Secure AI Engineer

Cognizant is always looking for top talent. We are searching for candidates to fill future needs within the business. This job posting represents potential future employment opportunities with Cognizant. Although the position is not currently available, we want to provide you with the opportunity to express your interest in future employment opportunities with Cognizant. If a job opportunity that you may be qualified for becomes available in the future, we will notify you. At that time you can determine whether you would like to apply for the specific open position. Thank you for your interest in Cognizant career opportunities. We are looking for a Secure AI Architect with deep expertise across Microsoft’s cloud, security, and AI ecosystems . This consultant will lead short, high-impact customer engagements (typically 1–2 days) to help organizations establish secure, compliant, and well-governed AI foundations . You will assess current readiness, identify control gaps, and guide technical and management stakeholders on how to safely deploy AI at scale—bridging the disciplines of security architecture, compliance, data governance, and responsible AI . Key Responsibilities Lead customer workshops to assess AI readiness from identity, data, and compliance perspectives. Define and articulate AI governance frameworks covering policy, access, data protection, and risk management . Translate complex Microsoft security and compliance capabilities (Entra ID, Purview, Defender, M365, Azure AI) into actionable recommendations. Advise on the secure enablement of generative AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Azure AI Foundry Design pragmatic approaches for data boundary enforcement, labeling, DLP, and prompt-safety controls . Review identity and access management for AI workloads—MFA, Conditional Access, privileged identity controls, and just-in-time elevation. Recommend monitoring, auditing, and incident-response strategies for AI misuse or data leakage. Present findings and next steps to IT Management stakeholders with clear business and compliance implications. Required Qualifications 5+ years cloud security, compliance, or architecture, ideally in Enterprise Microsoft environments. Proven experience advising enterprise customers on secure adoption of M365 & AI workloads (Copilot, Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, AI Foundry). Deep hands‑on knowledge of security, governance & management on Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric, AI Foundry, Microsoft 365 Administration Working hands‑on knowledge of security, governance & management on Microsoft Entra, Defender for Cloud Apps, Azure Policy Understanding of responsible AI principles, privacy by design, and regulatory alignment (GDPR, ISO, NIST). Strong ability to lead short, outcome‑driven consulting engagements and communicate with executives. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of simplifying complex security & governance topics. Preferred Experience Previous consulting or customer‑facing experience at a major Microsoft partner. Familiarity with AI governance frameworks, model risk management, and data‑driven decisioning. Working knowledge of Azure AI, AI Foundry, Microsoft Fabric security and compliance configurations. Experience in building RACI models, acceptable-use policies, or risk registers for AI or cloud platforms. Exposure to FinOps or cost optimization in Microsoft 365 and Azure environments Required Certifications Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert (SC-100) Microsoft Certified: Information Protection Administrator (SC-401) Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) Bonus: Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) or equivalent #J-18808-Ljbffr