Associate Hacker: Penetration Tester & Security Researcher

IBM; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Consulting invites highly motivated individuals to join the Associate Hacker program. You will work with a world-class team in penetration testing to safeguard client environments and uncover vulnerabilities across applications, networks and databases.

This role emphasizes learning, mentorship, and continual professional growth within IBM’s X-Force security group, with travel dependent on project requirements and client needs.

Qualifications

• Experience in penetration testing and security assessment.
• Strong understanding of network and application security.
• Ability to document findings and present results clearly.

Responsibilities

• Perform documentation, vetting and weaponization of identified vulnerabilities through reverse engineering.
• Prepare and present technical reports and briefings to Technical and Executive teams.
• Conduct penetration tests against clients including identifying exploitable misconfigurations, weak credentials, unpatched systems, and attack chains and testing for logic flaws, injection vulnerabilities, authentication weaknesses, and access control failures.
• Provide subject matter expertise in research, tooling, and consulting engagements.
• Gain knowledge across multiple platforms, processes, or architectures.

Skills

Penetration testing

Reverse engineering

Technical reporting

Security research

Multi-platform knowledge

Education

High School Diploma/GED

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

IBM Consulting invites highly motivated individuals to join the Associate Hacker program. You will work with a world-class team in penetration testing to safeguard client environments and uncover vulnerabilities across applications, networks and databases.

This role emphasizes learning, mentorship, and continual professional growth within IBM’s X-Force security group, with travel dependent on project requirements and client needs.