Principal AI Engineer

TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We help organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team consists of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors such as Crosspoint Capital Partners, Shield Capital, DTCP, Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund, with a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission.

About the role

As a Principal AI Engineer at TENEX, you will be a key technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing scalable, high-performance AI systems. You will shape the architecture of our AI-driven cybersecurity solutions, mentor engineering teams, and drive technical innovation. This role requires Monday - Thursday onsite in any of our locations, with WFH Fridays.

Responsibilities

• Design and build the AI layer that powers autonomous detection, RAG-backed investigation, and auto-remediation workflows.
• Develop and productionize large-scale LLMs, graph-based reasoning engines, and streaming feature pipelines that operate on billions of security events.
• Own evaluation and reliability—from prompt libraries and fine-tuning to red-team testing, latency budgets, and fallback strategies.
• Mentor and grow a cohort of AI engineers; run design reviews, uphold code quality, and instill a security-first mindset.
• Partner tightly with Product, Detection Engineering, and Customer Success to translate real-world attacker behavior into robust ML and rule-based detections.
• Push the frontier—experiment with retrieval-augmented generation, tool-calling agents, and multi-modal models (text + logs + graphs) to keep defenders decisively ahead.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in software development, engineering production systems using modern programming languages (Python, Go, Rust, or Java).
• Deep knowledge of LLM architecture, prompt engineering, and Vector database workflows.
• Hands-on experience building agents, orchestration frameworks (LangChain/LangGraph, Agno AGI, or custom), and evaluation harnesses.
• Deep understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and event-driven systems.
• Strong fundamentals in API design (REST/gRPC) and distributed systems.
• Clear, concise communication skills and a bias for collaborative problem-solving.

Nice-to-have

• Prior work in cybersecurity (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, or MDR).
• Experience with graph databases or security-focused knowledge graphs.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure security (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Background leading teams in high-growth startups or enterprise SaaS.

Skills

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.
• Ability to mentor and influence engineering teams.
• Passion for cybersecurity and automation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Relevant certifications (AWS/GCP Professional Engineer, Kubernetes, or security-related credentials) are a plus.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and Google SecOps solutions.
• Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your knowledge in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.