Principal AI Engineer (Sarasota, FL)

Company Overview

TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the MDR landscape.

As a Principal AI Engineer at TENEX, you will be a key technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing scalable, high-performance AI systems. You will play a crucial role in shaping the architecture of our AI-driven cybersecurity solutions while mentoring engineering teams and driving technical innovation.

Location: This role will require onsite in our Sarasota, FL location.

Culture is one of the most important things at TENEX.AI—dive into our culture deck at culture.tenex.ai to see how we live it every day, with a deep emphasis on the collaboration and community that only in-person work delivers. This role is for those already in Sarasota, Florida (outside Tampa), or ready to relocate / commute here, where bold innovators ignite cybersecurity revolutions. Escape the overly inflated cost of living and sky-high tax burdens of places like California or New York with our incredibly aggressive relocation packages, designed to make the move for you and your family seamless, lucrative, and life-changing—think zero state income tax unlocking your full earning potential!

Join us in this sun-soaked paradise, embracing unparalleled personal freedom, a pro-business powerhouse climate, year-round amazing weather, and a very pro-family culture headlined by the nearby master-planned utopia of Lakewood Ranch, boasting top-tier amenities, schools, and community vibes that fuel work-life mastery.

For candidates who embody the rare "10x of 10x" talent, we offer the flexibility of fully remote work. If you are an exceptional, unrivaled force in this role and prefer not to relocate at this time, we encourage you to apply for this remote-first position. Please be aware that the competition for these remote roles is exceptionally fierce, and the standards for selection are significantly higher.

Job Responsibilities

• Design & build the AI layer that powers autonomous detection, RAG-backed investigation, and auto-remediation workflows.

• Develop and productionize large-scale LLMs, graph-based reasoning engines, and streaming feature pipelines that operate on billions of security events.

• Own evaluation & reliability—from prompt libraries and fine tuning to red-team testing, latency budgets, and fallback strategies.

• Mentor & grow a cohort of AI engineers; run design reviews, uphold code quality, and instill a security-first mindset.

• Partner tightly with Product, Detection Engineering, and Customer Success to translate real-world attacker behavior into robust ML and rule-based detections.

• Push the frontier—experiment with retrieval-augmented generation, tool-calling agents, and multi-modal models (text + logs + graphs) to keep defenders decisively ahead.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Software Engineering & Architecture Expertise

  • 10+ years of experience in software development, engineering production systems using modern programming languages (Python, Go, Rust, or Java).

  • Deep knowledge of LLM architecture, prompt engineering, and Vector database workflows.

  • Hands-on experience building agents, orchestration frameworks (LangChain/LangGraph, Agno AGI, or custom), and evaluation harnesses.

  • Deep understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and event-driven systems.

  • Strong fundamentals in API design (REST/gRPC) and distributed systems.

  • Clear, concise communication skills and a bias for collaborative problem-solving.

• Nice-to-have

  • Prior work in cybersecurity (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, or MDR).

  • Experience with graph databases or security-focused knowledge graphs.

  • Familiarity with cloud infrastructure security (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

  • Background leading teams in high-growth startups or enterprise SaaS.

• Soft Skills

  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.

  • Excellent communication and leadership abilities.

  • Ability to mentor and influence engineering teams.

  • Passion for cybersecurity and automation.

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• Relevant certifications (AWS/GCP Professional Engineer, Kubernetes, or security-related credentials) are a plus.

Why Join Us?

• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and Google SecOps solutions.

• Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations.

• Competitive salary and benefits package.

• A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your knowledge in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.

If you're passionate about combining cybersecurity expertise with artificial intelligence and have experience with Google SecOps and Chronicle, we encourage you to apply!