AI Security Operations (SecOps) Specialist

ASTRAZENECA UK LIMITED; Macclesfield; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

ASTRAZENECA UK LIMITED in Macclesfield invites a hands-on security leader to define and implement controls across identity, authentication and authorization, and inter-agent communications. You will build production automation in Python, design secure patterns, and partner with scientists and engineers to scale safe AI platforms with auditable governance.

You will drive threat modelling, risk-based decision making and secure lifecycle management for agentic systems, ensuring compliance and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in cybersecurity, CS, or related field.
• Hands-on cybersecurity engineering, security operations and automation experience.
• Ability to build production-grade automation or agents in Python with CI/CD.
• Knowledge of agent architectures, LLM tech, tool calling and memory concepts.
• Experience with security telemetry, SIEM/SOAR and cloud security.
• Proven ability to define and validate cloud/AI platform controls across cloud providers.

Responsibilities

• Define and improve agent identity, authentication and authorization controls.
• Develop secure patterns, guardrails and policy-as-code.
• Assess architectures and embed security into design reviews and threat models.
• Own secure agent lifecycle from discovery to retirement.
• Govern multi-agent dependencies and secure integrations with enterprise platforms.
• Build AI security observability with telemetry, prompts, tool calls and outcomes.
• Design detections and lead response playbooks for AI threats.

Skills

Bachelor's degree

Cybersecurity engineering

Python automation

SIEM/SOAR

Cloud security

Identity and access management

Threat modelling

Agent architectures

Inter-agent security

Communication with risk leaders

Education

Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems or related

Tools

Python

APIs

CI/CD

Job description

• Agentic AI Platform Security and Control Engineering: Define, implement and continuously improve controls for agent identity, authentication and authorization; the least agency; tool access; data boundaries; memory governance; inter-agent communications; runtime policy enforcement; human approval gates; auditability and emergency containment.
• Secure Patterns and Guardrails: Create reusable secure patterns, reference configurations, guardrails and policy-as-code that teams can adopt without redesigning security for each use case.
• Architecture Assurance: Assess agent architectures and workflows; embed security into onboarding, design reviews, solution blueprints, threat models, release gates and production readiness; validate controls through testing, abuse-case analysis and red/purple-team exercises.
• Agent Lifecycle Operations: Own or coordinate secure lifecycle from discovery and registration through build, test, approval, deployment, monitoring, change, suspension and retirement; maintain inventory of owners, purpose, autonomy, privileges, data access, dependencies, risk tier and control posture.
• Workflow and Orchestration Reliability: Govern multi-agent dependencies, delegated actions, retries, approvals, exception handling and fail-safe behavior; drive secure, supportable integration of agents with enterprise platforms and Cybersecurity services via governed APIs and service identities.
• AI Security Observability: Build telemetry strategies that reconstruct agent intent and actions-including prompts and instructions where policy permits-tool calls, identities, memory updates, policy decisions, outputs, errors and outcomes; integrate with SIEM, SOAR, EDR/XDR, cloud, identity, data protection, application security and case-management platforms.
• Detection and Response: Design, tune and operationalize detections for AI-specific threats and control failures; lead or support triage, containment, eradication, recovery and post-incident improvement; codify automated response playbooks including safe pause, tool and credential revocation, network isolation, rollback, kill-switch activation, evidence preservation and escalation.
• AI for Cyber and Cyber for AI Automation: Lead the portfolio that uses agents to improve assessment, threat modeling, detection engineering, vulnerability analysis, incident response and reporting; embed security checks, risk scoring, control validation and approvals into AI/ML and agent delivery workflows; build agents and orchestrations in Python with secure engineering, CI/CD and production support; measure value through cycle-time, quality, coverage, analyst effort avoided, risk reduction and reliability
• Security Operations and Platform Stewardship: Provide technical oversight for day-to-day operation of AI security capabilities, ensuring health, telemetry completeness, integration fidelity, detection coverage and continuous service improvement; partner across SOC, cloud, identity, data, application security, DevSecOps, MLOps, platform engineering and architecture; deliver executive-ready dashboards and reporting.
• Governance, Risk and Regulated-Environment Assurance: Translate policy, regulatory and framework expectations into testable requirements and operational evidence; contribute to threat modelling and risk assessment using leading frameworks; support risk-tiered controls across research, business, regulated and GxP-relevant use cases; document residual risk, control limitations, exceptions and approvals to enable defensible decisions; engage vendors and peers to evaluate capabilities and shape adoption roadmaps., Here, your craft will directly influence how quickly and safely we bring new treatments to patients. You will work with leading AI platforms and modern engineering practices, side by side with scientists, security specialists and data engineers, turning ambitious ideas into scalable, secure reality. With meaningful investment, a culture that backs experimentation and learning, and a community that values kindness alongside ambition, we bring a diverse set of minds together to spark new thinking, move with speed and build technology that truly matters.

Take the lead in shaping how secure Agentic AI scales in the real world-join us to build the guardrails, automations and response capabilities that power confident innovation today.

• Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience
• Proven experience in Cybersecurity engineering, security operations, automation, platform engineering, AI/ML engineering or a closely related field, including meaningful hands-on work securing or operating Generative AI or Agentic AI solutions
• Proven ability to build production-quality automation or agents using Python; experience with APIs, event-driven workflows, testing, source control, CI/CD and operational support
• Practical knowledge of agent architectures, LLM applications, RAG, tool calling, memory, orchestration, multi-agent patterns, MCP/A2A concepts and associated security risks
• Hands-on experience with security monitoring, detection engineering, incident response and automation using SIEM/SOAR and relevant cloud, identity, endpoint, data or application security telemetry.
• xperience defining and validating controls for cloud and AI platforms, preferably across two or more of Azure, AWS and Google Cloud
• Strong understanding of identity and access management, secrets and token security, API security, Zero Trust, secure software delivery, threat modeling and least privilege or least agency
• Ability to turn ambiguous problems into practical architectures, backlogs, controls, code, runbooks, metrics and partner decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain complex AI security issues to engineers, risk partners and senior leaders.

Are you ready to secure and scale an enterprise Agentic AI ecosystem that protects data, accelerates science and ultimately helps deliver life-changing medicines? Do you want to transform "AI for Cyber" and "Cyber for AI" ideas into dependable, high-impact services that safeguard our people and platforms?

In this hands-on technical leadership role, you will sit at the intersection of security operations, agent engineering, AI platform security and intelligent automation. You will operate the AI security control plane, harden agentic systems across their lifecycle, and establish monitoring and response that makes agent behavior observable, safe and auditable. You will be empowered to take ownership from day one-designing secure patterns, building production-grade automations and guiding the roadmap as platforms, models and attack techniques evolve.