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Salary: USD 100,000 - 258,000 / annual
xAI is seeking a hands-on Infrastructure Security Engineer to design, build, and secure infrastructure spanning bare-metal data centers, private cloud, and hybrid environments. You will work across physical and platform layers—from firmware and BMC management through Kubernetes and containerization—embedding security into how systems are built and operated rather than bolting it on afterward.
Key responsibilities include:
**Bare Metal & Data Center Security:** Design and implement secure bare-metal and private-cloud architectures; harden physical and virtual fleets using OS baselines, CIS benchmarks, and secure boot practices; manage firmware, BMC/iDRAC/iLO, and PXE/Kickstart provisioning; build and secure network foundations including segmentation, load balancers, DNS, PKI, and IDS/IPS; own hybrid connectivity (site-to-site VPN, Direct Connect, SD-WAN, zero-trust access); manage identities across Active Directory, LDAP, Kerberos, and cloud IAM; assist with security assessments and compliance (PCI, NIST CSF, GDPR, HIPAA).
**Platform & Container Security:** Design and implement secure Kubernetes and container standards on bare metal and private cloud; develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (especially Puppet) with embedded security controls; collaborate with development teams to integrate security into CI/CD pipelines; secure and enhance CI/CD pipelines with code and image scanning.
**Detection, Operations & Tooling:** Monitor and respond to security events across bare metal, network, hosts, and hybrid cloud; maintain SIEM data pipelines for reliable alerting; build and deploy security operations infrastructure using Python, Terraform, and Puppet; develop dashboards and alerts; own security projects end-to-end; stay current with emerging threats.
The role operates within a flat organizational structure at a small, highly motivated team focused on engineering excellence. You will be hands-on and expected to contribute directly to the mission of creating AI systems that understand the universe.
**Requirements:**
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field
- 3–5 years of infrastructure security, platform security, or related hands-on roles
- Proven experience securing bare-metal, data-center, or private-cloud environments (not cloud-only)
- Hands-on experience with firmware, BMC/iDRAC/iLO, PXE/Kickstart provisioning, and hardware lifecycle security
- Strong proficiency with Puppet for configuration management and fleet hardening in production
- Strong understanding of network security concepts and protocols; hands-on work with firewalls, segmentation, and hybrid connectivity
- Experience with hybrid identity (AD/LDAP or similar) integrated or federated with cloud IAM
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform) applied to physical or VM fleets
- Familiarity with containerization and Kubernetes security implications, including on-premises or bare-metal clusters
- Experience with automation languages (Python, Bash, Golang)
- Familiarity with regulatory compliance requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST CSF)
- Experience in banking, money transmission, P2P payments, or similarly regulated financial platforms
- Proactive mindset with strong ownership, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills
- Located in or willing to relocate to SF Bay Area, Austin, New York, or Seattle
**Preferred Skills:**
- Deep expertise operating and securing physical server fleets, colo, or private cloud (VMware, OpenStack, Proxmox, Nutanix)
- Relevant security certifications (CCSP, CSSK, OSCP, network or cloud security specialty)
- Strong proficiency with Python and Terraform on production fleets
- Deep expertise in Kubernetes and container security on bare metal or private cloud
- Experience with multi-cloud and cloud-to-on-prem security
- Knowledge of CI/CD best practices; hands-on GitHub Actions or equivalent
- Experience with observability and security operations tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, Wazuh)
- Experience building custom security tools or integrations
- Interest in leveraging AI for infrastructure security monitoring and automation
- Open-source infrastructure or security project contributions
- Experience securing AI/ML and GPU workloads on bare metal or hybrid infrastructure
