Adversarial Tooling Engineer

Talent Smart; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Onsite 1–2 days/week

Job summary

Talent Smart is seeking an Adversarial Tooling Engineer - Red Team in the UK, with hybrid working to school on-site in Sheffield 1–2 days a week. You will design, build and maintain internal offensive security tooling, translating Red Team requirements into reliable scripts, utilities and agent-side components for real-world engagements.

The role requires strong software engineering and practical offensive security experience across Red Teaming, with proficiency in Python, Go, C#, C++ or

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering experience building maintainable tools and services.

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

Red Team tooling

Python

Go

C#

C++

TypeScript

CI/CD

Automated testing

Linux

Tools

APIs

Agent components

Automation frameworks

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 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

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.