Principal Engineer - Product Engineering

Important: 1Password is growing faster than ever. We’ve surpassed $400M in ARR and we’re continuing to accelerate, earning a spot on the Forbes Cloud 100 for four years in a row and teaming up with iconic partners like Oracle Red Bull Racing and the Utah Mammoth.

About 1Password

At 1Password, we’re building the foundation for a safe, productive digital future. Our mission is to unleash employee productivity without compromising security by ensuring every identity is authentic, every application sign-in is secure, and every device is trusted. We innovated the market-leading enterprise password manager and pioneered Extended Access Management, a new cybersecurity category built for the way people and AI agents work today. As one of the most loved brands in cybersecurity, we take a human-centric approach in everything from product strategy to user experience. Over 180,000 businesses, from Fortune 100 leaders to the world’s most innovative AI companies, trust 1Password to help their teams securely adopt the SaaS and AI tools they need to do their best work.

If you're excited about the opportunity to contribute to the digital safety of millions, to work alongside a team of curious, driven individuals, and to solve hard problems in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, then we want to hear from you. Come join us and help shape a safer, simpler digital future.

We are hiring a Principal Engineer to define the technical direction for AI-powered security capabilities in 1Password.

This is a senior individual contributor role for an engineer who can translate a high-stakes problem space into production systems. You will set the architecture, technical standards, and operating model for how AI is used in security-sensitive product experiences. The work spans client, service, and policy layers and must meet a high bar for privacy, auditability, reliability, and user trust.

This is not a research role. It is not a prototype lab. The expectation is production-grade systems that can operate under enterprise scrutiny, adversarial conditions, and real-world performance constraints.

This is a greenfield opportunity with genuine stakes. You'll define the reference architecture, set the engineering bar, and own the path from prototype to production for a capability area that will shape the company's trajectory for the next five years. The constraints here (privacy-preserving by default, on-device where possible, auditable always) aren't limitations: they're the design surface that makes the problem interesting and the outcomes defensible.

If you want to build AI systems that matter, that operate under real-world trust requirements, and that will be used by people who depend on them, this is that role.

AI will change both how attacks happen and how security products respond. At 1Password, we have the opportunity to apply AI at a high-signal point in the identity and credential flow, where better decisions can meaningfully improve security outcomes for end users and businesses.

This role will help determine whether we do that with the engineering rigor and trust model our customers expect.

This is a remote opportunity within Canada and the US.

What we're looking for

• You have built and operated production systems where trust, correctness, and failure handling matter.
• You have deep experience with AI or ML systems in production, ideally including LLM-integrated systems with explicit guardrails, evaluation pipelines, auditable tool use, and clear limits on autonomous behavior.
• You have strong instincts for privacy-preserving design, including client-side or edge inference, constrained telemetry, explainable system behavior, and predictable user-facing outcomes.
• You have meaningful depth in security-sensitive domains such as identity, authentication, authorization, secrets management, enterprise controls, endpoint trust, or adversarial detection.
• You have a track record of setting technical direction across multiple teams, making durable architecture decisions, and driving delivery through complex dependencies.
• You communicate clearly with engineers, executives, and cross-functional partners. You can explain hard tradeoffs plainly and make good judgment legible.
• You have built and operated production systems where trust, correctness, and failure handling matter.

Bonus points for

• Experience with endpoint or device posture signals, browser or extension security, phishing detection, or enterprise device trust.
• Experience with SaaS administration, identity lifecycle workflows, or enterprise policy automation.
• Experience building evaluation, red-team, or abuse-testing frameworks for AI-assisted systems.

What you can expect

• You will set the rules for where model-based reasoning is appropriate, where deterministic systems must take over, and how those layers interact safely in production.
• You will define the standards for signal collection, aggregation, retention, and use. That includes making clear decisions about what happens locally, what happens remotely, and what should not be collected at all.
• You will design the control model for agentic and tool-using systems in product contexts, including permission boundaries, approval paths, audit logs, rollback behavior, and safe fallback under uncertainty.
• You will establish the platform primitives that let teams build AI features consistently and safely, including interfaces for model invocation, policy evaluation, tool execution, experimentation, telemetry, and evaluation.
• You will make key architecture calls on where 1Password should build differentiated capability, where it should integrate with adjacent systems, and where it should stay opinionated about scope.
• You will work with Security, Privacy, Legal, and Compliance early in the design process so that trust, regulatory, and data-handling requirements are built into the architecture from the start.
• You will raise the operational bar for AI in production by defining service expectations, evaluation frameworks, rollout controls, rollback paths, abuse testing, and incident playbooks.

• You will lead through technical judgment and influence across teams. This role is expected to shape direction well beyond any single codebase.

What success looks like:
Success in this role means 1Password can ship AI-powered security capabilities that are effective, measurable, and worthy of customer trust.

That includes:

• Meaningful reduction in credential-related risk patterns
• Faster and safer response when risk is detected
• High admin confidence in AI-assisted controls and recommendations
• Product experiences that reduce friction instead of introducing opaque automation

• Clear evaluation and observability standards that let teams improve systems without weakening safety, privacy, or reliability

USA-based roles only: The annual base salary for this role is between $246,000 USD and $369,000 USD, plus immediate participation in 1Password's benefits program (health, dental, 401k and many others), utilization of our generous paid time off, an equity grant and, where applicable, participation in our incentive programs.

Canada-based roles only: The annual base salary for this role is between $228,000 CAD and $342,000 CAD, plus immediate participation in 1Password’s generous benefits program (health, dental, RRSP and many others), utilization of our generous paid time off, an equity grant and, where applicable, participation in our incentive programs.

At 1Password, we approach each individual's compensation with a promise of fair market value and internal equity commensurate with experience and specific skill set.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Our culture
At 1Password, we prioritize collaboration, clear and transparent communication, receptiveness to feedback, and alignment with our core values: keep it simple, lead with honesty, and put people first.

You’ll be part of a team that challenges the status quo, and is excited to experiment and iterate in search of the best solution. That said, 1Password is not for everyone. Our work is demanding, we strive for excellence, and the pace is fast. We need people who are keen to take on challenging problems, who seek feedback to grow, and who are driven to make an impact. If you're looking for a place where you can settle into a comfortable routine, this might not be the right fit for you. We’re looking for individuals who are proven experts in their fields, as well as those who are highly adaptable, can thrive in ambiguity and through change, are curious, and above all deliver results.

How we work with AI
We are committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology—including AI—to achieve our mission. We also understand that thinking critically about AI in its current forms will help us create better solutions for our customers and ourselves with its future forms, which will help us continue to close the gap between security and privacy and achieve our mission. We want team members at all levels to take the approach of actively learning AI best practices, identifying opportunities to apply AI in meaningful ways, and driving innovative solutions in their daily work. Embracing the future of AI isn't just encouraged—it's an essential part of how we will be successful at 1Password.

This approach extends to our hiring process—candidates are welcome to use AI tools responsibly and thoughtfully during the application process.

Our approach to remote work
We believe in the power of remote work, but recognize that in-person connection is important to help us achieve our mission. While we are a remote-first company, travel for in-person engagement is a part of almost all roles, and we require our employees to be ready and willing to take part. Frequency will depend on role and responsibilities, and may include, but is not limited to: annual department-wide offsites, team meetings, and customer/industry events.

What we offer
We believe in working hard, and rewarding that hard work through our benefits. While not an exhaustive list, here is a glance at what we currently offer:

Health and wellbeing
👶 Maternity and parental leave top-up programs
🩺 Competitive health benefits
🏝 Generous PTO policy

Growth and future
📈 RSU program for most employees
💸 Retirement matching program
🔑 Free 1Password account

Community
🤝 Paid volunteer days
🏆 Peer-to-peer recognition through Bonusly
🌎 Remote-first work environment
*Some roles in our GTM team are currently being hired for in-person hybrid work in Toronto and Austin. These roles will specify on the posting.

Important: 1Password is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace that is built on trust, support and respect. We welcome all individuals and do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, colour, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, sex, citizenship, education, languages spoken or veteran status. Be yourself, find your people and share the things you love.

Accommodation is available upon request at any point during our recruitment process. If you require an accommodation, please speak to your talent acquisition partner or email us at nextbit@agilebits.com and we’ll work to meet your needs.

Remote work is a part of our DNA. Given that our company was founded remotely in 2005, we can safely say we're experts at building remote culture. That said, remote work at 1Password does mean working from your home country. If you've got questions or concerns about this, your talent partner would be happy to address them with you.

Successful applicants will be required to complete a background check that may consist of prior employment verification, reference checks, education confirmation, criminal background, publicly available social media, credit history, or other information, as permitted by local law.