Staff Security Research Engineer

Menlo Ventures; Bengaluru; Hybrid; INR 13,321,492 - 20,071,048; Full time

Job summary

A leading software delivery platform is seeking a Staff or Principal Security Research Engineer in Bengaluru, India. This role involves conducting research on modern security threats, developing exploit techniques, and collaborating with various teams. The ideal candidate holds a degree in Computer Science with 8-10 years of experience, strong programming skills, and a deep understanding of security concepts. Competitive salary ranges from $150,000 to $226,000 USD.

Qualifications

• 8-10+ years of work experience.
• Demonstrated experience in penetration testing and vulnerability research.
• Strong experience with various pen testing tools.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research on modern attack vectors.
• Develop advanced exploit techniques to prevent attacks.
• Collaborate with teams to implement detection strategies.

Skills

Deep expertise with modern application stacks

Prior development experience

Proficient in at least one modern programming language

Strong analytical skills

Experience in responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Burpsuite

ZAP

Job description

Position Summary

Harness is expanding into DevSecOps with the integration of Traceable, and we're hiring a Staff or Principal Security Research Engineer to help lead the charge. This is a rare opportunity to work with visionary leaders like Jyoti Bansal and help shape security across the modern software delivery lifecycle—from code to cloud.

You’ll drive research into cutting‑edge threats targeting APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and emerging technologies like LLMs. Your work will directly influence product direction, detection capabilities, and customer protection strategies. This is a hands‑on, high‑impact role where you’ll collaborate across teams, interface with top‑tier customers, and represent Harness at leading security conferences.

If you’re passionate about solving hard security problems at scale, this role puts you at the center of innovation in a fast‑growing DevSecOps platform.

About The Role

• Conduct cutting‑edge research on modern attack vectors across AppSec, CI/CD pipelines, runtime environments, and emerging technologies like LLMs
• Develop and refine advanced exploit techniques to prevent attacks targeting software delivery, runtime from code to cloud
• Collaborate with research, product and engineering to prototype and implement detection and mitigation strategies for emerging threats
• Perform in‑depth security assessments and penetration testing of web applications, APIs, build systems, and cloud‑native environments
• Engage with customers to understand their application landscape and provide expert guidance on integrating product capabilities with their security requirements
• Support pre‑sales, POCs, and post‑sales engagements by troubleshooting and solving complex detection and protection challenges
• Build internal tools to automate and enhance security research workflows.
• Evangelize our research and platform through blogs, white papers, and talks at premier security conferences
• Analyze global cybersecurity incidents to extract learnings and apply them across domains

About You

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science.
• 8‑10+ years of work experience
• Deep expertise with modern application stacks (microservices, containers, Kubernetes, cloud platforms like AWS/GCP)
• Prior development experience and a fair understanding of programming languages and frameworks are a must
• Proficient in at least one modern programming language (Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience in penetration testing, vulnerability research, and exploitation of Web/API ecosystems
• Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, identity aware, network, application and runtime security
• Strong experience with various pen testing tools like Burpsuite, ZAP, etc.
• Strong applied knowledge of attacks in Web/API eco‑system – Web attacks, API attacks, API abuse, API Fraud, ATO, etc.
• Strong knowledge of modern application security threats and mitigation platforms like (WAFs, WAAP, RASP, etc.).
• Working knowledge of IAST, DAST, and SAST
• Experience in responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities and a track record of CVEs or similar
• Proven track record of publishing high‑quality research or presenting at top security conferences (e.g., Black Hat, DEF CON, RSAC, BSides) is a strong plus
• Certifications such as CEH, OSCP, OSCE, or relevant security credentials
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to conduct complex security research autonomously
• Ability to work autonomously and drive complex security investigations from hypothesis to implementation

Work Location

This role will be out of our Bengaluru, India office on a Hybrid capacity.

Pay transparency: $150,000 — $226,000 USD

Harness in the news

• Harness AI Tackles Software Development’s Real Bottleneck
• After 'Vibe Coding' Comes 'Vibe Testing' (Almost)
• Startup Within a Startup: Empowering Intrapreneurs for Scalable Innovation - Jyoti Bansal (Harness)
• Jyoti Bansal, Harness | theCUBEd Awards
• Eight years after selling AppDynamics to Cisco, Jyoti Bansal is pursuing an unusual merger
• Harness snags Split.io, as it goes all in on feature flags and experiments
• Exclusive: Jyoti Bansal‑led Harness has raised $150 million in debt financing

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers

We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers.

Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.

If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at [e-mail]. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.