TENEX.AI · 1 day ago
Principal AI Engineer
San Jose, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
$190K/yr - $250K/yr
10+ years expTENEX.AI is an AI-native, automation-first Managed Detection and Response provider focused on enhancing cybersecurity posture. As a Principal AI Engineer, you will design and optimize high-performance AI systems while mentoring engineering teams and driving technical innovation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Cyber SecurityNetwork SecuritySaaS
Hiring Manager
Jessica Cassidy
Responsibilities
Design & build the AI layer that powers autonomous detection, RAG-backed investigation, and auto-remediation workflows
Develop and productionize large-scale LLMs, graph-based reasoning engines, and streaming feature pipelines that operate on billions of security events
Own evaluation & reliability—from prompt libraries and fine tuning to red-team testing, latency budgets, and fallback strategies
Mentor & grow a cohort of AI engineers; run design reviews, uphold code quality, and instill a security-first mindset
Partner tightly with Product, Detection Engineering, and Customer Success to translate real-world attacker behavior into robust ML and rule-based detections
Push the frontier—experiment with retrieval-augmented generation, tool-calling agents, and multi-modal models (text + logs + graphs) to keep defenders decisively ahead
Qualification
Required
10+ years of experience in software development, engineering production systems using modern programming languages (Python, Go, Rust, or Java)
Deep knowledge of LLM architecture, prompt engineering, and Vector database workflows
Hands-on experience building agents, orchestration frameworks (LangChain/LangGraph, Agno AGI, or custom), and evaluation harnesses
Deep understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and event-driven systems
Strong fundamentals in API design (REST/gRPC) and distributed systems
Clear, concise communication skills and a bias for collaborative problem-solving
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
Preferred
Prior work in cybersecurity (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, or MDR)
Experience with graph databases or security-focused knowledge graphs
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure security (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Background leading teams in high-growth startups or enterprise SaaS
Relevant certifications (AWS/GCP Professional Engineer, Kubernetes, or security-related credentials) are a plus
Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
Excellent communication and leadership abilities
Ability to mentor and influence engineering teams
Passion for cybersecurity and automation
Benefits
Competitive salary and benefits package.
Company
TENEX.AI
TENEX.AI is a cybersecurity company that utilizes AI and human expertise to help enterprises protect their digital assets.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$27MKey Investors
Crosspoint Capital PartnersAndreessen Horowitz
2025-09-11Series A· $27M
2025-01-20Seed
Leadership Team
Eric Foster
CEO
Edwin Solis
Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
Recent News
Business Observer
2026-01-06
Business Journal
2025-12-09
2025-12-02
Company data provided by crunchbase