AI - Cybersecurity Forward Deployed Engineer - FDE Senior Manager

About the role

Accenture Security helps organizations prepare, protect, detect, respond, and recover across all points of the security lifecycle. We create integrated, turnkey solutions tailored to our clients' needs across their entire value chain, whether defending against known cyberattacks, detecting and responding to the unknown, or running an entire security operations center.

A Cybersecurity Forward Deployed Engineer is a production engineer embedded inside a client’s enterprise—working shoulder to shoulder with their security and engineering teams—to make AI systems secure, governed, and resilient in real, complex organizational environments. You own outcomes: reduced attack surface, production-safe AI deployments, and measurable security posture improvement. Agentic coding is the primary method of delivery, using tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot to build security tooling, detection systems, threat models, and governance frameworks.

Cybersecurity FDEs operate as part of Accenture’s Reinvention Delivery Engine (RDE) Pod: a small, persistent, outcome-oriented team aligned to a client’s business domain or AI program. The pod operates in 90-day delivery cycles, owns end-to-end outcomes, and embeds directly inside the client’s technology organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI security architecture and threat modeling for production agentic deployments across complex multi-stakeholder client environments, including LLM systems, multi-agent pipelines, RAG architectures, and MLOps infrastructure.
• Deliver hands-on security engineering using agentic coding tools as the primary build environment: build AI-powered detection systems, automated threat response tooling, security assessment frameworks, and governance automation.
• Own AI-specific threat surface management at program scale: OWASP LLM Top 10 controls, prompt injection hardening, model extraction prevention, adversarial input defenses, and AI supply chain security.
• Architect and govern AI security controls across the enterprise stack: identity and access for AI systems, data pipeline security, model serving security, and multi-system integration risk across cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Lead AI governance framework implementation: EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and model risk management applied to live production systems.
• Shape AI reinvention security strategy for client CISO and CTO: build risk-adjusted investment cases, security architecture roadmaps, and AI governance operating models aligned to commercial outcomes.
• Define and publish reusable security patterns, playbooks, and accelerators that scale across multiple client engagements.
• Lead architecture design sessions, threat modeling workshops, and code-with sessions with client engineering and security leadership teams.
• Cybersecurity domain expertise in at least one discipline (AppSec, SecOps, IAM, cloud, GRC, or offensive security).
• Proposal and SOW development, solution shaping, and client commercial engagement.
• Executive workshop facilitation and C-suite/CISO-level communication.
• Structured analytical thinking and hypothesis-driven problem decomposition.
• Team leadership: developing and coaching managers and consultants through delivery.

Travel may be required for this role, ranging from 0 to 100% depending on business need and client requirements.

Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of engineering experience in production environments with a cybersecurity discipline depth in at least one area: AppSec, SecOps/detection engineering, cloud security, IAM, offensive security/penetration testing, or GRC.
• Minimum 2 years of hands-on experience designing and deploying agentic AI solutions in a production environment (theoretical familiarity does not qualify).
• Minimum 8 years of demonstrated end-to-end security delivery ownership experience in a client-embedded or production environment (internal advisory or compliance-only roles do not qualify).
• Minimum 8 years working with cloud platform security fundamentals across at least one provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP): IAM, network security, secrets management, and AI service security configurations.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent (minimum 12 years) work experience. (If Associate’s Degree, must have minimum 6 years work experience).

Skills

• Proven ability to communicate security risk in business terms: translate threat exposure into risk-adjusted investment rationale a CISO or CFO would act on.
• People leadership: experience managing, developing, and performance-managing a team of engineers; setting individual development plans and conducting career conversations.
• Agentic coding proficiency: daily use of Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot as the primary build environment.

Pay

Compensation varies by location, role, skill set, and level of experience. The following ranges are provided as required by local law:

• California: $132,500 to $366,300
• Cleveland: $122,700 to $293,000
• Colorado: $132,500 to $316,400
• District of Columbia: $141,100 to $337,000
• Illinois: $122,700 to $316,400
• Maine: $112,900 to $269,600
• Maryland: $132,500 to $316,400
• Massachusetts: $132,500 to $337,000
• Minnesota: $132,500 to $316,400
• New York: $122,700 to $366,300
• New Jersey: $141,100 to $366,300
• Virginia: $122,700 to $337,000
• Washington: $141,100 to $337,000

Benefits

Accenture offers a market-competitive suite of benefits, including:

• Medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability coverage.
• 401(k) plan with bonus opportunities.
• Paid holidays and paid time off.

For more details, visit U.S. Employee Benefits | Accenture.