Senior Threat & Attack Researcher

Optus; Canberra; Hybrid; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee discounts

Flexible work arrangement

Connected days leave

Parental leave (16 weeks)

Wellbeing support

Diversity & inclusion networks

Counselling services

Job summary

Optus is seeking a Senior Threat & Attack Researcher to join our cyber security team in Canberra. You will lead research, track threats, and produce threat intelligence to inform risk decisions across the organisation.

You will mentor juniors, develop proactive countermeasures, and collaborate with incident response and partners to strengthen our defences. The role demands deep knowledge of threat landscapes, strong communication, and the ability to operate under pressure.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Cyber Threat Intelligence or a related cyber security role.
• Detailed knowledge of offensive operations, geopolitical drivers, and attack techniques.
• Proficiency with scripting languages such as Python for automation.
• Tertiary qualifications in CS/InfoSec.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to distill technical concepts for diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Researching the TTPs, tooling, and infrastructure of threats relevant to Optus.
• Finding opportunities to detect, disrupt and deny threat activity in a proactive manner.
• Producing intelligence products for a range of stakeholders to enable threat-informed decisions.
• Providing assessments on the broader threat landscape to maintain situational awareness amongst stakeholders and senior leadership through regular briefings.
• Analysing malware samples and code to understand their functionality, behaviour, propagation methods, and evasion techniques.
• Leading team research and capability uplift initiatives.
• Instilling a culture of excellence, integrity, and professionalism; high standards in cyber security.
• Identifying and tracking significant threats to the organisation and guiding countermeasures.
• Providing threat intelligence support to incident response investigations.

Skills

Threat intelligence

Python scripting

Communication skills

Mentorship

Education

Tertiary qualifications in computer science / cyber security

Tools

Python

Job description

Optus is an Australian telecommunications company, delivering more than 11 million services to our customers every day across mobile, broadband, and digital solutions.

This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Threat & Attack Researcher to become part of our dynamic team. As a senior member, you will play a pivotal role in identifying, researching, and tracking threats relevant to our organisation. You will operate in a setting that values excellence and integrity, where your contributions will have a meaningful impact.

Due to the requirements of this role, we are currently only able to consider applications from Australian Citizens.

What You’ll Do

• Researching the TTPs, tooling, and infrastructure of threats relevant to Optus.
• Finding opportunities to detect, disrupt and deny threat activity in a proactive manner.
• Producing intelligence products for a range of stakeholders to enable threat-informed decisions.
• Providing assessments on the broader threat landscape to maintain situational awareness amongst stakeholders and senior leadership through regular briefings.
• Analysing malware samples and code to understand their functionality, behaviour, propagation methods, and evasion techniques.
• Leading team research and capability uplift initiatives.
• Instilling and encouraging a culture of excellence, integrity, and professionalism; one that works toward the highest standards in cyber security.
• Identifying, researching, and tracking significant threats to our organisation.
• Taking initiative to guide and implement countermeasures that find, obstruct, and block threats.
• Providing threat intelligence support to incident response investigations.
• Providing verbal briefings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Collaborating with partners to share intelligence and tradecraft.
• Assisting in the development of junior people through mentorship and guidance.
• Crafting and maintaining relevant processes or tools to ensure efficient and scalable operations.

What You Bring

• Tertiary qualifications or similar experience in computer science, information systems, engineering, or cyber security.
• 5+ years of experience in Cyber Threat Intelligence or a related cyber security role.
• Detailed knowledge of offensive operations, geopolitical drivers, and attack techniques.
• Proficiency with scripting languages such as Python for automation and custom tooling creation.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to work with stakeholders at all levels.
• The ability to distill technical concepts into clear, risk-focused messaging for diverse audiences.
• Proven capability to perform effectively under pressure, adhere to deadlines, and adjust to change.

The good stuff….

• Competitive remuneration and colleague discounts. Make life easier (and more affordable) with $80 monthly credit and 25% off Optus products and outstanding shopping discounts with our retail partners.
• Flexible working arrangements with opportunities to work three days in the office and two days remote or at home.
• Competitive leave policies, including additional 'Connected' days to focus on culture, family, health, community, or whatever’s important to you.
• We support growing families with inclusive, carer-neutral paid Parental Leave of up to 16 weeks.
• Build meaningful connections through colleague-led networks and diversity initiatives including Culture Connect, Elevate Women, Disability Network, and Express Yourself (LGBTQIA+).
• Put your wellbeing first with free access to counselling and support services, 24/7 - in-person, by phone, SMS, or video.

At Optus, we are strengthened by others and that means valuing diversity and saying 'yes' to embracing individual differences. We are committed to ensuring that our application process provides an equal employment opportunity to all job seekers, including individuals from diverse gender, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, individuals with a disability, individuals identifying as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals who may have served in the armed forces or who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. We also want to do our best to make our recruitment process inclusive. If you require any adjustments or accessibility support to participate fairly and equitably in the recruitment process, please email [e-mail] or call 1800 309 170. We're here to help.

For more information on Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Optus, please visit https://www.optus.com.au/about/inclusion-diversity