Offensive Security Researcher - Userland & Kernel Security

Lex; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple's Security Engineering & Architecture organization in Paris is seeking researchers to join an extraordinary team focused on offensive security research, vulnerability discovery, and security tooling. You will work on the userland and kernel layers across Apple platforms, conducting rigorous research and collaborating with cross-functional teams to strengthen every layer of our products.

Remote considered for experienced candidates.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in vulnerability research targeting operating systems for local privilege escalation (LPE)
• Strong understanding of vulnerability classes and exploitation techniques
• Fluency in applying AI techniques and tools to security research.

Responsibilities

• Conduct offensive security research across system services, apps, the kernel and drivers
• Work in cross-functional teams to evaluate and strengthen security across Apple platforms
• Focus on userland software stack and kernels of Apple platforms

Skills

Vulnerability research

Kernel exploitation

AI techniques

Tools

Programming (C, C++, Python, Swift, Objective-C)

Job description

Summary

Apple's Security Engineering & Architecture organization keeps the users of over 2.35 billion active devices around the world safe. That mission is at the heart of everything we do, and our team approaches it from the offensive side by finding and helping eliminate vulnerabilities in one of the most sophisticated ecosystems ever built, before adversaries can exploit them.

You would be joining an extraordinary group of researchers who bring a range of backgrounds and perspectives to the work, and who are driven by curiosity, passion, and genuine engagement with what they do. If you think you can make a difference at this scale, join us in protecting all Apple users.

In-office roles in Paris and other locations. Remote considered for experienced candidates.

Description

You will join a team whose work spans vulnerability research, binary exploitation, security tooling development, fuzzing, machine learning, and much more. By harnessing state-of-the-art technologies, and developing new ones where they don't yet exist, we amplify our impact on the security of Apple products.

In this role, your primary focus will be on the userland software stack and the kernels of Apple platforms. You will conduct offensive security research across system services, apps, the kernel and drivers, hypervisors, or other components essential to the security of Apple users. You will work in cross-functional teams alongside other researchers and engineering teams to evaluate and strengthen every layer of our products.

This job is for individuals with outstanding technical skills, grit, and a genuine passion for breaking systems — so we can build them stronger.

If this is you, we'd love to hear from you.

Minimum Qualifications

• Proven track record in vulnerability research targeting operating systems for local privilege escalation (LPE), across both kernel and userland attack surfaces
• Strong understanding of vulnerability classes and exploitation techniques, such as memory corruption, race conditions, and use-after-free
• Fluency in applying AI techniques and tools, such as LLMs and Machine Learning, to security research.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of kernel internals, including virtual memory management, system call interfaces, and driver frameworks
• Understanding of state-of-the-art userland vulnerabilities and exploitation techniques
• Familiarity with recent mitigations such as PAC or MTE
• Fluency with tool development, using programming languages such as C, C++, Python, Swift, or Objective-C
• Knowledge of Apple operating systems like iOS or macOS is nice-to-have, but not required

At Apple, we're not all the same. And that's our greatest strength. We draw on the differences in who we are, what we've experienced, and how we think. Because to create products that serve everyone, we believe in including everyone. Therefore, we are committed to treating all applicants fairly and equally. We will work with applicants to make any reasonable accommodations.

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here — in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong.

Learn about accessibility in Apple’s workplace

Role Number: 200687699-2911