Principal Agentic AI Security Engineer

BioSpace; North Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO

Health benefits

401(k)

Job summary

AbbVie is building a team that develops AI agents to solve hard security problems. This senior IC role involves architecting, building, and shipping agentic AI systems that operate autonomously within security environments, while setting technical direction and standards for production-grade implementation.

You will write code, ship systems, and handle challenging problems with no playbook, defining approach, proving concepts, hardening for production, and drafting guidance for others.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD with substantial security experience.
• Hands-on depth in cybersecurity/security research.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build AI agent systems for security operations—autonomous detection, investigation, response, threat hunting, vulnerability analysis, and risk assessment.
• Develop frameworks, tooling, and patterns for secure agentic AI systems and use them.

Skills

Python

AI agents

Agentic coding tools

Security engineering

Security research

Technical standards/frameworks

Communication

Cloud security

Offensive security

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

PhD

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

Job 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 atwww.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie onLinkedIn,Facebook,Instagram,XandYouTube.

Company Description

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 atwww.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie onLinkedIn,Facebook,Instagram,XandYouTube.

Job Description

We are building a team that develops AI agents to solve hard security problems -- andyou willbe tackling the hardest ones. This is a hands-on, senior IC role. You will architect, build, and ship agentic AI systems thatoperateautonomously 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 -- butyou willbe working on problems where there is no playbook yet.You willdefine 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 toidentifyfailure modes and inform defensive design
• Develop and publish technical guidance and policy for agentic AI security -- grounded in systemsyou havebuilt 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) anddeterminetheir 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. Pythonrequired;additionallanguages a plus
• Deepexpertisein at least two of: security operations, application security, threat intelligence, vulnerability research, detection engineering, offensive security, cloud security
• Demonstratedexperience building AI agents and AI/ML-powered security tools or automation thatoperatedat 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 frameworkexpertiseapplied in production environments
• Security clearance eligibility (notrequired)

Additional Information

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

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Companybelieves ingood faith it will pay for this role at the timeof this posting based on the job grade for this position.Individualcompensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, andwemayultimatelypaymore or less than the posted range. This range may bemodifiedin thefuture.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick),medical/dental/visioninsurance and 401(k) to eligibleemployees.
• This job is eligible toparticipatein our long-term incentiveprograms.

Note: No amount of payis considered to bewages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, anddeterminable.The amount and availability of any bonus,commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form ofcompensation and benefitsthat are allocable to a particular employeeremainsin the Company's sole andabsolutediscretion unless and until paid andmay bemodifiedat the Companys sole and absolute discretion, consistent withapplicable 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.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visithttps://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html

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