NVIDIA and OpenAI’s only AI cybersecurity investment.
Adaptive is a cybersecurity startup on a mission to stop AI-powered cyberattacks. In December 2025, the company announced an $81M Series B led by NVIDIA and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and continued support from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the OpenAI Startup Fund, and Abstract Ventures. The round marked NVIDIA’s first AI cybersecurity investment.
Adaptive was founded by Brian Long and Andrew Jones, repeat entrepreneurs who have built and scaled category-defining companies. Brian and Andrew previously co-founded Attentive, which grew to more than $500M in annual revenue and a $10B+ valuation, and TapCommerce, which was acquired by Twitter. Together, they bring deep experience building high-growth, product-led businesses at massive scale as Adaptive builds the security layer for the AI era.
Trusted by leading banks, technology companies, and healthcare organizations, Adaptive protects teams from emerging threats like deepfakes, smishing, and AI-powered voice scams. With rapid enterprise adoption and a $200B+ market ahead, the company is just getting started.
We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer with a passion for developing high-quality software in a high-growth startup environment where every engineer has outsized impact on the product and company.
You will own our most complex, cross-cutting technical challenges. You'll set technical direction, mentor engineers, and own key parts of our platform. This is a role for someone who leads through influence, gets their hands dirty, and makes everyone around them better.
Set technical direction and rally others around shared goals.
Own multiple projects end-to-end, of any size or scope.
Mentor and sponsor engineers to accelerate their growth.
Break logjams — when the team is stuck, you frame trade-offs and guide decisions.
Work as a true partner to product and design — roles blur here, and you'll make strategic tradeoffs that shape the product.
Get your hands dirty — you know when to directly intervene instead of delegating.
Build a culture of ownership, urgency, and technical pride.
Stay on the cutting edge and introduce technologies that transform our platform.
8+ years of experience building customer-facing software, with demonstrated technical leadership.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
Strong development experience with modern, strongly-typed programming languages such as Java, C#, TypeScript, or Go.
Deep expertise in SQL databases, schema design, and performance optimization at scale.
Extensive experience with frameworks such as Spring Boot and React/Redux.
Mastery of the full stack — tooling, infrastructure, code, frameworks, architecture.
Experience deploying and operating software in distributed environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).
Proven ability to simplify complex problems and make them approachable to entire teams.
Track record of mentoring engineers with observable, clear improvements in those you've worked with.
Experience balancing individual contributions with efforts that have a multiplier effect on peers.
An opportunity to work on a challenging product that will impact millions of people
A culture that promotes continuous learning and growth, with access to resources and mentorship to advance your skills and career.
A supportive, inclusive environment where every team member's contribution is valued.
Competitive compensation and a fantastic office atmosphere.
Premium healthcare and wellness benefits.
This role is located in New York City, and requires the candidate to work from our office in New York City five days a week.
If you are eager to apply your skills in a dynamic, collaborative environment, and are passionate about building systems that are both powerful and accessible, we would love to hear from you.
Adaptive Security is OpenAI’s investment for AI cyber threats. The company was founded in 2024 by serial entrepreneurs Brian Long and Andrew Jones. Adaptive has raised $50M+ from investors like OpenAI, a16z and executives at Google Cloud, Fidelity, Plaid, Shopify, and other leading companies.
Adaptive protects customers from AI-powered cyber threats like deepfakes, vishing, smishing, and email spear phishing with its next-generation security awareness training and AI phishing simulation platform.
With Adaptive, security teams can prepare employees for advanced threats with incredible, highly customized training content that is personalized for employee role and access levels, features open-source intelligence about their company, and includes amazing deepfakes of their own executives.
Employees can take Adaptive training across mobile or desktop, and workforces rate Adaptive’s security awareness content an incredible 4.9/5 stars on average.
Customers can measure the success of their training program over time with AI-powered phishing simulations. Hyper-realistic deepfake, voice, SMS, and email phishing tests assess risk levels across all threat vectors, including emerging surfaces like employee mobile devices. Adaptive simulations are powered by an AI open-source intelligence engine that gives clients visibility into how their company's digital footprint can be leveraged by cybercriminals.
Today, Adaptive’s customers include leading global organizations like the MLB, Figma, Ramp, Lennar, and Nectar. The company has a world class NPS score of 94, among the highest in cybersecurity.
To get an interactive self-guided preview of Adaptive’s platform, or talk to our team, visit https://www.adaptivesecurity.com.
