AI Security Jobs Near Me

                Short answer: Most AI security jobs in 2026 are concentrated in five US metros (SF Bay, NYC, Seattle, DC, Boston) and three international hubs (London, Toronto, Tel Aviv). Roughly 40% of open roles are fully remote, another 30% are hybrid with a 1-3 day office expectation, and 30% are onsite. The job boards that actually surface AI-specific security roles in 2026 are not LinkedIn first. Use Levels.fyi job board, Otta, the AI security vendor career pages directly, and the Anthropic, OpenAI, and DeepMind jobs pages weekly.
            

"AI security jobs near me" is a question with two answers. If you are in or near one of the eight hub cities below, the answer is "a lot of options". If you are outside them, the answer is "fewer, but more remote roles than for any other security specialty". The hiring is concentrated because the customers (frontier labs, big tech, cybersecurity vendors) cluster geographically, but the labor market has tilted toward remote-friendly more than general security has.

Where the AI security jobs are: US cities

San Francisco Bay Area. The densest market. OpenAI (San Francisco), Anthropic (San Francisco), Google (Mountain View, San Francisco), Meta (Menlo Park), Lakera (San Francisco), HiddenLayer (San Francisco satellite). Roughly 30% of US AI security job postings in 2026 went to Bay Area zip codes. Comp is the highest in the country but so is cost of living.

Seattle. Microsoft (including the Microsoft AI Red Team), Amazon (AWS Bedrock and SageMaker security), and a growing AI security vendor cluster. Roughly 12% of US postings.

New York City. Google's NYC office, Anthropic NYC, Meta NYC, plus a heavy concentration of financial services hiring AI security engineers under SR 11-7 and EU AI Act pressure. Roughly 10% of US postings.

Washington DC metro. Defense contractors (Leidos, Booz Allen, MITRE), federal agencies (NSA, CISA, the US AI Safety Institute), and an emerging cluster of cleared AI security consulting firms. Roughly 8% of US postings. Clearance-required roles concentrate here. The clearance premium adds $15,000 to $30,000.

Boston. Healthcare AI security (Tempus partnerships, Boston Children's, Mass General Brigham), academic labs spinning out startups (MIT, Harvard), and a growing cluster of robotics security work. Roughly 5% of US postings.

Other US metros with real volume. Austin (AI hardware security at NVIDIA), San Diego (defense plus Qualcomm), Pittsburgh (CMU spinouts), Atlanta (financial services and academic). Each of these has 2% to 4% of US AI security postings, which is small in percentage but enough to make a local job hunt viable.

Where the AI security jobs are: international

London. The UK AI Security Institute, Google DeepMind, Anthropic London, plus the UK financial services cluster. The densest non-US market. The UK AISI alone has been hiring roughly 30 to 50 technical staff per year across research engineering, evaluation, and policy roles since its 2024 launch. See AI Security Institute UK careers.

Toronto. Cohere, Vector Institute, and a growing AI security vendor presence. Adjacent to the NYC market with easier immigration paths.

Tel Aviv. Israel's cybersecurity scene plus a young AI cluster. Many roles are cybersecurity-first with AI security as a recent specialty.

Other notable. Berlin (Aleph Alpha, smaller AI security startups), Paris (Mistral, the French AI security ecosystem), Singapore (financial services and Anthropic regional), Tokyo (NTT, Sony AI), Bangalore (Microsoft, Google, growing AI startup cluster).

What "remote AI security jobs" actually means in 2026

Roughly 40% of US AI security job postings in 2026 were fully remote. Another 30% were hybrid with 1-3 days in-office, and 30% were strictly onsite. The remote share is higher than general cybersecurity (about 28% remote in the same period). The reason is straightforward: the supply of AI security engineers is small, the companies hiring are willing to be flexible, and most of the work can be done remotely because the systems being secured are themselves cloud-hosted.

That said, the strictly onsite 30% includes most of the highest-paying frontier-lab roles. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind require regular in-office presence for senior AI security engineers. Defense roles with clearance requirements are almost universally onsite. If you are optimizing for the absolute top of the comp band, accept that you will be moving to one of the hub cities.

Best job boards for AI security roles in 2026

Company career pages directly. The frontier labs post AI security roles on their own sites first. Bookmark OpenAI careers, Anthropic careers, DeepMind careers, Microsoft AI jobs. Check weekly. Many roles are filled before they hit aggregators.
Levels.fyi job board. Pulls AI security roles with salary data attached, which beats LinkedIn's salary-less listings.
Otta (now Welcome to the Jungle). The default for AI startup roles in London and across Europe, with growing US coverage.
AI security vendor career pages. Lakera, HiddenLayer, Protect AI, and Mindgard all post directly. Set up a weekly check.
The AISI hiring pages. The UK AI Security Institute and the US AI Safety Institute both post their own roles. Civil service roles also appear on USAJobs (US AISI) and Civil Service Jobs (UK AISI).
The OWASP AI Security and Privacy community. Jobs channel in the OWASP Slack surfaces roles before they hit general boards.
LinkedIn. Yes, still useful, but as a backup. Filter for "AI security engineer" exact-match in title and set up a daily alert.

How to filter for real AI security roles, not security-at-an-AI-company roles

Roughly half of job postings that include "AI" and "security" are generic security roles at AI companies. The job is normal cloud security, application security, or detection engineering, and the AI is a distraction. The other half are real AI security roles where the work centers on the models. Two filters separate them. First, search the job description for OWASP LLM Top 10, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, or specific tool names like Garak, NeMo Guardrails, or Counterfit. Real AI security roles will mention at least one. Second, check the team description. If the role reports into a security org with no ML engineering exposure, it is probably generic security. If the role reports into an AI safety, AI red team, or model security team, it is real.

Salary expectations by city

For a senior AI security engineer (6-9 years experience) the 2026 total compensation by metro looked like: SF Bay $390,000 to $620,000, NYC $360,000 to $580,000, Seattle $340,000 to $540,000, Boston $310,000 to $480,000, DC metro $290,000 to $440,000 (plus clearance premium), London £180,000 to £270,000 ($225,000 to $340,000), Toronto C$280,000 to C$420,000 ($205,000 to $310,000). Remote roles typically pay 10% to 20% below the SF Bay band. See the salary data for the full picture and the negotiation guide for how to push the offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are AI security jobs located?

Most US AI security jobs concentrate in five metros: San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York City, Washington DC, and Boston. International hubs are London, Toronto, and Tel Aviv. The Bay Area alone took about 30% of US AI security job postings in 2026.

How many AI security jobs are remote?

Roughly 40% of US AI security postings in 2026 were fully remote, 30% were hybrid (1 to 3 days in office), and 30% were strictly onsite. The remote share is higher than for general cybersecurity because the underlying systems are cloud-hosted and the talent supply is small enough that companies are flexible.

What is the best job board for AI security roles?

Frontier-lab and AI security vendor career pages first (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Lakera, HiddenLayer, Protect AI). Levels.fyi job board for salary transparency, Otta for AI startups, and the AISI hiring pages for the UK and US AI Safety Institutes. LinkedIn is a backup, not the primary source.

Are there AI security jobs in defense and government?

Yes, concentrated in the Washington DC metro area. Defense contractors (Leidos, Booz Allen, MITRE), federal agencies (NSA, CISA, US AI Safety Institute), and a growing cluster of cleared AI security consulting firms. Clearance-required roles add a $15,000 to $30,000 premium and are almost universally onsite.

How do I tell a real AI security job from a generic security job?

Search the job description for OWASP LLM Top 10, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, or specific tool names like Garak, NeMo Guardrails, or Counterfit. Real AI security roles will mention at least one. Then check the team description: real AI security teams report into AI safety, AI red team, or model security orgs, not generic security.