Senior Backend Engineer | Cybersecurity AI AppSec

Escape Technologies; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (Stock Options)

Top-tier health insurance

Meal vouchers

Sport subscription

Learning budgets

Premium equipment

Open-source time

Conference talks opportunity

Job summary

Escape Technologies is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer in Paris to join a mission-driven security research team. You will translate cutting-edge detection and automation research into production-grade backend systems, driving innovation and scalable solutions.

You will own the design and implementation of agentic scanning systems, a robust security detection engine, and AI-assisted testing, while coordinating with Kubernetes-based infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Backend engineering

Security research

Cross-domain work

Strong fundamentals

Tools

Python

Go

Kubernetes

Playwright

PostgreSQL

Redis

Kafka

OpenTelemetry

Grafana

GitLab CI

Terraform

Job 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 (18 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 Backend 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
• EGYM Wellpass sport subscription
• Continuous learning: budgets for books and online courses
• Premium equipment to support your work
• Dedicated time for open-source projects
• Present research at top international conferences (RSAC, BlackHat, DEFCON, BSides, APIDays)

About You

• 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