Senior Principal Engineer - AI Cyber Defense (Perimeter Security)

Value Proposition
Be part of a high-impact cybersecurity team driving intelligent, AI-enabled security strategies across perimeter defense, data protection, and advanced cyber analytics to reduce enterprise risk, protect sensitive information, and enable secure digital transformation.

Job Details:
Position Title: Senior Principal Engineer – AI Cyber Defense
Career Level: P5
Job Category: Vice President
Role Type: Hybrid
Job Location: Bangalore

About the Team:
Cybersecurity Engineering is responsible for securing enterprise environments across on-premises, hybrid, SaaS, and multi-cloud ecosystems. The team focuses on strengthening perimeter defenses, protecting critical data assets, leveraging AI/ML-driven security capabilities, and implementing modern security architectures to proactively defend against evolving cyber threats while ensuring governance, compliance, and operational resilience.

Impact:
This strategic role will drive enterprise cyber resilience by integrating AI/ML-powered security capabilities, modern perimeter defense strategies, and advanced data protection controls. The role will improve threat prevention, protection, detection, governance, and response capabilities through intelligent analytics, automation, predictive insights, and adaptive security controls while safeguarding enterprise data and reducing overall attack surface.

Key Deliverables (Duties and Responsibilities)
• Design and implement enterprise cybersecurity strategies spanning perimeter security, AI-driven defense, and data protection across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments.
• Architect, implement, and optimize perimeter security technologies including NGFW, WAF, proxies, email security gateways, DNS security, and secure access solutions.
• Design and develop AI/ML-driven security capabilities for anomaly detection, threat prediction, behavioral analytics, automated response, and risk-based decision making.
• Lead implementation and optimization of SSPM, DSPM, CSPM, DLP, data discovery, classification, labeling, and remediation programs.
• Leverage AI capabilities embedded within existing security tools to maximize prevention, protection, detection, and response outcomes across the enterprise.
• Drive proactive threat prevention and attack surface reduction through predictive analytics, intelligent filtering, adaptive controls, and threat intelligence integration.
• Implement data protection strategies including encryption, masking, tokenization, access controls, and governance frameworks for structured and unstructured data.
• Integrate security platforms with SIEM, SOAR, XDR, UEBA, and AI-driven analytics platforms to enable centralized visibility, monitoring, and automated response.
• Strengthen defenses against advanced cyber threats including AI-driven attacks, adversarial AI techniques, phishing, malware, and external attack vectors.
• Support incident response, threat hunting, forensic investigations, and security analytics activities across perimeter, data, and enterprise security domains.
• Automate security operations, policy management, workflow orchestration, reporting, and controls using APIs, scripting, and intelligent automation frameworks.
• Ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory requirements, governance standards, and audit obligations through robust documentation and evidence management.
• Drive technology evaluations, architecture reviews, innovation initiatives, and continuous security improvement programs across the organization.

Skills and Qualification (Functional and Technical Skills)

Functional Skills:
• Strong expertise across cybersecurity architecture, perimeter defense, AI-driven security, and data protection domains.
• Ability to leverage AI-assisted and data-driven insights to improve prevention, protection, detection, governance, and response capabilities.
• Strong understanding of emerging cyber threats, AI-driven attack techniques, and modern defensive strategies.
• Proven experience operating within complex enterprise environments and leading strategic security initiatives.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Technical/Business Skills:
• 15+ years of experience in cybersecurity engineering, architecture, and security operations within large enterprise environments.
• Deep expertise in perimeter security technologies including Palo Alto NGFW, Zscaler (ZIA/ZPA/ZDX), Proofpoint, Akamai WAF, IDS/IPS, DNS security, and DDoS protection.
• Strong hands-on experience with DLP, SSPM, DSPM, CSPM, data classification, data governance, and cloud security platforms.
• Experience leveraging AI/ML frameworks, analytics platforms, and embedded AI capabilities within enterprise security solutions.
• Strong proficiency in SIEM, SOAR, XDR, EDR, UEBA, automation platforms, and security orchestration technologies.
• Knowledge of machine learning concepts including anomaly detection, classification, clustering, behavioral analytics, and predictive modeling.
• Hands-on experience securing Azure, AWS, GCP, SaaS platforms, and hybrid enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust, ZTNA, SASE, identity-centric security, and secure access frameworks.
• Strong programming and automation skills using Python, PowerShell, APIs, and integration frameworks.
• Experience with threat intelligence integration, automated enrichment, and advanced security analytics.
• Knowledge of regulatory, privacy, governance, and compliance frameworks applicable to enterprise cybersecurity.

Leadership Qualities
• Demonstrates strong ownership and accountability for enterprise cyber resilience, security architecture, and risk reduction initiatives.
• Acts as a recognized subject matter expert across AI-driven security, perimeter defense, and data protection domains.
• Drives innovation through adoption of AI-enabled, automation-first, and future-ready cybersecurity practices.
• Mentors team members and promotes technical excellence, knowledge sharing, and security best practices.
• Proactively identifies emerging risks, technology trends, and strategic opportunities to continuously improve security posture.

Relationships & Collaboration
• Collaborates closely with SOC, Threat Intelligence, Network Security, Cloud Security, IAM, Privacy, Data Governance, and Security Engineering teams.
• Partners with business leaders, platform owners, data owners, risk teams, and compliance stakeholders to align security objectives and governance standards.
• Engages with vendors and strategic partners to evaluate, deploy, and optimize advanced cybersecurity, AI, and data protection solutions.
• Builds strong cross-functional relationships to enable effective security operations, governance, and enterprise-wide cyber resilience.

Accessibility Needs
We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring process. If you require accommodation at any stage (application, interviews, or onboarding), we will work with you to ensure a seamless experience.