Principal Dark Web Collection Analyst

Recorded Future; Massachusetts; On-site; USD 152,000 - 229,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Incentive compensation

Equity

Health insurance

401K

Job summary

Recorded Future, based in Massachusetts, seeks a senior dark web threat researcher to act as the internal authority on underground communities. You will lead strategic collection decisions, gain access to covert channels, and produce actionable intelligence for multiple teams.

You will navigate forums and marketplaces, develop personas, and build automated collection pipelines with engineering. Strong Russian language proficiency is required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on dark web threat research with demonstrable collection outcomes across forums, marketplaces, or covert channels
• Deep expertise in major criminal forums and darknet markets and how access is governed
• Proven ability to operate within closed or invite-only communities with OPSEC and legal compliance
• Professional Russian language proficiency for this role

Responsibilities

• Serve as the company-wide subject matter expert on dark web and underground community dynamics
• Make and own strategic collection decisions on forums, markets, and channels to pursue
• Identify and gain access to criminal forums, darknet marketplaces, Telegram channels, and adjacent covert infrastructure
• Develop and maintain collection strategies, personas, and source documentation
• Collaborate with engineering to translate research into automated collection pipelines
• Monitor sources for takedowns, migrations, and rebrands and adapt
• Produce finished intelligence on threat actors, community dynamics, and underground infrastructure
• Represent Recorded Future externally through blogs, webinars, and public research

Skills

Dark web threat research

Russian language

Analytical writing

Python scripting

Tools

Python

Job description

With 1,000+ intelligence professionals serving over 1,900 clients worldwide, Recorded Future is the world’s most advanced, and largest, intelligence company!

Recorded Future is expanding its dark web collection capability with a focus on underground community intelligence — criminal forums, illicit marketplaces, and covert messaging channels where threat actors recruit, collaborate, and transact.

You will be Recorded Future's internal authority on the dark web ecosystem — the person other teams turn to when they need to understand how underground communities operate, what's worth collecting, and where not to invest. This means making real strategic decisions: which forums warrant access efforts, which intelligence areas to prioritize, and which sources don't merit the operational cost. You will own that judgment and defend it across the organization. At the same time, this is a hands‑on role. You will personally navigate underground infrastructure, build and maintain access, create and manage personas, and extract intelligence directly. The expert and the operator are the same person here.

What You'll Do:

• Serve as the company-wide subject matter expert on dark web and underground community dynamics, advising product, engineering, sales, and analyst teams
• Make and own strategic collection decisions: which forums, markets, and channels to pursue; which intelligence areas to prioritize; and where to explicitly not invest resources
• Identify, evaluate, and gain access to criminal forums, darknet marketplaces, Telegram channels, and adjacent covert infrastructure within legal and policy boundaries
• Develop and maintain collection strategies, personas, and source documentation to sustain access across a volatile source landscape
• Partner with engineering to translate research tradecraft into automated collection pipelines
• Monitor sources for operational changes — takedowns, migrations, rebrands — and continuously adapt
• Produce finished intelligence on key threat actors, community dynamics, and emerging underground infrastructure: actor profiles, source assessments, and analytical summaries
• Collaborate broadly across internal teams — product, PMM, sales, customer success, and research — as the go-to voice on underground community intelligence
• Represent Recorded Future externally: writing customer‑facing blogs, presenting at webinars, and contributing to public research on dark web tactics and trends

What You'll Bring:

• 5+ years of hands‑on dark web threat research with demonstrable collection outcomes across forums, marketplaces, or covert channels
• Deep, current expertise in the structure and dynamics of major criminal forums and darknet markets — how they operate, how access is governed, and how actors and communities evolve
• Proven ability to operate within closed or invite‑only communities while maintaining OPSEC and legal compliance
• Russian language proficiency at a professional working level — essential for this role
• Strong analytical writing skills — ability to produce concise, well‑sourced intelligence products for both technical and executive audiences
• Comfort operating externally: presenting to customers, hosting webinars, and writing public‑facing content with authority

Preferred Qualifications:

• Additional language skills relevant to underground communities (Ukrainian, Romanian, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic)
• Background in cybercrime research, threat actor tracking, or law enforcement intelligence
• Prior experience at a threat intelligence vendor, CSIRT, law enforcement, or intelligence agency
• Basic scripting ability (Python) for data parsing and format conversion

The base salary range for this full‑time position is $152,000 - $228,500. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The salary displayed reflects the range for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by state, work location and additional factors, including job‑related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. This position may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and medical, dental, vision, life insurance and 401K.

Why should you join Recorded Future?

Recorded Future employees (or “Futurists”), represent over 40 nationalities and embody our core values of having high standards, practicing inclusion, and acting ethically. Our dedication to empowering clients with intelligence to disrupt adversaries has earned us a 4.6‑star user rating on G2 and more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies as customers.

We are committed to maintaining an environment that attracts and retains talent from a diverse range of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. By ensuring all feel included and respected for being unique and bringing their whole selves to work, Recorded Future is made a better place every day.

If you need any accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e‑mail with your request to our recruiting team at [e-mail]

Recorded Future is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. Recorded Future does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law.

Recorded Future will not discharge, discipline or in any other manner discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because such employee or applicant has inquired about, discussed, or disclosed the compensation of the employee or applicant or another employee or applicant.

Recorded Future does not administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. This is in compliance with the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in alignment with our hiring practices across all jurisdictions.

Recorded Future maintains a drug‑free workplace.

Note: Our interview process for all final‑round candidates requires a mandatory in‑person interview or a live, scheduled video conference with the hiring manager. We do not conduct interviews via instant messaging or text. All communications during the application process will come from individuals within our HR department via their Recorded Future email address.

Notice to Agency and Search Firm Representatives: Recorded Future will not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to Recorded Future, including those sent to our employees or through our website, will become the property of Recorded Future. Recorded Future will not be liable for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Agencies must have a valid written agreement in place with Recorded Future's recruitment team and must receive written authorization before submitting resumes. Submissions made without such agreements and authorization will not be accepted and no fees will be paid.