Senior Principal Engineer - Agentic Security

As a Senior Principal Security Engineer for Agentic Security, you will be at the forefront of securing how Zalando builds, deploys, and operates AI agents at scale. As autonomous and agentic systems take on more of our engineering and business workflows, you will define what safe, trustworthy, and well-governed agentic AI looks like at Zalando — operating on the line between the engineering teams building these systems and the security organization that safeguards them. You will not only ensure a security-by-design approach for agentic systems, but also make sure that security and governance are taken into account throughout their lifecycle — from model and tool selection, through agent identity and authorization, to runtime controls, guardrails, monitoring, and the accountability and auditability that let us operate these systems responsibly. As part of Application Security's leadership team, you will influence the security architecture of Zalando and a larger engineering organization through collaboration, translate emerging AI regulation and internal policy into practical technical controls, set the technical direction for one of the fastest-moving areas in our technology landscape.

Drive the security architecture, standards, and guardrails for agentic and AI-powered systems across engineering teams — covering agent identity, authorization, tool and function-call usage, and the boundaries of autonomous action. Lead the design and conceptual work on our agentic identity broker — defining how humans, services, and agents authenticate, are authorized, and are scoped when accessing AI models and capabilities, so that access is least-privilege, auditable, and safe by default. Continuously evolve threat modeling and risk assessment for agentic systems — addressing prompt injection, excessive agency, data exfiltration, and model and tool supply-chain risks — and make security reviews for AI scalable and impactful. Partner with Legal, Privacy, Compliance, and Risk to shape acceptable-use policies, model and agent approval processes, and AI review/governance forums — bringing the security engineering perspective that keeps them grounded in what is technically enforceable. Mentor and guide (principal) engineers in best practices for AI and application security. Share knowledge and expertise within our talented engineering and security community. Consult for and collaborate with cross-functional teams and other Principal Engineers across the company to integrate security considerations into every step of building and operating agentic systems. Dive deep and go hands-on with engineering teams in their code and technical designs, and fly high in discussions with other principal engineers on system design and security architecture trade-offs. Scan the horizon — track developments in agentic AI, LLM security, AI regulation and the evolving threat landscape, and feed them into our standards, guardrails, governance and the Zalando Tech Radar.

You have expert knowledge of security architecture, industry trends, and scaling yourself to a large organization. You have a strong understanding of AI/ML and agentic systems security — LLMs and their integration patterns, tool use and function calling, prompt injection, agent identity and authorization, and guardrails — or a strong security architecture background paired with the eagerness and ability to go deep in this domain. You have a solid understanding of IAM, cloud security, containerization technologies, and secure software development practices, and can dive deep with software engineers where needed. You have excellent communication skills and experience in leading organization-wide collaborations on security. You have the ability and eagerness to understand the business context where the teams operate and the customer problems being solved. You have broad experience in software engineering, or you have worked in adjacent fields that have exposed you to large-scale engineering projects.

27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days). 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners. Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers. Company pension scheme. Employee shares programme. Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub. Mental health support and coaching. Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review. 2 paid volunteering days a year. Relocation assistance (subject to prior agreement).