About this role
Security professionals who enjoy tackling ambiguous problems where established industry playbooks fall short will find a natural home on this team. Cohere builds enterprise AI products and frontier models, handling sensitive customer data and workflows that demand rigorous security architectures. Operating within the North Security team, the incoming engineer focuses on hands-on technical work rather than advisory tasks, addressing novel challenges such as authorization for autonomous agents, tool containment, and tenant isolation.
Daily responsibilities center on partnering directly with product developers to review architecture and code, model threats before implementation, and test software prior to shipping. Because enterprises trust the company with critical data, the engineering group must continuously invent scalable guardrails and secure defaults that other internal teams inherit. Finding success here requires strong software engineering fundamentals, deep knowledge of application vulnerabilities, and the ability to influence security decisions across multiple engineering groups without relying solely on authority.
What you will do
- Lead architecture, code, and security-sensitive reviews to identify individual vulnerabilities and recurring design patterns.
- Evaluate risks in AI-powered products including prompt injection, unsafe tool use, excessive agency, and tenant isolation.
- Perform threat modeling on new capabilities to identify trust boundaries, abuse cases, and high-impact failure modes.
- Investigate suspected vulnerabilities through hands-on testing, develop proofs of concept, and partner with engineers on remediation.
- Build scalable guardrails such as secure defaults, approved patterns, reusable controls, and automated checks.
- Strengthen engineering capability by pairing with developers, documenting practical guidance, and sharing security expertise.
- Communicate technical findings, business impact, and remediation options clearly to engineers, product leaders, and executives.
What you need
- Possess strong software engineering fundamentals to independently understand, test, and contribute fixes to production codebases.
- Demonstrate proficiency in at least one of Python, Go, or TypeScript.
- Bring experience leading security reviews or threat models for complex production systems with measurable risk improvements.
- Understand common vulnerability classes and underlying design failures including injection, authorization flaws, IDOR, and SSRF.
- Know modern application architecture including web applications, APIs, OAuth/OIDC, cloud platforms, and Kubernetes.
- Reason rigorously about untrusted input, authorization, isolation, identity, delegation, and data boundaries.
- Demonstrate a history of driving security improvements involving multiple engineering teams using influence over authority.
Nice to have
- Experience building or operating security tooling such as SAST, DAST, SCA, custom linters, or policy-as-code.
- Experience securing multi-tenant SaaS, enterprise software, or systems that process sensitive customer data.
- Offensive security experience through penetration testing, red teaming or security research.
- Experience operating or participating in a vulnerability disclosure or bug bounty program.
- Contributions to open-source security projects, published research, conference talks, or credited vulnerability discoveries.
Benefits
- A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in local currency
- Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health
- RRSP matching, 401K, and Pension Scheme
- 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months for either parent
- Annual enrichment benefits covering arts and culture, fitness, and education
- 6 weeks of paid vacation alongside home office and travel budgets
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote work policy?
Cohere is remote-friendly while also maintaining offices in Toronto, London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin, and Seoul. Employees not near an office receive a co-working benefit to work alongside others locally.
What is the compensation range for this position?
The salary range is $180K to $385K with offers of equity across multiple ranges.
What does the team actually build?
The team builds cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products designed to solve real-world business problems for enterprises. This role specifically focuses on securing these AI-powered systems against novel risks.
What kind of office perks are provided?
Full-time employees enjoy a weekly lunch stipend, full health and dental benefits, retirement plans, parental leave, and an annual company offsite. Those working from an office receive daily lunch programs, snacks, and community events.