Adversarial Tooling Engineer

Talent Smart Limited; Cubley; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Talent Smart Limited in Sheffield seeks an Adversarial Tooling Engineer - Red Team to design and maintain offensive security tooling, translating Red Team requirements into practical scripts, utilities, automation, and agent components.

You will work closely with Red Team operators, defender teams, and wider tech functions, applying secure-by-design practices and exploring AI-enabled tooling. Onsite 1-2 days/week in Sheffield.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering experience building maintainable tools and services.
• Practical offensive security experience across Red Teaming, penetration testing or adversary simulation.
• Strong programming experience across languages such as Python, Go, C#, C++ or TypeScript.
• Experience building operator-facing tooling, automation frameworks, APIs or agent/implant components.
• Strong Linux experience, with CI/CD and automated testing knowledge.
• Good understanding of operational security, tooling safety and governance.
• Experience with AI-enabled tooling or agents and safety controls would be highly advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain internal offensive security tooling from concept through to deployment and support.
• Work directly with Red Team operators to understand TTPs and translate requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Develop and maintain an offensive tooling landscape that improves the capability, efficiency and repeatability of Red Team engagements.
• Build tooling designed for real-world assessment conditions, including constrained environments and limited connectivity.
• Apply secure-by-design principles, ensuring tooling operates within agreed rules of engagement and governance.
• Develop AI-enabled and agentic tooling where appropriate, with suitable guardrails, approval controls and auditability.
• Improve the quality, reliability and maintainability of the wider toolset through testing, documentation, refactoring and automation.
• Work closely with adversarial engineers, defensive security teams and wider technology functions.

Skills

Software engineering

Offensive security

Python

Go

C#

C++

TypeScript

Linux

CI/CD

APIs

Job description

Adversarial Tooling Engineer - Red Team

• Sheffield - 1-2 days per week onsite
• Inside IR35

We're working with a leading banking client to appoint a Red Team SME to provide engineering expertise across the Red Team function, with a particular focus on developing and maintaining an offensive tooling landscape.

The role will translate Red Team operator requirements into robust, practical tooling that can be used reliably during real-world engagements, including scripts, utilities, automation, services and agent-side components.

Key responsibilities:

• Design, build and maintain internal offensive security tooling from concept through to deployment and support
• Work directly with Red Team operators to understand TTPs and translate requirements into effective technical solutions
• Develop and maintain an offensive tooling landscape that improves the capability, efficiency and repeatability of Red Team engagementsBuild tooling designed for real-world assessment conditions, including constrained environments and limited connectivity
• Apply secure-by-design principles, ensuring tooling operates within agreed rules of engagement and governance
• Develop AI-enabled and agentic tooling where appropriate, with suitable guardrails, approval controls and auditability
• Improve the quality, reliability and maintainability of the wider toolset through testing, documentation, refactoring and automation
• Work closely with adversarial engineers, defensive security teams and wider technology functions

We're looking for:

• Strong software engineering experience building maintainable tools and services
• Practical offensive security experience across Red Teaming, penetration testing or adversary simulation
• Strong programming experience across languages such as Python, Go, C#, C++ or TypeScript
• Experience building operator-facing tooling, automation frameworks, APIs or agent/implant components
• Strong Linux experience, with CI/CD and automated testing knowledge
• Good understanding of operational security, tooling safety and working within governance
• Experience with AI-enabled tooling or agents and associated safety controls would be highly advantageous

This is an opportunity to sit at the intersection of software engineering and offensive security, directly engineering the tools and capabilities that enable a high-performing Red Team.

More details available on successful application.