AI Security Architect - Associate Director

Job Description

Role Overview

Join our Security Architecture team and help shape the future of secure AI adoption across the enterprise.

As an AI Security Architect, you will lead the design and implementation of security strategies, architectures, and controls that enable the safe adoption of AI technologies, AI agents, foundation models, and generative AI capabilities across the company.

You will partner with business, engineering, enterprise architecture, and cybersecurity teams to ensure AI systems are secure by design, compliant with enterprise standards, and resilient against always evolving threats.

What will you do in this role?

• Define and maintain enterprise AI security reference architectures, standards, design patterns, and security requirements.
• Support security architecture reviews and risk assessments for AI systems, AI applications, AI agents, and AI-enabled platforms across the enterprise.
• Design security controls addressing AI-specific threats including prompt injection, jailbreaks, model manipulation, data leakage, agent abuse, model supply chain compromise, and unauthorized access.
• Partner with solution architects, engineers, and product teams to embed secure-by-design and secure-by-default principles throughout the AI lifecycle.
• Drive threat modeling exercises for AI solutions and identify security control requirements for new and existing implementations.
• Drive adoption of AI security best practices and contribute to organizational awareness through architecture guidance, workshops, standards, and training sessions.
• Track emerging AI threats, industry trends, and evolving regulations, translating insights into practical security strategies and roadmap recommendations.

What should you have?

• 6+ years of experience in cybersecurity, security architecture, cloud security, application security, or related disciplines.
• 2+ years of experience designing, securing, or assessing AI, machine learning, generative AI, or advanced analytics solutions.
• Deep understanding of AI security concepts including prompt injection, jailbreak techniques, indirect prompt attacks, model theft, model poisoning, adversarial machine learning, agent security, and AI supply chain risks.
• Strong understanding of security architecture principles, threat modeling methodologies, and risk management frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with one or more major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba) and their AI service offerings.”
• Experience implementing security controls for enterprise AI platforms, models, APIs and agents,
• Familiarity with AI technologies including LLMs, RAG architectures, vector databases, AI agents, orchestration frameworks, MCP, model gateways, and AI development platforms.
• Strong understanding of secure software development lifecycle (SDLC), DevSecOps practices, and cloud-native architectures.
• Ability to communicate technical and business risk effectively to both executive leadership and engineering teams.
• Experience working within global enterprise environments and influencing teams across multiple regions.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to balance innovation, business value, and risk management.

Required Skills:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies, Enterprise Architecture (EA), Enterprise Architecture Management, Generative AI, Methods and Tools, Requirements Management, Risk Management, Risk Management Framework, Security Architecture Design, Security Compliance, Security Framework, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Solution Architecture, Strategic Planning, System Designs, Technical Advice, Threat Modeling

Preferred Skills:

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Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

NA

Job Posting End Date:

11/30/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.