Applied AI Security Engineer

We’re the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services, headquartered in Belgium. We are the way the world moves value – across borders, through cities and overseas. No other organisation can address the scale, precision, pace and trust that this demands, and we’re proud to support the global economy. We’re unique: established to find a better way for the global financial community to move value – a reliable, safe and secure approach that the community can trust, completely. We constantly evolve without undermining that trust. Five decades on, our vibrant community reflects the complexity and diversity of the financial ecosystem. We innovate diligently, test exhaustively, then implement fast. With a presence in 200+ countries and legal territories, we serve a community of more than 12,000 banks and financial institutions.

About the role

• Run frontier AI models directly against SWIFT's codebases to find vulnerabilities that conventional tools miss
• Build the methodology for this work through direct experimentation
• Build the pipeline that makes AI-assisted detection usable at scale: write logic that validates findings, cuts duplicates, and routes real issues to remediation
• Run head-to-head technical evaluations of frontier models on real detection tasks, letting evidence decide which models and techniques SWIFT relies on
• Integrate AI-assisted detection into SWIFT's software development process, working alongside existing security tooling
• Identify vulnerability classes current tooling structurally cannot see, and build detection approaches to catch them ahead of the industry
• Work entirely within SWIFT's governed access and tooling controls
• Defend technical decisions under scrutiny from AI and Security peers, and document the methodology so it endures

Requirements

• Demonstrated hands-on experience applying AI/LLM models to real security testing or vulnerability research
• Strong software engineering ability: can read, navigate, and reason about large, unfamiliar codebases directly, across multiple languages
• Deep working knowledge of application security fundamentals: common vulnerability classes, exploit mechanics, and how static, dependency, and dynamic analysis tools work—and where they fail
• Proven ability to build working tools and pipelines from scratch, not just configure existing ones: scripting, automation, and integration work is core to this role
• Experience designing and running structured technical evaluations or experiments (model comparisons, A/B testing, or equivalent) and drawing defensible conclusions from results
• Comfortable operating with significant ambiguity and no established playbook; able to originate a technical approach rather than execute a known one
• Clear technical communication: able to document and defend complex technical decisions to peer security engineers under scrutiny

Qualifications

• University degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field; or equivalent work experience
• Typically has 6 to 10 years of relevant work experience
• Master’s degree an asset

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a regulated or high-assurance environment (financial services, critical infrastructure, defense, healthcare, or similarly regulated sectors)
• Familiarity with multiple frontier AI model families (e.g., GPT-class, Claude-class) and their differing strengths for security-related tasks
• Prior experience contributing to or building a security capability that didn't previously exist, rather than operating an established one

Benefits

We give you the freedom to be yourself. We are creating an environment of unique individuals with different perspectives on the financial industry and the world. A diverse and inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice counts and where you can reach your full potential. We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation related to accessibility during your application or interview, please contact accessibility-Sysgroup@swift.com.