Senior AI Security Researcher

The Leidos Cyber Accelerator is redefining how we build, validate, and scale next-generation cyber and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. We are seeking a Senior AI Security Researcher who works at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI and agentic AI, and mission-aligned engineering, with a focus on developing and applying AI technology for AI security. The ideal candidate is passionate about securing AI and agentic AI pipelines and protocols, nonhuman identities, and emerging AI architectures.

In this role you will design, develop, and prototype systems that secure AI and agentic AI-powered workflows, compress cyber operator decision cycles, secure critical software infrastructure, and deliver resiliency from the enterprise to the tactical edge. This role works alongside junior and senior engineers and research scientists with expertise in mission-critical operations, handling wide ranges of data sensitivity levels and needs, Zero Trust architectures, resilient systems design, operational technology and cyber-physical systems, cybersecurity, IT, and reverse engineering.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and prototype mission-aligned agentic AI frameworks and LLM-powered tools for secure AI/agentic AI operations, cyber defense, and autonomous cyber operations decision-making.

• Deliver working solutions across the TRL spectrum through rapid iteration from concept to prototype to support transition to enterprise and mission environments.

• Apply secure AI practices including Secure-By-Design, Zero Trust, and red teaming approaches to ensure safety, trust, and resiliency in AI deployments.

• Contribute to internal playbooks, training materials, and team-level capability development to scale innovation within the group.

• Collaborate with a team of researchers within Leidos across a range of technology areas; identify synergies with other Leidos research and development efforts.

• Develop solutions to difficult and unclear technical problems through deep analysis, collaboration with internal experts, and understanding of impact on end-product/solution.

• Contribute to the design, implementation, and evaluation of AI/ML models for various applications.

• Enhance and maintain analysis tools, including automation of current processes using AI/ML algorithms.

• Work with project team members to identify relevant data sources, perform exploratory data analysis (EDA), evaluate data viability, and prepare datasets for AI/ML systems.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree and 4-8 years of prior relevant technical experience in software engineering, engineering, data science, cybersecurity or cyber operations, or related field. Additional years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree requirements.

• Hands-on experience building AI/ML systems, especially leveraging LLMs, multi-agent frameworks, or autonomous decision systems.

• Familiarity with Frontier AI company capabilities (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) and LLM orchestration and agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, Haystack).

• Experience with SecDevOps, DevOps, and nonhuman identities (NHI) and related technologies.

• Understanding of secure architectures including Zero Trust (NIST 800-207, DoD ZT RA), Secure-by-Design patterns (CISA), or resilient systems design (NIST 800-160 v2r1).

• Hands-on software development skills (Python preferred).

• Understanding of machine learning algorithms, tools and platforms (NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar).

• Experience working independently and collaboratively in an innovative and fast-paced environment while delivering to deadlines.

• Enthusiasm for innovation, experimentation, and self-development in the cybersecurity field.

• Excellent interpersonal/communication skills, both verbal and written.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with adversarial machine learning, reinforcement learning, or multi-agent systems - especially in the context of cybersecurity operations.

• Experience evaluating, running, and/or fine-tuning open source models (e.g., Llama-3, working with Hugging Face models).

• Knowledge of federated learning or edge AI deployments for cyber-physical systems or operational technology.

• Experience with securing AI systems and AI components along with understanding of common frameworks such as NIST AI RMF, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI 100-2.

• Demonstrated ability to rapidly prototype, iterate, and integrate in a collaborative research environment.

• Experience contributing to multi-disciplinary research teams and collaborating with technology vendors or academic researchers.

• The ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI clearance.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:
May 22, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:
Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

Salary : $87,100 - $157,450