/MDR, endpoint management, email protection, and identity management. Automate wherever possible: zero-touch deployments, IaC for security tooling, automated provisioning and deprovisioning.

- Drive compliance and certification. Lead certification efforts (ISO 27001, SOC 2) as needed to meet partner requirements. Automate where needed and treat compliance as a byproduct of good security practice.

- Own IT administration across the organisation. Manage Google Workspace, define access policies, and build secure onboarding and offboarding processes.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- Engineering mindset. You treat security operations and GRC as engineering problems. You reach for automation and systems solutions over manual processes.

- Pragmatism. You understand that security exists to enable Apollo's mission and maintain partner trust, and you tailor your advice to our risk profile.

- Leadership. You are capable of building out our security programme from scratch. 

- Hands-on. In addition to leading the security programme, you are willing and able to drive implementation yourself.

- Speed. You make good-enough decisions quickly and execute fast once a decision is made.

- Adaptability to new developments. You have a strong base of knowledge that enables you to make decisions under uncertainty as AI tooling and the threat landscape evolve.

- Stakeholder credibility. Non-security people trust you internally, and you can credibly represent Apollo to lab partner security teams externally.

• 7+ years experience in security engineering, security operations, or a related technical security role
• Track record of building buy-in for security practices and being trusted by non-security people
• Experience building or significantly maturing a security programme
• Familiarity with cloud security (AWS IAM, networking, infrastructure review)
• Experience with compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, SOC 2)
• Hands-on experience with endpoint management (Kandji, Jamf, or similar) and identity/access management
• Experience administering Google Workspace or equivalentInterest in Apollo's mission of AI safety

• Ability to review infrastructure-as-code (Terraform) and application code (Python) for security issues
• Experience as a security point of contact for external partners or customers
• Demonstrated interest in AI safety (e.g. worked at an AI safety org, relevant coursework or research)

• This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits
• Salary: £130,000 - £200,000
• Equity
• Flexible work hours and schedule
• Unlimited vacation
• Unlimited sick leave
• Lunch, dinner, and snacks provided for all employees on workdays
• Paid work trips, including staff retreats, business trips, and relevant conferences
• A yearly $1,000 (USD) professional development budget

• Time Allocation: Full-time
• Location: The office is in London, and the building is shared with the London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA) offices.
• This is an in-person role.
• Work Visas: We can sponsor UK visas

ABOUT THE TEAM

You'll work closely with our fractional CISO, Tzach, and the infrastructure team (Rusheb Shah and Glen Rodgers). You'll also interact regularly with the Operations team on processes like onboarding and employee requests. You will be the face of security across the organisation. You can find our full team at https://apolloresearch.ai/team.

ABOUT APOLLO RESEARCH

The rapid rise in AI capabilities offer tremendous opportunities, but also present significant risks. At Apollo Research, we’re primarily concerned with risks from Loss of Control, i.e. risks coming from the model itself rather than e.g. humans misusing the AI. We’re particularly concerned with deceptive alignment / scheming, a phenomenon where a model appears to be aligned but is, in fact, misaligned and capable of evading human oversight.

We work on the detection of scheming (e.g., building evaluations and novel evaluation techniques), the science of scheming (e.g., model organisms and the study of scaling trends), and scheming mitigations (e.g., control). We closely work with multiple frontier AI companies, e.g. to test their models before deployment and collaborate on fundamental research.

At Apollo, we aim for a culture that emphasizes truth-seeking, being goal-oriented, giving and receiving constructive feedback, and being friendly and helpful. If you’re interested in more details about what it’s like working at Apollo, you can find more information here.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Please complete the application form with your CV. The provision of a cover letter is optional but not necessary. Please also feel free to share links to relevant work samples.

Our multi-stage process includes a screening interview, a work test, three technical interviews, and a final interview with Marius (CEO). The technical interviews will be closely related to tasks the candidate would do on the job.