SL5 Standards Lead

About the role

Security Level 5 is a Bay Area AI‑security nonprofit creating the first datacenter standard designed to protect frontier AI labs from nation‑state adversaries. As the SL5 Standards Lead you will own the end‑to‑end development of the SL5 standard, an overlay of NIST SP 800‑53, ICD 705, and supply‑chain controls, guiding labs from draft to adoption.

Key responsibilities

• Lead versioning, control updates, and cross‑stream coherence across network, physical, machine, personnel, and supply‑chain domains.
• Identify and remediate flaws in the current v0.1 draft and resolve open questions.
• Extend mappings to DoD IL6, FedRAMP High, CNSSI 1253, and create AI‑datacenter and AI‑SCIF overlays to ICD 705.
• Gather feedback from labs, datacenter operators, chip providers, and government stakeholders and translate constraints into the standard.
• Make required‑vs‑recommended‑vs‑deferred decisions where security and adoptability conflict.
• Set editorial standards for a document read by both deep‑technical and senior policy audiences.

Required profile

• Authored, owned, or led a technical standard, control framework, or comparable cross‑cutting specification that real organizations implemented.
• Deep security experience in at least two areas such as systems/network, physical/personnel, hardware/ML infrastructure, or government security frameworks.
• Fluent with NIST SP 800‑53, ICD 705, and IL6‑class frameworks.
• Ability to write clearly and precisely for both technical and policy readers.
• Motivation to set industry‑wide security standards for AI datacenters.

Required skills

• NIST SP 800‑53
• ICD 705
• NIST 800‑161 (supply‑chain)
• DoD IL6
• FedRAMP High
• CNSSI 1253

What we offer

• Base salary $200,000‑240,000 per year (higher for exceptional candidates).
• Full benefits package: healthcare, dental, vision, 401(k) match, and more.
• Bay Area onsite work environment.