Senior Security Researcher
Senior Security Researcher at Vectra AI researching network- and cloud-based attacker TTPs, replicating attack tooling for detection validation, and building detection capabilities alongside data science teams. Core tech: Python, Wireshark/tcpdump, red-team frameworks (Cobalt Strike, Metasploit, Mimikatz) and network forensics.
- Compensation
- $150K–$230K / yr
- Location
- San Jose, CA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Dublin, Ireland; US - Remote
- Work setup
- Remote
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Security
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Passion for cyber security
- 5+ years of attack and penetration testing experience in a network environment
- 5+ years direct experience in security research, malware analysis, or incident response
- Knowledge of corporate security investigation and incident response processes, and malware detection/mitigation technologies
- Solid programming skills with scripting languages such as Python
- Strong problem solving, troubleshooting and analysis skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills
- Self-driven, able to efficiently work remotely without close supervision
- Attack simulation experience
- Knowledge of the Tools, Techniques, and Procedures of advanced threat actors
- Proficiency with attacker and red team tools/frameworks: Cobalt Strike, Metasploit, Empire, Mimikatz, impacket, CrackMapExec, etc.
- Ability to realistically recreate advanced threat actor TTPs within controlled environments
- Knowledge of network and application protocols and traffic analysis (network forensics)
- Proficiency with network traffic analysis and forensics tools such as Wireshark and tcpdump
- Proficiency with host forensics and memory analysis tools
- Strong knowledge of networking concepts: TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, TLS, FTP, RPC, DNS, SMB, Kerberos, etc.
Nice to have
- Professional or academic research in advanced security threats
- Operational infosec experience as an incident handler/responder, red teamer, administrator, or internal consultant
- Experience with big data technologies
- Participation in the broader infosec community with contacts and access to external intelligence sources
- Understanding the lifecycle and economics of modern malware and advanced threats
Full description
Vectra® is the leader in AI-driven threat detection and response for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises.
The Vectra AI Platform delivers integrated signal across public cloud, SaaS, identity, and data center networks in a single platform. Powered by patented Attack Signal Intelligence, it empowers security teams to rapidly prioritize, investigate and respond to the most advanced cyber-attacks. With 35 patents in AI-driven threat detection and the most vendor references in MITRE D3FEND, organizations worldwide rely on the Vectra AI to move at the speed and scale of hybrid attackers. For more information, visit www.vectra.ai.
*This is a hybrid role for San Jose, CA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; or Dublin, IrelandPosition Overview
Vectra AI’s Security Research team studies how attackers operate and turns that knowledge into capabilities that help customers find and respond to threats. We are looking for a Senior Security Researcher to help define and investigate the security challenges created by enterprise AI adoption and AI-enabled attackers.
You will study how agents, copilots, AI-connected applications, and their identities can be misused or compromised. You will also examine how attackers use AI to accelerate familiar attack techniques. Your research will connect activity across identity, cloud, and network environments, with a focus on what customers can observe, investigate, and act on. This is an emerging area: you will help test assumptions, identify gaps in visibility, and shape the work that follows.
What You Will Do
- Develop threat models for enterprise AI systems and agent-mediated activity, including delegated access, service and workload identities, cloud agent infrastructure, connectors, and downstream actions.
- Investigate how AI changes attacker operations, including the speed, scale, sequencing, and coordination of reconnaissance, credential abuse, lateral movement, and data theft.
- Recreate realistic attack and misuse scenarios in controlled environments. Collect evidence, map the observable behavior across identity, cloud, and network, and distinguish confirmed signals from hypotheses.
- Assess existing detection coverage, identify telemetry and attribution gaps, and work with Data Science and Engineering to develop and validate new behavioral detections.
- Help connect an agent’s actions to the human, application, identity, workload, tool, and resource involved, even when a single log source shows only part of the chain.
- Translate research into clear findings, attack samples, coverage assessments, and recommendations that Product, Engineering, customer-facing teams, and customers can use.
- Stay close to emerging techniques and real incidents, contribute original research, and help Vectra decide which problems warrant further investment.