About this opportunity
SUMMARY/JOB PURPOSE
The Engineer II - AI and Agentic is responsible for designing, building, and deploying production-grade agentic applications that automate multi-step IT and business workflows across Exelixis. This role delivers spec-driven, testable, and secure AI solutions, contributes to platform patterns and reusable components, while advancing the engineering standards.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Design and deliver end-to-end agentic applications and multi-agent workflows that automate IT and business processes.
Convert prototypes into hardened, production-ready services with clear specifications, modular design, robust error handling, and comprehensive test coverage.
Integrate LLMs, prompts, tools, APIs, and enterprise data sources (e.g., Bedrock, Databricks Mosaic AI, MCP servers) into reliable use cases.
Implement CI/CD pipelines, automated evaluation harnesses, observability, and artifact versioning for AI/agent workloads.
Author architecture notes, runbooks, SOPs, and technical documentation to support adoption, operability, and maintainability.
Lead prompt/spec reviews, code reviews, threat modeling exercises, and release-readiness gates.
Apply and evangelize secure-by-design and responsible AI principles, including data governance, privacy, and safe prompting aligned to organizational policy
Contribute reusable components, patterns, and internal libraries to the platform
Partner with product managers, security, and platform teams to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions
Performs other duties as assigned
Complies with all policies and standards
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
No supervisory responsibilities
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS & ABILITIES
Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field and 5 years of related experience; or
Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field and 3 year or related experience; or
Equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience
2 - 4 years of relevant experience in AI application, data science, automation, or related technical work, including hands-on experience building or contributing to LLM-enabled applications, agentic workflows, API integrations,
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Required:
Intermediate to Advanced proficiency in Python and/or JavaScript/TypeScript, including modular design, testing, and packaging.
Intermediate proficiency with agent frameworks and agentic patterns: tool use, planning/execution loops, guardrails, evaluation, and prompt/version management.
Intermediate proficiency building and consuming REST APIs, and integrating enterprise systems with OAuth/JWT, secrets management, and secure data handling.
Intermediate proficiency with CI/CD, automated testing (unit/integration), linting, and observability for AI applications.
Intermediate understanding of security best practices, architecture design principles, and responsible AI/data governance.
Intermediate communication skills, written and verbal, and demonstrated ability to collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders and mentor junior engineers.
Intermediate experience with cloud AI platforms, preferably AWS Cloud, AWS Bedrock, and Databricks Mosaic AI, and vector stores or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.
Intermediate knowledge of AI-native engineering using Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent coding agents.
Preferred:
Experience delivering evaluation frameworks, red-teaming, or LLM observability tooling.
Travel Requirements
No travel is required for this position.
#LI-EZ1
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The base pay range for this position is $152,000 - $215,000 annually. The base pay range may take into account the candidate’s geographic region, which will adjust the pay depending on the specific work location. The base pay offered will take into account the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, experience and internal equity, among other factors.
In addition to the base salary, as part of our Total Rewards program, Exelixis offers comprehensive employee benefits package, including a 401k plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts. Employees are also eligible for a discretionary annual bonus program, or if field sales staff, a sales-based incentive plan. Exelixis also offers employees the opportunity to purchase company stock, and receive long-term incentives, 15 accrued vacation days in their first year, 17 paid holidays including a company-wide winter shutdown in December, and up to 10 sick days throughout the calendar year.
If you have a disability and need an accommodation in relation to the recruiting process, please email us at: ApplicantAccommodations@exelixis.com .
WORKING CONDITIONS:
Our office is a modern space that fosters collaboration and creativity. Teams work closely together, sharing ideas and solutions in a supportive atmosphere. We provide all necessary equipment, including dual monitors and ergonomic chairs, to ensure a comfortable workspace.
DISCLAIMER:
The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to the job.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Information Technology role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 1301 comparable Information Technology roles across 74 biopharma companies.
Salary context
171 of 1301 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 1301 comparable roles
+ 30 more countries
Seniority mix
689 of 1301 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
1 of 1301 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
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How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.