At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build scalable backend systems and AI-powered features.
- Company: Join a top cybersecurity startup valued at $5.1 billion.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, remote work options, and professional growth opportunities.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with mentorship from senior engineers.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in protecting customers from advanced identity threats.
- Qualifications: 3-5 years of software engineering experience, strong Python skills, and system design knowledge.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
At Abnormal AI, we protect our customers against nefarious adversaries who are constantly evolving their techniques and tactics to outwit and undermine the traditional approaches to Security. Abnormal is recognized as a top cybersecurity startup, securing a Series D funding of $250 million at a $5.1 billion valuation in August 2024.
About The Team: This team owns the end-to-end development and operation of the infrastructure, ML models, AI agents, customer-facing APIs, and internal tools that power Abnormal's Identity Threat Protection (ITP) product. Our work is central to detecting malicious behaviour and protecting customers from advanced identity-based attacks — including account takeover, identity spoofing, data leakage, and other high-impact threats.
About The Role: We are looking for a Software Engineer to help build and evolve our platform as it scales to meet expanding product requirements. This role blends hands-on backend systems development with growing ownership of features and production systems, including AI-powered and agentic components, working closely with senior engineers to improve system reliability, reduce latency, and accelerate feature release cycles.
What You'll Do
- Technical Delivery & Excellence: Design, build, and iterate on scalable backend and ML systems, APIs, frameworks, and internal tools. Take ownership of well-scoped features and components, with guidance from senior engineers on more complex, cross-system work. Contribute to the stability, reliability, and operational excellence of critical systems. Write clean, testable, and resilient code with attention to edge cases and performance. Contribute to technical design documents and participate in design discussions. Participate in code and design reviews, and contribute to on-call rotations.
- AI Engineering & Agents: Help design and build LLM-powered features and agentic workflows (e.g., automated investigation, triage, or remediation assistants) as part of the ATO platform. Integrate LLM APIs and agent frameworks into backend services, with attention to reliability, cost, latency, and evaluation. Contribute to prompt design, tool/function-calling integrations, and guardrails for AI-driven components under senior engineer guidance. Use GenAI coding assistants and agents as part of your own development workflow to accelerate delivery and testing.
- Collaboration & Growth: Collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineers to align on specifications and priorities. Break down well-defined projects into clear executable steps and drive them to completion. Contribute to roadmap discussions and share ideas for technical improvements. Communicate effectively in an async-first environment, providing clarity on updates, challenges, and solutions. Actively seek feedback and mentorship from senior engineers to accelerate your growth.
What We're Looking For
- Ownership & Growth: A proactive engineer who takes ownership of assigned work and is eager to grow into increasingly complex projects.
- Attention to Detail: Strong focus on code quality, reliability, monitoring, and performance.
- Solid Fundamentals: Good grounding in system design principles, with a growing ability to reason about scaling and reliability tradeoffs.
- Strong Collaborator: Comfortable working cross-functionally and in a distributed environment.
- AI & Agent Engineering Curiosity: Genuine interest in LLM-powered features and agentic systems, and proactive in leveraging modern developer productivity tools, including GenAI assistants and coding agents, to accelerate delivery.
Must-Have Skills
- 3-5 years of industry experience as a Software Engineer, with a track record of shipping production backend systems.
- Solid backend proficiency in Python, with experience building and maintaining production systems.
- Experience with system design fundamentals and building reliable, scalable applications.
- Working knowledge of relational databases and modern data storage technologies.
- Exposure to service-to-service communication (gRPC, Kafka) and caching (Redis) is a plus.
- Experience with AWS cloud services (S3, RDS) and deployment practices.
- Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm) is a plus.
- Understanding of service health, monitoring, and incident response practices.
- Comfortable writing technical documentation and contributing to design discussions.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Hands-on experience integrating LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) into production applications.
- Exposure to agent frameworks or patterns (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph, tool/function calling, ReAct-style agents).
- Familiarity with prompt engineering, evaluation, and observability for AI-driven features.
Software Engineer - Backend - Behavioral Security Products employer: Abnormal
At Abnormal, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a culture of innovation and continuous learning. As a Learning Experience Facilitator, you will not only lead engaging onboarding sessions but also have the opportunity to shape the future of AI transformation in a collaborative environment. With a strong emphasis on employee growth, access to cutting-edge AI tools, and a commitment to creating memorable learning experiences, Abnormal is the ideal place for those looking to make a meaningful impact in their careers.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Software Engineer - Backend - Behavioral Security Products
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Abnormal or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Abnormal.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Abnormal.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Abnormal that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Software Engineer - Backend - Behavioral Security Products
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Abnormal.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Abnormal and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Abnormal
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Abnormal uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
