Lead AI Security Engineer
About this role
Engineers who thrive on translating complex, undefined problems into autonomous systems will find a strong fit building the next generation of cyber defense at Appian. Operating out of the McLean or Tysons office, this squad sits at the intersection of Generative AI, software engineering, and security to move beyond reactive alerting. Daily work centers on architecting proprietary multi-agent systems, optimizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation workflows, and engineering human-in-the-loop handoff mechanisms for enterprise security operations.
The organization is building self-orchestrating, context-aware AI tools that handle autonomous triage, semantic correlation, and proactive threat mitigation. Success in this role requires a blend of foundational software engineering, practical security knowledge, and experience scaling production-grade AI solutions. Team members collaborate closely to code deterministic agentic pipelines, evaluate LLM performance, and secure underlying architectures against emerging vulnerabilities.
What you will do
- Design, test, and deploy autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents that integrate natively with enterprise security tools like SIEM, EDR, XDR, and Threat Intel feeds.
- Translate traditional, human-centric SOC playbooks and analyst workflows into deterministic and heuristic agentic pipelines using directed acyclic graphs and multi-agent routing.
- Optimize and maintain production-grade Retrieval-Augmented Generation workflows to inject real-time security context, network topology, and historical incident logs into agent prompts.
- Continuously evaluate, benchmark, and optimize LLM performance, context window utilization, latency, and cost-efficiency across various open-source and commercial models.
- Collaborate with Tier 3 Analysts and Threat Hunters to engineer seamless human-in-the-loop handoff mechanisms for safely escalating complex anomalies.
- Implement robust security boundaries around the LLM architecture to mitigate risks like prompt injection, data poisoning, model tool-abuse, and the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs.
What you need
- Minimum of four years of professional software engineering experience, including at least one and a half years explicitly dedicated to building applications powered by Large Language Models.
- At least five years of experience programming with Python.
- Minimum of two years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.
- Possess a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields with at least four years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms, or a Master's degree with at least two years of related experience.
- Demonstrate a security-first mindset by blending foundational software engineering with practical security domain knowledge.
Nice to have
- Hands-on experience building multi-agent or complex orchestration systems using LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI, or Semantic Kernel.
- Proven experience working with production Vector Databases like Pinecone, Qdrant, Milvus, or Weaviate for semantic chunking and embedding generation.
- Experience interfacing with cybersecurity platforms via REST APIs and Webhooks including Splunk, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Sentinel, and Palo Alto XSOAR.
- Experience deploying and scaling AI workloads in containerized cloud environments using Kubernetes, EKS, or AKS.
- Understanding of fine-tuning methodologies like LoRA or QLoRA for smaller, domain-specific open-source models tailored for security log analysis.
Benefits
- 401(k) plan with company match
- Flexible time off and paid parental leave
- Medical, dental, and vision plans
- Life insurance, disability insurance, and Employee Assistance Program
- Wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, and health savings account contributions
- Tuition reimbursement and learning resources
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote policy for this role?
This position is located in McLean or Tysons, Virginia, and requires working on-site five days a week.
What is the salary range for this position?
The base salary range is $150,000 to $275,000 USD, with actual compensation depending on relevant work experience, qualifications, internal peer equity, and market conditions. A discretionary bonus may also be awarded in recognition of individual and company performance.
What tools and frameworks are used by the team?
The tech stack includes Python, cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP, vector databases such as Pinecone and Qdrant, and orchestration frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI, and Semantic Kernel. Engineers also interface with security platforms like Splunk, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Sentinel, and Palo Alto XSOAR.
What growth and learning resources are available?
Appian provides a leadership program for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills-based training, and tuition reimbursement. New hires also utilize dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program during onboarding.
The application is on the official Appian Corporation careers page.
Apply on company site