Principal Agentic AI Security Engineer

AbbVie; North Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 141,500 - 268,500; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie is seeking a hands‑on senior IC to architect, build, and ship autonomous AI agent systems for security operations. You will influence technical direction, write production‑quality code, and drive security standards in a fast‑paced environment.

You will tackle high‑complexity problems, integrate AI capabilities with SIEM/EDR/SOAR tools, and publish technical guidance to shape organizational policy. This role offers opportunities to mentor engineers and advance security maturity across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree with 9 years’ experience; Master's Degree with 8 years’ experience; PhD with 4 years’ experience.
• Respective years of experience in cybersecurity, security engineering, or security research – with substantial hands‑on technical depth
• Strong software engineering skills – you ship production systems, Python required; additional languages a plus
• Deep expertise in at least two of: security operations, application security, threat intelligence, vulnerability research, detection engineering, offensive security, cloud security
• Demonstrated experience building AI agents and AI/ML‑powered security tools or automation that operated at scale
• Hands‑on experience with agentic coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Aider, or similar) as part of your daily development workflow
• Track record of original technical work – published research, open‑source tooling, conference presentations, or equivalent evidence of independent technical contribution
• Ability to work at the intersection of security and AI: you understand both the security implications of AI systems and how to apply AI to security problems
• Experience developing technical standards, frameworks, or guidance that others adopted
• Strong written and verbal communication – you can explain complex technical concepts to both engineers and senior leadership, and you can write strategically about emerging technology risks at a level that shapes organizational direction

Responsibilities

• Architect and build AI agent systems for security operations – autonomous detection, investigation, response, threat hunting, vulnerability analysis, and risk assessment
• Tackle novel, high‑complexity problems: adversarial robustness of agent systems, secure agent‑to‑agent communication, guardrails for autonomous decision‑making in high‑stakes security contexts
• Develop frameworks, tooling, and patterns for building secure and reliable agentic AI systems – then use them yourself
• Conduct original research and experimentation on agentic AI applied to offensive and defensive security, translating findings into working code
• Build proof‑of‑concept exploits and adversarial tests against agentic AI systems to identify failure modes and inform defensive design
• Develop and publish technical guidance and policy for agentic AI security – grounded in systems you have built and broken
• Independently author security position papers on emerging technologies – strategic, high‑level documents that frame organizational thinking on new threat domains and drive downstream policy and technical guidance
• Serve as a subject matter expert and key driver of the AI Cybersecurity Maturity program, spanning application security, training, AI controls and infrastructure, AI discovery and inventory, operations and incident response, and policy and procedure development
• Integrate LLMs, custom models, and security tooling into agent architectures
• Evaluate and adopt emerging AI capabilities and determine their applicability to security problems
• Set technical direction for agent development practices, including evaluation frameworks, testing methodologies, and deployment patterns
• Mentor and elevate other engineers on the team through code review, design guidance, and technical leadership

Skills

Python

Security engineering

AI agents

Production code

Agent tooling

Effective communication

Security standards

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

PhD

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

LangChain

Aider

Job description

• Compensation: USD 141,500 - USD 268,500 - yearly

Company Description

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com.

Job Description

We are building a team that develops AI agents to solve hard security problems – and you will be tackling the hardest ones. This is a hands‑on, senior IC role. You will architect, build, and ship agentic AI systems that operate autonomously within security environments, while also driving the technical direction and standards for how these systems are built, tested, and secured.

This is not a management role and not a pure research role. You will write code, ship systems, and get your hands dirty – but you will be working on problems where there is no playbook yet. You will define the approach, build the proof of concept, harden it for production, and write the technical guidance others follow.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and build AI agent systems for security operations – autonomous detection, investigation, response, threat hunting, vulnerability analysis, and risk assessment
• Tackle the novel, high‑complexity problems: adversarial robustness of agent systems, secure agent‑to‑agent communication, guardrails for autonomous decision‑making in high‑stakes security contexts
• Develop frameworks, tooling, and patterns for building secure and reliable agentic AI systems – then use them yourself
• Conduct original research and experimentation on agentic AI applied to offensive and defensive security, translating findings into working code
• Build proof‑of‑concept exploits and adversarial tests against agentic AI systems to identify failure modes and inform defensive design
• Develop and publish technical guidance and policy for agentic AI security – grounded in systems you have built and broken
• Independently author security position papers on emerging technologies – strategic, high‑level documents that frame organizational thinking on new threat domains and drive downstream policy and technical guidance
• Serve as a subject matter expert and key driver of the AI Cybersecurity Maturity program, spanning application security, training, AI controls and infrastructure, AI discovery and inventory, operations and incident response, and policy and procedure development
• Integrate LLMs, custom models, and security tooling (SIEM, EDR, SOAR, cloud platforms, vulnerability scanners) into agent architectures
• Evaluate and adopt emerging AI capabilities (new models, frameworks, techniques) and determine their applicability to security problems
• Set technical direction for agent development practices, including evaluation frameworks, testing methodologies, and deployment patterns
• Mentor and elevate other engineers on the team through code review, design guidance, and technical leadership

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree with 9 years’ experience; Master's Degree with 8 years’ experience; PhD with 4 years’ experience.
• Respective years of experience in cybersecurity, security engineering, or security research – with substantial hands‑on technical depth
• Strong software engineering skills – you ship production systems, not just prototypes. Python required; additional languages a plus
• Deep expertise in at least two of: security operations, application security, threat intelligence, vulnerability research, detection engineering, offensive security, cloud security
• Demonstrated experience building AI agents and AI/ML‑powered security tools or automation that operated at scale
• Hands‑on experience with agentic coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Aider, or similar) as part of your daily development workflow – you build with agents, not just build agents
• Track record of original technical work – published research, open‑source tooling, conference presentations, or equivalent evidence of independent technical contribution
• Ability to work at the intersection of security and AI: you understand both the security implications of AI systems and how to apply AI to security problems
• Experience developing technical standards, frameworks, or guidance that others adopted
• Strong written and verbal communication – you can explain complex technical concepts to both engineers and senior leadership, and you can write strategically about emerging technology risks at a level that shapes organizational direction

Preferred:

• Experience with agent orchestration and autonomous systems (custom frameworks, LangChain, AutoGen, MCP, or similar)
• Background in adversarial ML, AI red teaming, or AI safety
• Familiarity with security compliance frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, SOX) and how they apply to AI systems
• Published work (Black Hat, DEF CON, OWASP, academic journals, or equivalent venues)
• Experience in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure, government/defense)
• Contributions to open‑source security projects
• OWASP, MITRE ATT&CK, or similar framework expertise applied in production environments
• Security clearance eligibility (not required)

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
• This job is eligible to participate in our long‑term incentive programs.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company’s sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

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