Senior Research Engineer | Cybersecurity AI AppSec
Senior Backend Engineer at Escape (Paris, hybrid) building AI-powered application security scanning: agentic scan systems, production vulnerability detection engines, LLM-driven testing, and distributed Kubernetes infrastructure orchestrating thousands of concurrent scans. Core stack: Python and Go on Kubernetes/EKS, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Playwright.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Paris Office
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 4+ years
- Category
- Security
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 4+ years of experience in backend engineering, security research, or applied R&D in a product environment
- Strong software engineering fundamentals and ability to work across domains (systems, networking, web architectures)
- Proficient in at least one backend language (Python, Go, or similar)
- Experience designing and shipping production systems with measurable impact
- Ability to translate complex ideas or research into reliable, scalable implementations
- Strong analytical mindset, with a focus on pragmatism and impact
- Comfortable collaborating across engineering and security to deliver end-to-end solutions
Nice to have
- Experience in application security (web security, pentesting, bug bounty, etc.)
- Exposure to AI/LLM-based systems
- Familiarity with browser automation or large-scale distributed systems
Full description
Location: Paris (75002) | Hybrid (2 days remote/week)
About Escape
Join Escape, a fast-growing leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. Our mission-driven engineering team (21 engineers, 4 technical leads, 3 product owners) is dedicated to redefining application security with cutting-edge detection and automation.
We operate at the forefront of technology and research from our Paris office.
About the Role
As a Senior Research Engineer you will work in a team with talented security researchers. You’ll champion innovation, and ensure research translates into impactful production solutions.
What You'll Do
- Agentic scanning systems: Build systems that autonomously explore applications, maintain context, and execute complex testing strategies.
- Security detection engine: Design and implement reliable, production-grade vulnerability detection logic (injection, auth issues, business logic flaws, etc.).
- AI-driven testing: Integrate LLMs and structured reasoning into scanning workflows to improve coverage and reduce false positives.
- Distributed infrastructure: Work on systems that orchestrate thousands of concurrent scans (Kubernetes, queues, resource management).
- Performance & reliability: Ensure scans are fast, deterministic, and cost-efficient despite high complexity and concurrency.
- Core platform design: Contribute to architecture decisions around memory systems, execution environments, and data models.
Our Tech Stack & Focus
- Languages: Python (primary), Go (performance/network components)
- Runtime: Containerized workloads on Kubernetes (EKS), supporting long and resource-intensive scans
- Scaling: Kubernetes Jobs & queue-driven autoscaling
- Web Automation: Playwright + headless Chromium
- Data: PostgreSQL, S3-compatible object storage, Redis (limited use)
- Messaging: Kafka
- Observability: OpenTelemetry, Grafana Cloud
- CI/CD & Infra: GitLab CI, Terraform
Perks & Benefits
- 💸 Significant equity (Stock Options/BSPCE) – become a core stakeholder in Escape’s journey
- ❤️🩹 Top-tier health insurance with Alan
- 🍕 Meal vouchers with Swile