Software Engineer III, Applied Agentic AI

About Us: Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity. We protect how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools. Over 80 of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations trust Proofpoint to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience across their people and AI workflows. Our mission is simple: safeguard the digital world and empower people to work securely and confidently. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people. How We Work: At Proofpoint you’ll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values: Bold in how we dream and innovate Responsive to feedback, challenges and opportunities Accountable for results and best in class outcomes Visionary in future focused problem-solving Exceptional in execution and impact The Role Proofpoint is hiring an Agentic AI Engineer on the team building our agentic AI platform — the agent runtimes, MCP access layer, and evaluation tooling that product teams across the company build on. You'll be building for other engineers: the people shipping agentic features into products that thousands of enterprises rely on around the clock. This role sits at the frontier of agentic technology. New models, frameworks and protocols land faster than any single product team can absorb, and part of your job is to absorb them first: work out what actually holds up, establish the best practices, and prove them out in reference agentic applications that other teams can learn from and build on. You get first look at the new stuff, and the fun part of the job is showing engineers across the company what it can do. What you’ll do Build reference agentic applications on our platform — end-to-end examples of how agents should be designed, evaluated, deployed and monitored at Proofpoint. Establish and document best practices: tool design and MCP integration, prompt and context management, memory and planning, cost/latency tradeoffs, failure recovery, and what "release-ready" means for a nondeterministic system. Design evaluation harnesses — task suites, baselines, and quality, cost and latency metrics — and use them to decide what ships. Turn ambiguous questions into working prototypes quickly, and present results to the teams who asked; recommend just as readily when an approach should be abandoned. Harden successful prototypes into reusable platform capabilities that product teams can adopt. Partner with experienced engineers, security researchers and product tech leads to go deep on the systems you build on. Socialize agentic patterns across the company through demos, design reviews, written guides, and pairing sessions. Communicate and understand stakeholders' requirements and participate in cross-team design discussions. What we’re looking for Bachelors or Master's Degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. 3+ years of engineering experience, with recent hands-on work on LLM or agentic systems that went past the prototype stage. Good understanding of the agentic development lifecycle and its components - agent runtimes, tool and MCP integration, prompt and context management, memory, planning, orchestration, evals, tracing, guardrails, rollout and rollback. Solid Python; TypeScript/Node a plus. Experience working with globally distributed teams . Experience building and running services in a cloud microservices environment — containers, CI/CD, automated deployment; AWS a plus. Comfortable diagnosing distributed systems from traces and metrics; OpenTelemetry (including GenAI semantic conventions) a plus. An eval-first mindset: measurement comes with the build, not after it. Genuine enthusiasm for frontier AI — you already experiment with agent frameworks and LLM SDKs (LangGraph, Anthropic/OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, LangChain or similar) and follow where the field is going. Initiative and a bias toward shipping — you pick up ambiguous problems, get a PoC working and presented in days rather than quarters, and keep moving when the path isn't mapped out. Fast learner with real curiosity — you want to know how the systems underneath you work, not just how to call them. Preferred Use of AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex or similar) and familiarity with agent interoperability protocols such as MCP and A2A. Building eval harnesses, benchmarks or ground-truth datasets. Producing developer-facing reference implementations, SDK samples, or internal enablement material. AG and semantic retrieval (vector stores, hybrid search), and working with both hosted APIs and open-weight models. Why Proofpoint? At Proofpoint, we believe that an exceptional career experience includes a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few reasons you’ll love working with us: Competitive compensation Comprehensive benefits Career success on your terms Flexible work environment Annual wellness and community outreach days Always on recognition for your contributions Global collaboration and networking opportunities Our Culture: Our culture is rooted in values that inspire belonging, empower purpose and drive success-every day, for everyone. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to accessibility@proofpoint.com. How to Apply Interested? Submit your application along with any supporting information- we can’t wait to hear from you! Proofpoint has been honored with six Best Places to Work Awards in 2024 by workplace culture leader Comparably, including Best Company Career Growth, Best Company Outlook, Best Global Culture, Best Engineering Teams, Best Sales Teams, and Best HR Teams. We are the leader in human-centric cybersecurity. Half a million customers, including 87 of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint to protect their organizations. We’re driven by a mission to stay ahead of bad actors and safeguard the digital world. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people. Our BRAVE Values: At Proofpoint, we are BRAVE in everything we do, and our values aren’t just words—they shape how we work, collaborate, and grow. We seek people who are bold enough to challenge the status quo, responsive in the face of ever-evolving threats, and accountable for delivering real impact. We value those with a visionary mindset who anticipate what’s next and push cybersecurity forward, and we celebrate exceptional execution that ensures we continue to defend data and protect people. Proofpoint is an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability. Find your network, your allies, and your biggest fans. We know that work is simply better when you’re surrounded by people who inspire you—who share ideas, cheer you on, and genuinely want to see you succeed. That’s why we offer social circles, sponsored networks, and connection points across teams and time zones—to help you find your people, build your community, and thrive together. This isn’t just a job—it’s a mission to protect people and defend data in a world that never slows down. We’re building the future of human-centric cybersecurity, and that future belongs to all of us. We take ownership, move fast, and hold ourselves accountable—because that’s what it takes to stay ahead. And we do it together, winning as one. Be empowered to reach your full potential through meaningful challenges and personalized support—designed around you and your goals. Whether you're growing as a leader or leveling up from great to exceptional as an individual contributor, we’re here to help you get there.