Senior AI Threat Researcher - AI Security & Threat Intelligence

Sophos; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first

Hybrid flexibility

Volunteer days

Professional development

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Sophos is seeking a senior researcher for the X-Ops Insights team to explore how threat actors weaponize AI and to develop detection strategies across the attack lifecycle. You will instrument telemetry, analyze OSINT, and produce high-quality intelligence outputs for internal and external publication.

You will collaborate with CTU researchers, SophosLabs, MDR threat hunters, and data scientists to advance AI threat research while driving operational efficiency and reusable tooling across the

Qualifications

• Ability to interpret data from diverse telemetry sources and transform it into actionable intelligence.
• Exceptional written communication skills suitable for both technical and executive audiences.
• Demonstrated experience in at least two of the following: threat intelligence, malware analysis, detection engineering, or AI/ML research.
• Strong knowledge of threat actor ecosystems, modern attack techniques, and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
• Hands-on proficiency with Python and modern AI development patterns, including building and orchestrating multi-agent systems, working with LLM APIs, and designing agentic workflows with sub-agents, tool use, and retrieval-augmented generation.
• Experience building or using automation tools to streamline analytical or reporting workflows.

Responsibilities

• Investigate how threat actors are leveraging AI across the attack lifecycle, including AI-assisted social engineering and AI-generated malware.
• Research real-world threats to agentic AI systems and enterprise AI deployments, assessing risk and detection strategies.
• Instrument telemetry to identify indicators of AI-driven attacker behavior at scale.
• Analyze telemetry, case data, and OSINT to surface AI-related threat trends and early-warning indicators.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive research and reporting workflows using LLMs and internal tooling.
• Collaborate with CTU researchers, SophosLabs analysts, MDR threat hunters, and engineers to synthesize findings into actionable intelligence.
• Contribute to the joint task-force intelligence cycle, ensuring insights flow into protections and detection rules.

Skills

Threat intelligence

Malware analysis

AI/ML research

Python

LLM integration

Automation tooling

Technical writing

Tools

SIEM/SOAR platforms

LLM APIs

Job description

Sophos is seeking a senior researcher for the X-Ops Insights team to explore how threat actors weaponize AI and to develop detection strategies across the attack lifecycle. You will instrument telemetry, analyze OSINT, and produce high-quality intelligence outputs for internal and external publication.

You will collaborate with CTU researchers, SophosLabs, MDR threat hunters, and data scientists to advance AI threat research while driving operational efficiency and reusable tooling across the