Senior Software Engineer, AI Security

Tanium•Durham, NC

About The Position

Tanium is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build a new AI Security solution that helps large enterprises secure AI agents and the endpoints they run on. This full-stack role has a strong emphasis on backend engineering. The engineer will design and develop high-scale, distributed systems that give customers visibility into and control over agentic AI across their environments. The role involves building services and integrations using LLM APIs, tool-calling frameworks, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), as well as designing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and data pipelines for AI-driven capabilities. The engineer will contribute across the software development lifecycle, balance performance, reliability, and security in technical solutions, collaborate across product and engineering teams, and support the development of other engineers. The position requires access to internal systems, administrative credentials, and cloud infrastructure. The individual is expected to handle that access responsibly and follow Tanium's security policies, access-control procedures, and data-handling guidelines. All roles are responsible for protecting Tanium information and assets and complying with Tanium policies and applicable agreements.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production-quality software.
Demonstrated experience designing and implementing distributed systems or large-scale, high-availability applications.
Experience building and shipping AI-powered products or agents at scale, including LLM integrations and tool-calling.
Hands-on experience building a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server or integration used in a production environment.
Experience building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and supporting data pipelines.
Experience building backend services and enterprise web applications for large user bases, such as millions of users.
Experience with the full software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, and deployment.
Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Go, C++, Java, Python, or similar.
Ability to prompt AI coding tools effectively and read, understand, refactor, and debug their resulting code, regardless of language.
Strong understanding of software design patterns, data structures, and algorithms.
Experience with version control systems, particularly Git, and collaborative development workflows.
Initiative and motivation; excellent oral and written communication; teamwork; high ethics and integrity; and ability to work in a fast-paced, changing environment.
Ability to protect confidential information and comply with Tanium policies, security requirements, and applicable agreements.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a cybersecurity, SaaS, or enterprise software environment.
Foundation in security principles, such as secure design, authentication and authorization, and threat modeling.
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks.

Responsibilities

Design and develop high-scale, distributed backend systems that provide customers visibility into and control over agentic AI across their environments.
Build services and integrations using LLM APIs, tool-calling frameworks, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and design RAG and data pipelines for AI-driven capabilities.
Use AI coding assistants and agent tooling in daily development, and review, refactor, and debug AI-generated code.
Design and develop robust, scalable, maintainable software features and systems across the full software development lifecycle.
Architect technical solutions for complex product requirements while balancing performance, reliability, and security.
Collaborate with product management, UX, and peer engineers to define requirements, estimate effort, and deliver solutions on schedule.
Lead code reviews and provide constructive technical feedback to promote engineering standards and best practices.
Troubleshoot and resolve complex software defects and performance bottlenecks in development and production environments.
Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through knowledge sharing, pairing, and technical guidance.
Improve engineering processes, tooling, and development practices to increase team velocity and code quality.
Partner with security and infrastructure teams to ensure software aligns with Tanium's security and compliance standards.
Protect Tanium information and assets and comply with Tanium policies and applicable agreements.
Handle access to internal systems, administrative credentials, and cloud infrastructure responsibly and in accordance with security policies, access-control procedures, and data-handling guidelines.