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Candescent · 2 weeks ago

Director of Secure AI & Application Development

Atlanta, GA

Full-time

Hybrid

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

10+ years exp

Candescent is a leading cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for financial institutions. The Executive Director of Secure AI & Application Development will lead the strategic direction and execution of the enterprise-wide application security program, focusing on AI/ML security for SaaS products. This role involves partnering with various teams to ensure secure design and deployment of AI-powered applications while managing regulatory compliance and security risks.

BankingFinancial ServicesSaaS

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Define and drive the application and AI/ML security strategy aligned with Candescent’s business and risk objectives for regulatory enterprise clients

Lead the development and execution of secure SDLC and AI development lifecycle (AIDLC) practices across all engineering and data science teams

Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on application security risks, AI/ML security risks, model governance, trends, and mitigation strategies

Establish AI security governance frameworks that meet regulatory requirements (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001)

Develop security strategies for AI supply chain, third-party AI integrations, and LLM/GenAI implementations

Build and mature the application security program, including threat modeling, secure coding, code reviews, and security testing across traditional applications and AI/ML systems

Develop and maintain security standards, policies, and guidelines for application development and AI model development, training, and deployment

Oversee the integration of security tools (SAST, DAST, SCA, IAST, RASP) and AI security tools (model scanning, adversarial testing, data poisoning detection, model monitoring) into CI/CD and ML pipelines

Implement MLSecOps practices and secure AI pipeline architectures

Establish data governance and privacy controls for AI training data, including PII handling and data lineage tracking

Create security frameworks for model versioning, model registry security, and secure model serving

Partner with DevOps, Engineering, Data Science, ML Engineering, and Product teams to ensure security is embedded early and continuously

Lead security champions programs and developer and data scientist training initiatives to foster a security-first culture with specialized AI security awareness

Collaborate with GRC, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure regulatory and policy alignment specific to AI regulations and industry-specific requirements (HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA for AI systems)

Work closely with customer-facing teams to address client security requirements and regulatory audit needs

Partner with legal and compliance teams on AI ethics, explainability, and bias mitigation from a security perspective

Identify and prioritize application and AI/ML security risks through assessments, pen testing, red teaming of AI models and threat intelligence

Conduct AI-specific risk assessments including adversarial attacks, model poisoning, prompt injection, and data exfiltration risks

Lead response efforts for application-related and AI/ML security incidents and vulnerabilities

Provide executive-level reporting on application and AI security posture, KPIs, and risk metrics with regulatory reporting capabilities

Manage third-party AI vendor security assessments and AI supply chain risk

Develop incident response playbooks specific to AI security incidents (model theft, data poisoning, adversarial attacks)

Qualification

AI/ML securityApplication securitySecure SDLCRegulatory complianceSecure coding practicesThreat modelingVulnerability managementSecurity tools proficiencyData governanceAgile/DevOps experiencePublic speakingSecurity champions programCross-functional leadership

Required

10+ years of experience in information security, with at least 5 years in application security leadership roles and 2+ years working with AI/ML security

Deep understanding of modern application architectures (e.g., microservices, containers, APIs, cloud-native) and AI/ML architectures (model training pipelines, inference endpoints, vector databases, LLM deployments)

Hands-on experience with secure coding practices, threat modeling, and vulnerability management including AI/ML specific threat modeling (OWASP ML Top 10, MITRE ATLAS)

Proficiency with security tools such as SAST, DAST, SCA, and container security platforms plus AI security tools (model scanning, adversarial robustness testing, data validation frameworks)

Strong knowledge of OWASP Top 10, OWASP ML Top 10, OWASP LLM Top 10, CWE, CVE, and secure development frameworks

Experience working in Agile/DevOps and MLOps environments and integrating security into CI/CD and ML pipelines

Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence at all levels of the organization

Deep understanding of regulatory compliance requirements for AI systems and SaaS products serving highly regulated industries

Experience with AI model governance, explainability requirements, and bias detection/mitigation

Knowledge of prompt engineering security, LLM guardrails, and GenAI security best practices

Strong background in data privacy, data governance, and secure data handling for ML training datasets

Preferred

Advanced degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field

Industry certifications such as CISSP, CSSLP, OSWE, or GIAC GWAPT

Experience with cloud security (AWS, Azure, GCP) and infrastructure-as-code security

Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA)

Experience building or scaling a security champions program

Public speaking or thought leadership in the application security community

Company

Candescent

Candescent is a digital banking platform that offers online banking, account openings, and digital transaction services.

Founded in 2024

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

1001-5000 employees

https://www.candescent.com/

H1B Sponsorship

Candescent has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

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Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (7)