Lead Security Cloud and AI Engineer

Job Title: Lead Security Cloud and AI Engineer

Location: Virginia Beach, VA, USA

Duration: 12 Months + Extension

Bill Rate: $78/hour

Job Type: C2C/1099 Contract

Client: To Be Discussed Later

Work Authorization: US-Citizen, H-1B, OPT-EAD, GC-EAD
Job Summary:
As a Lead Security Cloud and Artificial Intelligences Engineer, you will shape the future of cybersecurity by designing, implementing, and enhancing secure cloud architectures while leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to strengthen security across IT, OT, and cloud environments. You will partner with cross-functional teams to develop intelligent threat detection, automate security operations, and build scalable solutions that improve visibility, accelerate response, and protect critical business systems. This role is ideal for a forward-thinking security professional who is passionate about cloud technologies, AI innovation, and delivering proactive, resilient cybersecurity solutions in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Principal Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Design and implement secure cloud architectures with a strong emphasis on identity, network security, and data protection.
• Configure and manage security controls across cloud services, including Entra ID, Key Vault, Storage, Azure Kubernetes Service, and networking.
• Lead threat modeling, attack surface analysis, and risk assessments for cloud systems.
• Implement and optimize cloud detection and response using tools such as Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Cloud.
• Develop and enforce security standards, policies, and governance frameworks.
• Perform incident response, forensic analysis, and remediation for cloud-based threats.
• Continuously assess and improve cloud security posture using benchmarks such as CIS and NIST.
• Design and deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning models for security use cases.
• Detect anomalies in logs and network traffic.
• Enrich threat intelligence through artificial intelligence capabilities.
• Develop user and entity behavior analytics.
• Build and integrate large language model-powered systems.
• Develop security copilots and investigation assistants.
• Develop automated alert triage and summarization tools.
• Develop data pipelines for ingesting, processing, and analyzing large-scale security data.
• Build and integrate large language model-based solutions, including copilots, security assistants, and automated playbooks, using tools such as Azure OpenAI.
• Evaluate and mitigate artificial intelligence-specific security risks, including prompt injection, data leakage, and model abuse.
• Ensure responsible artificial intelligence practices, including model explainability and secure handling of sensitive data.
• Apply artificial intelligence to automate security operations, reduce manual effort, and improve response time.

Minimum Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of experience in cloud security, cybersecurity engineering, or related roles.
• Strong expertise in Azure security services and cloud architecture.
• Solid understanding of threat detection, incident response, and security operations.
• Proficiency in Python or a similar programming language.
• Hands-on experience with machine learning or data-driven systems.
• Familiarity with large language models and prompt engineering.
• Experience with tools such as Azure Machine Learning, Azure OpenAI, or equivalent platforms.
• Understanding of data pipelines, feature engineering, and model evaluation.
• Knowledge of MLOps concepts, including model lifecycle, monitoring, and retraining.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Experience with Azure Cloud Policy for compliance and governance.
• Experience with SIEM/SOAR platforms and security analytics.
• Knowledge of adversarial machine learning and artificial intelligence security threats.
• Familiarity with secrets management and certificate automation.
• Working knowledge of Zero Trust Architecture.
• Experience with SOC 2, HIPAA, or GDPR compliance in a cloud-native environment.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and educate developers and operations teams on secure practices.

Physical Requirements and Environmental Factors

• Position is mostly sedentary but may require occasional moving to other offices or buildings.
• May need to move light equipment or supplies from one place to another.
• May need to access files, supplies and equipment.
• Work activity is in an office, open-partitioned, cubicle environment.

  Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, citizenship/ immigration status, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.