Opportunity at
ElasticSenior Security Research Engineer
Elastic builds search AI technology that allows organizations to organize and retrieve data at scale. The company's complete cloud-based solutions span search, security, and observability. The…
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About This Role
Elastic builds search AI technology that allows organizations to organize and retrieve data at scale. The company's complete cloud-based solutions span search, security, and observability. The Security Endpoint Protections group is seeking a Senior Security Research Engineer to design and construct visibility and prevention mechanisms for Elastic Defend. This professional will investigate emerging threat tactics, build telemetry event sources across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and engineer stable C and C++…
Job Description
Elastic builds search AI technology that allows organizations to organize and retrieve data at scale. The company's complete cloud-based solutions span search, security, and observability.
The Security Endpoint Protections group is seeking a Senior Security Research Engineer to design and construct visibility and prevention mechanisms for Elastic Defend. This professional will investigate emerging threat tactics, build telemetry event sources across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and engineer stable C and C++ production code. The role requires handling performance regressions, analyzing evasion methods, and guiding multi-release technical initiatives.
Ideal candidates possess deep operating system internals knowledge and an adversarial mindset to anticipate and resist attacker behavior. Professionals in this role collaborate internationally with researchers, data scientists, and engineers on a distributed team.
Responsibilities
- Investigate emerging threat techniques and implement them into shipped protections
- Design defenses against in-memory threats, credential theft, ransomware, and kernel tampering
- Instrument event sources across Linux, macOS, and Windows to expand endpoint visibility
- Write production-level C, C++, and Python code that executes across millions of endpoints
- Reverse engineer malware to comprehend and counter evasion tactics
- Investigate customer telemetry at fleet scale to handle false positives and performance issues
- Partner with international peers, detection engineers, and data scientists
- Lead technical initiatives spanning multiple releases and mentor junior engineers
- Publish findings on Elastic Security Labs and present at industry conferences
Requirements
- Six or more years of professional experience evaluating adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures and building detection methods
- Six or more years of software development experience utilizing C, C++, and Python
- In-depth operational knowledge of operating system internals in both kernel and user mode, with a focus on Windows
- Extensive background in malware analysis and reverse engineering binaries
- Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and communicate asynchronously within a distributed team
Qualifications
- Vulnerability research and exploit development background
- Red teaming experience or proficiency in building offensive tooling
- Kernel-mode development experience including driver creation and debugging
- History of maintaining an open-source security tool
- Conference speaking record or published research
- Familiarity with machine learning applied to endpoint security
Core Skills
Benefits
- Participation in the company stock program
- Company-matched 401(k) providing dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings
- Health coverage options for employees and their families
- Flexible schedules and locations for many roles
- Generous annual vacation days
- Donation matching up to 2000 dollars or local currency equivalent
- Up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects
- At least 16 weeks of parental leave
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
What is the salary range for the Senior Security Research Engineer position?
The typical starting salary range is $133,100 to $210,600 per year, with an alternate range of $159,900 to $252,900 per year applicable in select locations such as Seattle, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the New York City Metro Area.
Is this a remote role?
The source posting does not specify this role as remote, hybrid, on-site, or office-based, though it mentions the team is geographically dispersed.
What employment type is this position?
This position is full-time.
What qualifications are required for applicants?
Candidates must have at least six years of professional experience analyzing attacker TTPs and building detection methods, six years of development experience in C, C++, and Python, deep operating system internals knowledge with an emphasis on Windows, and reverse engineering experience.
Sample Interview Questions
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