AI Security Engineer Manager

$118K - $243K Sacramento, CA, US Mid Level AI/ML Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

AwsAzureGcpJavascriptPythonPytorchTensorflow

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

As a Manager in AI Security Engineering, you will play a critical role in securing the development and deployment of AI/ML and Generative AI solutions. You will operate hands\-on across high\-visibility initiatives, embedding security, trust, and resilience into AI systems while enabling rapid, responsible innovation.

Recruiting for this role ends on 7/23/2026\.

Work you'll do

You will bring strong engineering depth and applied AI knowledge, combined with expertise in cybersecurity principles, to design and deliver secure, scalable solutions. This role requires a collaborative, execution\-focused leader who can influence teams, mentor engineers, and ensure AI systems meet enterprise security, risk, and compliance expectations.

Key Responsibilities

Secure, Outcome\-Driven Delivery

Design and deliver AI\-enabled solutions that are secure by design, balancing business value with risk mitigation. Solve complex problems while ensuring protection of data, models, and systems.

Hands\-On AI Security Engineering

Actively contribute to architecture, design, and development of AI/ML and GenAI systems with embedded security controls. Integrate security across the SSDLC, including code reviews, testing, and deployment. In this role you will be responsible for managing AI defensive technologies and the operations of those technologies which will evolve over time.

AI Risk Identification and Mitigation

Identify and address AI\-specific vulnerabilities, including prompt injection, data leakage, model manipulation, and misuse. Implement practical safeguards to ensure system integrity and trustworthiness.

Technical Leadership and Advocacy

Serve as a trusted technical voice for secure AI engineering. Ensure solutions are feasible, secure, and aligned with business and customer objectives.

Engineering Excellence with Security Focus

Maintain high standards for code quality, scalability, and security. Contribute to secure coding practices, reusable patterns, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.

Iterative and Responsible Innovation

Support rapid experimentation while applying appropriate security guardrails. Enable teams to innovate safely through controlled, risk\-aware development practices.

Cross\-Functional Collaboration

Partner closely with product, engineering, cybersecurity, and risk teams to embed AI security into solutions. Balance usability, performance, and security in decision\-making.

Standards and Best Practices

Apply and help evolve standards for AI security, including data protection, access control, model validation, and monitoring within DevSecOps and MLOps pipelines.

Communication and Influence

Clearly articulate technical risks, trade\-offs, and solutions to both technical and non\-technical stakeholders. Contribute to alignment and informed decision\-making.

Impact

This role directly contributes to reducing enterprise risk and strengthening trust in AI systems. Your work will enable secure adoption of AI capabilities while protecting critical assets and maintaining compliance.

The successful candidate would possess these skills

  • Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
  • Effective written and verbal communication skills
  • Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
  • Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
  • Ability to lead projects or workstreams
  • Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast\-paced and dynamic environment
  • Strong interpersonal skills and professional demeanor
  • Ability to meet deadlines
  • Ability to mentor and provide clear guidance to others

The team

Deloitte Technology US (DT \- US) helps power Deloitte's success, which serves many of the world's largest, most respected organizations. We develop and deploy cutting\-edge internal and go\-to\-market solutions that help Deloitte operate effectively and lead in the market. Our reputation is built on a tradition of delivering with excellence.

The \~3,000 professionals in DT \- US deliver services including:

  • Cyber Security
  • Technology Support
  • Technology \& Infrastructure
  • Applications
  • Relationship Management
  • Strategy \& Communications
  • Project Management
  • Financials

Cyber Security

Cyber Security vigilantly protects Deloitte and client data. The team leads a strategic cyber risk program that adapts to a rapidly changing threat landscape, changes in business strategies, risks, and vulnerabilities. Using situational awareness, threat intelligence, and building a security culture across the organization, the team helps to protect the Deloitte brand.

Areas of focus include:

  • Risk \& Compliance
  • Identity \& Access Management
  • Data Protection
  • Cyber Design
  • Incident Response
  • Security Architecture
  • Business Partnership

Qualifications

Required:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Business Administration
  • Minimum 6 years of relevant experience in software engineering, cybersecurity, and/or including AI/ML, with hands\-on delivery experience
  • Minimum 1 year of people and/or process management experience

Preferred:

  • Strong understanding of AI/GenAI technologies and associated security risks (e.g., prompt injection, data exposure, adversarial threats)
  • Experience building and securing applications using Python, JavaScript, or similar, along with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
  • Familiarity with secure development practices (DevSecOps) and integrating security into CI/CD and MLOps pipelines
  • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud\-native security principles
  • Knowledge of data protection, identity/access management, and secure architecture patterns
  • Ability to work across teams, mentor engineers, and contribute to a strong engineering culture
  • Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts into business\-relevant insights

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $118,700 to $243,700\.

You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

EA\_ExpHire

RITM10427821

Salary Context

This $118K-$243K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1841 roles with salary data).

View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →

Role Details

Company Deloitte
Title AI Security Engineer Manager
Location Sacramento, CA, US
Category AI/ML Engineer
Experience Mid Level
Salary $118K - $243K
Remote No

About This Role

AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.

Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.

Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Deloitte, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

Skills Required

Aws (30% of roles) Azure (24% of roles) Gcp (17% of roles) Javascript (6% of roles) Python (51% of roles) Pytorch (15% of roles) Tensorflow (11% of roles)

Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.

Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.

Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $218,750 based on 3,817 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000. This role's midpoint ($181K) sits 17% below the category median. Disclosed range: $118K to $243K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.

Deloitte AI Hiring

Deloitte has 15 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span Washington, DC, US, Fort Worth, TX, US, McLean, VA, US. Compensation range: $141K - $338K.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).

Career Path

Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.

From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.

The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.

What to Expect in Interviews

Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.

When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 3,817 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI/ML Engineer positions is $218,750. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
About 14% of the 3,708 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Deloitte is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI/ML Engineer positions include ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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