Associate Director AI Security

Associate Director AI Security

BioNTech

Mainz, Germany

About the role:

As Associate Director AI Security, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and safeguarding BioNTech’s innovative use of artificial intelligence technologies. Your work will directly contribute to our mission by ensuring secure and compliant AI systems that support groundbreaking advancements in medicine.

You will collaborate across teams, including cybersecurity experts, data scientists, machine learning engineers, and compliance stakeholders, to develop and implement BioNTech's AI Security Framework. Together, you will create solutions that protect against emerging threats and align with global regulatory standards, enabling the safe deployment of AI-driven capabilities in healthcare and life sciences.

Your contribution:

• Develop and continuously improve BioNTech's enterprise AI Security Framework across the full lifecycle of AI systems
• Establish policies, standards, and security requirements for secure AI development, including generative AI applications and MLOps environments
• Monitor the evolving threat landscape targeting AI systems, such as adversarial machine learning and data poisoning attacks
• Conduct risk assessments for AI systems, classify deployments by risk tier, and recommend tailored controls
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate security-by-design principles into AI development pipelines
• Lead design reviews, architecture assessments, and deployment readiness evaluations for secure adoption of controls
• Support Cyber & Information Security teams in detecting and responding to attacks on AI systems through training and playbooks
• Assess tools for threat detection, model protection, posture management, and incident response related to AI security

A good match:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related field
• Extensive experience (8+ years) in cybersecurity with practical expertise in securing AI/ML systems or data-intensive platforms
• Strong technical understanding of adversarial machine learning, secure MLOps practices, data pipeline integrity, and threat modeling for AI systems
• Experience in life sciences or pharmaceutical environments; familiarity with GxP-regulated settings is preferred
• Strong regulatory and compliance acumen, including EU AI Act, NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, OWASP AI/ML Top 10, and emerging global AI governance standards
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority
• Fluent English skills, both oral and written