Principal Architect – AI-Native Security Platform

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Spain.

📋 Description

• Take charge of architectural integrity and technical guidance for CipherScale’s AI-native platform.

• Define and refine the interface between AI reasoning, the MCP capability layer, the CipherScale Controller, and customer infrastructure.

• Establish protocols for how AI agents securely identify, reason, and utilize CipherScale capabilities.

• Ensure a clear distinction between probabilistic AI reasoning and deterministic, security-sensitive execution.

• Design solutions for CipherScale AI Admin, external AI clients, enterprise integrations, and future machine-to-machine communications.

• Lead MCP strategy encompassing tools, resources, applications/UI, long-running tasks, human-in-the-loop interactions, discovery, authentication, authorization, schemas, and extensions.

• Monitor MCP specifications, SEPs, SDKs, security guidelines, and ecosystem modifications, translating these changes into architectural decisions.

• Create a Zero Trust and least-privilege security architecture, focusing on identity, authorization, credential isolation, secrets management, auditability, and policy enforcement.

• Architect distributed systems and cloud solutions, including control/data-plane separation, SaaS and self-hosted enterprise architectures, multi-tenancy, Kubernetes, cloud platforms, asynchronous workflows, gateways, high availability, observability, and failure recovery.

• Assess current architecture, pinpoint key risks, review AI/MCP implementation, establish architectural invariants, enhance ADR processes, define MCP capability architecture, and document trust boundaries.

• Validate architecture through the implementation of representative AI-native workflows, including complex multi-step infrastructure operations.

• Collaborate closely with technical leadership and product engineers.

• Prototype and convert architectural concepts into actionable systems.

⛳️ Requirements

• Extensive experience in building complex distributed platforms, security products, cloud infrastructure, networking systems, developer platforms, or other challenging systems.

• Proven track record of designing systems that withstand real-world scale, security threats, organizational complexity, and evolving requirements.

• Strong expertise in distributed systems and cloud architecture.

• Knowledge of security architecture and Zero Trust principles.

• Proficiency in identity and authorization mechanisms.

• Experience in API and protocol design.

• Familiarity with agentic AI systems and MCP or similar agent/tool protocols.

• Expertise in SaaS and multi-tenant architectures.

• Knowledge of Kubernetes and cloud-native systems.

• Understanding of networking, event-driven systems, observability, and key management.

• Solid software engineering skills with the ability to prototype effectively.

• Capability to read specifications, adhere to emerging standards, prototype swiftly, and identify architectural shifts.

• Systems thinking regarding trust boundaries, failure modes, data flows, state, scaling, and operability.

• Security-oriented mindset focused on potential system failures and misuse.

• Strong product judgment concerning architecture, speed, trust, customer value, and differentiation.

• Hands-on implementation experience and practical instincts for executing implementations.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive pay rates.

• Fully remote work environments.

• Self-managed time off.

• Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits.

• A senior ownership role with accountability for a critical engineering surface.

• The independence to define platform strategy, standards, and technical direction.

• The chance to develop foundational systems with immediate, measurable impact.

• A fast-paced, AI-native engineering environment.

• Direct collaboration with technical leadership and product engineers.

• Support for experimentation, automation, and the introduction of improved work methodologies.

• A culture that emphasizes speed, ownership, sound judgment, and reliable delivery.