Back to jobs

Principal / Senior Principal, Security Architect

San Francisco, CA USA

Your Impact at Lila

We’re looking for a Principal Security Architect to lead the security architecture for cloud applications operating at FedRAMP IL5 and IL6, while also shaping enterprise-wide security architecture and engineering.
 
This is a hands-on leadership role—your work will directly enable secure product delivery at speed. You’ll lead the design, implementation, and authorization of FedRAMP IL5/IL6 systems, then scale that success by building reusable security platforms, patterns, and practices across the organization.
 
 
What You'll Be Building

You will define and deliver secure cloud architectures that meet the highest federal standards while staying practical and engineer friendly. Your designs will become the foundation for multiple systems and scale across teams and environments.

  • FedRAMP IL5 / IL6 security architectures co-owned with Application Architects and applied across multiple systems
  • Deployable security designs grounded in NIST 800-53 Rev. 5, DoD Cloud SRG (IL5/IL6), and FedRAMP
  • Core security building blocks, including:
    • Identity, credential, and access management (ICAM)
    • Network segmentation, trust boundaries, and secure data flows
    • Encryption, key management, and secrets handling
  • Zero Trust architecture (NIST 800-207) implemented in production—not just documented
  • Reusable security platforms and patterns, including:
    • IAM and access control
    • Secrets management and key lifecycle
    • Logging, monitoring, and detection
    • Secure CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code
  • Enterprise reference architectures supporting both FedRAMP and non-FedRAMP systems
  • Compliance-aware designs that minimize authorization scope through control inheritance, reuse, and standardization
  • Automated compliance evidence pipelines that reduce manual effort and improve audit readiness
  • Security-by-design integrations embedded into product engineering and cloud infrastructure
  • Architectural support for resilience and response, including threat modeling, risk assessment, incident response, and forensic readiness

What Success Looks Like

  • Security controls are designed once and reused across applications and platforms
  • Compliance evidence is automated, repeatable, and scalable
  • Engineering teams adopt security patterns naturally, without friction
  • Security architecture accelerates delivery instead of slowing it down

This role is for someone who wants to build durable, reusable security architecture that scales beyond one system—and enables high-assurance cloud delivery at speed. This is not a policy-only or governance-only position.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

You bring deep, hands-on experience designing and delivering secure cloud systems in highly regulated environments. You’re comfortable translating complex requirements into scalable architecture and guiding teams through delivery.

  • 8+ years in cybersecurity, security architecture, or security engineering
  • Proven, hands-on delivery of FedRAMP IL5 and/or IL6 systems, from design through authorization
  • Strong working knowledge of:
    • NIST 800-53 Rev. 5
    • DoD Cloud Computing SRG (IL5/IL6)
    • FedRAMP authorization and ATO processes
  • Cloud security architecture experience in AWS GovCloud
  • Experience securing cloud-native platforms, including:
    • Container orchestration (EKS, AKS, OpenShift)
    • CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code
  • Ability to explain control intent and risk tradeoffs, not just map requirements to controls

About Lila

Lila Sciences is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science.  We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method.  We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before. Learn more about this mission at  www.lila.ai

If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, we encourage you to apply.

Compensation

We expect the base salary for this role to fall between $204,000 – $310,000 USD per year, along with bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.

We’re All In

Lila Sciences is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.

A Note to Agencies

Lila Sciences does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Lila Sciences or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Lila Science’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Lila Sciences, and Lila Sciences will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...

If you'll require the company to commence ("sponsor") an immigration or work permit case in order to employ you, either now or at some point in the future, then you should select Yes. Otherwise, select No.

Select...
Select...