Senior Director for National Security

About Security Level 5

Security Level 5 is a Bay Area AI security nonprofit working with AI labs and US intelligence agencies to defend frontier models from priority nation-state-level threats. We move fast, and we're tripling headcount this year.

The Mission

We're hiring for what's plausibly the most difficult, urgent, and interesting challenge in AI security engineering this decade (for humans, at least): designing and building the first datacenter purpose-built to Security Level 5, the standard for defending frontier AI labs against attackers with the resources of a nation-state and billion-dollar budgets. We're working on the first SL5 components this year and aiming for an at-scale SL5 datacenter build in 2027.

We wrote the first version of the standard with input from CISOs and senior security staff at the frontier labs, and US security and intelligence officials. Now we're designing the SL5 architectures purpose-built for frontier AI workloads, and standing up the reference tech stack to guide labs' buildouts. This stack has to hold against nation-states, not destroy researchers' productivity, not cost more than labs can pay, and ship in 2-3 years.

What you’d work on

Tending to and growing our USG and NatSec Partnerships & Network

Creating custom whitepapers for USG partners & consulting on their specific needs

Regular trips to DC / or living in DC to meet partners in person

Running custom conference and workshops to educate & engage particular USG specialist groups, and facilitate a connection between Bay Area and DC SL5 Experts

Advise on SL5 team’s overall strategy & communications

Assist the CEO during on technical briefing trips to DC

You’d be a fit if you

Have a large pre-existing network of earned-trust relationships in DC especially among current NatSec community, WH, House & Senate Armed Forces / Select

Committee on Intelligence

Have a strong understanding of the defacto processes, staffing and structure of key USG & IC institutions, including Government Procurement Processes

Excellent written and verbal policy and technical communication skills

Have a bipartisan/neutral affiliation

Have an interest in or prior knowledge of Datacenter Security, basics of AI / ML, government Standards around Datacenter Security

Bonus

Possess an active TS or above clearance

Logistics

Washington, DC, in-person preferred or regular travel required. This role's base salary range is $180,000 - $280,000 USD per year. We may be open to paying exceptional and/or highly experienced employees more than this. We also provide full benefits, including healthcare, dental, vision, 401k match, and more.