Senior Malware Research Engineer: Threat Discovery

Elasticsearch B.V.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 133,000 - 211,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and family

Flexible locations and schedules

Generous vacation days

Donation matching program

Volunteer time

Parental leave

Job summary

Elastic, the Search AI Company, is seeking a Senior Security Research Engineer to tackle the hardest malware analysis and threat research tasks. The role involves reverse engineering across multiple platforms, handling large telemetry data, and shipping protections with scalable tooling.

You will publish research, contribute to Elastic Security Labs, and mentor newer researchers while collaborating across teams to improve detection and defense capabilities.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional experience reverse engineering malware and researching adversary tradecraft across multiple formats and architectures.
• Python development for research tooling and automation; familiar with reading C/C++.
• YARA authorship and hunting at scale.
• Fundamentals of Windows/Linux internals, networking protocols (HTTP/TLS), and basic cryptography.
• Technical writing ability to produce public analyses.
• Experience leveraging AI to speed development and debugging.
• Ability to switch between projects and teams as priorities shift.
• Collaborative mindset with passion for protecting data.

Responsibilities

• Reverse engineer malware across Windows, macOS, and Linux; uncover communication and stealth techniques.
• Operate large-scale data systems to surface threats and provide context for customers.
• Turn findings into protections and scalable tooling; develop signatures and automation.
• Publish research, release artifacts to public repos, present at conferences.
• Collaborate with Elastic Security teams on threat intelligence and detection engineering.
• Help lead technical direction and mentor junior researchers.

Skills

Malware reverse engineering

Python development

YARA signatures

Windows/Linux internals

Applied cryptography

AI-assisted workflows

Public research & writing

Collaboration & mentorship

Tools

Elastic Stack

Ghidra

GitHub

Job description

Elastic, the Search AI Company, is seeking a Senior Security Research Engineer to tackle the hardest malware analysis and threat research tasks. The role involves reverse engineering across multiple platforms, handling large telemetry data, and shipping protections with scalable tooling.

You will publish research, contribute to Elastic Security Labs, and mentor newer researchers while collaborating across teams to improve detection and defense capabilities.