Software Engineer II – AI Engineer (Data Privacy, Security & Governance)

About the role

Robert Half is hiring a Software Engineer II – AI Engineer in San Ramon to analyze, design, program, debug, test, implement and support the privacy, security and governance controls that protect generative AI technologies. The role safeguards GenAI applications such as LLM-powered workflows, RAG pipelines, plugins, skills and autonomous agents by embedding data protection, security guardrails and responsible AI governance across the development lifecycle, while supporting SDLC documentation and working with users to define requirements.

Key responsibilities

• Design and implement data privacy controls, including PII/PHI detection, redaction and data minimization.
• Build security guardrails such as prompt-injection defense, jailbreak prevention and output filtering.
• Establish governance for plugins, skills and agents, including registration, approval and lifecycle management.
• Vet third-party plugins, skills and agent tools for security, privacy and compliance risks.
• Define and enforce access controls, authentication and least-privilege permissions for AI components.
• Implement guardrails for autonomous agents, including action scoping, tool-use restrictions and human-in-the-loop approval.
• Apply data classification, retention and residency policies across GenAI data flows.
• Monitor AI systems for policy violations, data leakage and anomalous behavior, maintain audit trails and logging, and provide Level II production support for incidents.
• Support compliance with GDPR, CCPA and the EU AI Act.

Required profile

• 4+ years of experience in IT or a related field.
• 2+ years of software engineering experience.
• 1+ year of experience in AI security, data privacy or governance.
• Experience with AI coding agent-augmented development and building and securing applications.
• Preferred: experience with AI governance platforms, policy-as-code, secrets management, DLP, red-teaming, agent guardrails, content moderation, and security incident handling.

Required skills

• Python, Java, C#, JavaScript or SQL.
• Cloud platforms, containers and CI/CD; knowledge of databases and data integration.
• LLM fundamentals, token behavior, and security guardrails such as prompt-injection and jailbreak defenses.
• Identity and access management, and familiarity with NIST AI RMF, OWASP LLM Top 10 and GDPR, CCPA and the EU AI Act.
• Observability practices (logging, tracing, audit trails).
• Experience with Azure, AWS or GCP.

What we offer

• Salary range of $85,000 to $124,000, negotiable, with eligibility for a discretionary annual bonus.
• Group health, vision and dental insurance, FSA and HSA accounts, life and accident insurance, adoption and fertility assistance, and paid parental leave of up to 6 weeks.
• Paid time off and up to 11 paid holidays, and a 401(k) plan with a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.