Security Engineer | Runway Global Negotiation Guide
Negotiation DNA: Competitive AI Startup Comp + Pre-IPO Equity | $4B+ Valuation | NYC HQ | AI Security & Content Safety
| Region | Base Salary | Equity (Pre-IPO/4yr) | Bonus | Total Comp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | $170K-$230K | $110K-$300K | — | $198K-$305K |
| San Francisco | $170K-$230K | $110K-$300K | — | $198K-$305K |
| Remote US | $153K-$207K | $99K-$270K | — | $178K-$275K |
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Get My Playbook — $39 →Negotiation DNA Security Engineers at Runway protect both the technical infrastructure and the AI models themselves — a dual mandate that makes this role uniquely complex at a generative AI company. You'll secure the model serving infrastructure, implement content safety systems that prevent harmful video generation, protect intellectual property and training data, ensure enterprise compliance (SOC 2, GDPR, content licensing), and defend against adversarial attacks on the generation models. AI security is a nascent field — there's no established playbook for securing video generation systems, making this role both challenging and high-impact.
Level Mapping: Runway Security Engineer = Google L4-L5 Security Engineer = Meta Security Engineer IC4-IC5 = AWS Security Engineer II-III
The Startup Equity Play — Pre-IPO at $4B+ Valuation Security is a gating function for enterprise deals — Runway cannot sell to studios and enterprises without robust security posture. Your work directly enables revenue.
Global Levers
- AI Security Premium: "AI security is a new discipline — protecting generative models, preventing adversarial attacks, and ensuring content safety. I bring specialized expertise that's extremely rare: $225K base and $285K equity/4yr."
- Enterprise Revenue Enablement: "Enterprise customers require SOC 2, GDPR compliance, and robust security posture before signing contracts. My work directly unblocks enterprise revenue — $220K base."
- Content Safety Complexity: "Video generation creates unique content safety challenges — deepfakes, copyright, harmful content. Building robust safety systems requires specialized expertise that commands a premium: $225K base."
- Competing Offers: "I have a Cloudflare offer at $210K / $250K RSU and a CrowdStrike offer at $205K / $230K RSU. AI security at Runway is more impactful, but I need $225K base to make the move."
Negotiate Up Strategy: "I'm a security engineer with experience in both traditional infrastructure security and AI/ML security — adversarial robustness, content safety, and model protection. I'm holding a Cloudflare offer at $210K / $250K RSU. Runway's AI security challenges are the most interesting in the industry. To join: $225K base, $280K equity/4yr, and a $35K signing bonus. Floor is $200K."
Evidence & Sources
- Levels.fyi security engineer compensation at AI startups (2025-2026)
- Glassdoor Runway salary reports
- Blind verified security engineer offer threads at AI companies (2025-2026)
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