AI Security Specialist

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Cyber Security Directorate (CSD) Security Operations Center (SOC) is a US Government program responsible to prevent, identify, contain and eradicate cyber threats to CBP networks through monitoring, intrusion detection and protective security services to CBP information systems including local area networks/wide area networks (LAN/WAN), commercial Internet connection, public facing websites, wireless, mobile/cellular, cloud, security devices, servers and workstations.  The CBP SOC is responsible for the overall security of CBP Enterprise-wide information systems, and collects, investigates, and reports any suspected and confirmed security violations. 

Primary Responsibilities

Leidos is looking for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Security Specialist to support the testing, reporting and vetting of AI applications, provide AI adversarial testing, AI defense, and AI reporting. The candidate will be responsible for:

• Testing capabilities to determine what vulnerabilities exist in various AI implementations. 
• Identify areas vulnerable to attacks leveraging AI capabilities and provide assistance in identifying and implementing solutions to protect from AI assisted attacks.
• Support enterprise system architecture activities to define and scope various AI solutions.
• Identify and integrate appropriate COTS, government, and custom tools within established frameworks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture and security requirements.
• Manage project timelines and deliverables, ensuring adherence to quality standards.
• Facilitate communication between technical teams and stakeholders to align project goals.
• Stay updated on industry trends and advancements in AI/ML technologies.
• Develop and implement best practices for model development and deployment.
• Ensure compliance with cybersecurity policies and standards throughout the project lifecycle.

Basic Qualifications

• BS degree in Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field and a minimum of 8-12 years of prior relevant experience
• Additional experience or applicable certifications acceptable in lieu of degree.
• Solid understanding and hands-on experience with generative AI models including prompt engineering, chain-of-thought reasoning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks such as entity extraction, summarization, and semantic search.
• Working knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs) and agent frameworks
• Experience using various vector databases
• Familiarity with deployment processes of virtualized and containerized environments
• Organized and detail-oriented
• Strong leadership skills
• Ability to manage and prioritize own work
• Active Secret Clearance required
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a CBP -BI background clearance.
• Must be able to report to the Ashburn VA office up to 5 days per week.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in IT Management, Engineering, or related field 
• Experience designing enterprise AI governance, model risk management, and bias mitigation frameworks.
• Experience integrating AI/ML workloads with GPU-accelerated environments and performance optimization strategies.
• Experience supporting enterprise data, analytics, and AI platform modernization initiatives.
• Advanced cloud architecture certification (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect – Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect).
• Proven experience in designing and deploying AI/ML models in production environments.
• Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, R, or Java.

Experience with data pipeline construction and management

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:

July 10, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

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.