Staff Offensive Security Engineer — Red Team & AI Security

Perplexity; California (MO); On-site; USD 220,000 - 405,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a hands-on Offensive Security Engineer to lead red team operations and adversarial assessments across cloud, web, mobile, and AI systems. You will work with engineering teams to remediate real vulnerabilities and strengthen defenses.

Responsibilities include simulated attacks, tooling development, and threat modeling. This role emphasizes practical impact, cross-functional collaboration, and staying ahead of evolving threats in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in offensive security, red teaming, or penetration testing.
• Experience with cloud security (AWS/GCP/Azure) or web/API security.
• Strong scripting skills in Python, Go, or similar.
• Proven ability to discover vulnerabilities in production.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute red team and purple team engagements across cloud, endpoints, and apps.
• Conduct continuous penetration testing of web apps, APIs, mobile clients, and internal services.
• Assess AI/ML attack surfaces including prompt injection and model exfiltration.
• Develop and maintain custom tooling, exploits, and automation for security testing.
• Perform open-scope adversary simulations testing detection and response with the defense team.
• Drive threat modeling sessions with engineering to identify and prioritize attack vectors.
• Deliver actionable findings to technical and executive audiences and validate remediations.
• Contribute to CI/CD security, supply chain integrity, and secrets management.

Skills

Python

Go

Communication

Tools

Burp Suite

Cobalt Strike

Sliver

Mythic

Metasploit

BloodHound

Nuclei

Job description

Perplexity is seeking a hands-on Offensive Security Engineer to lead red team operations and adversarial assessments across cloud, web, mobile, and AI systems. You will work with engineering teams to remediate real vulnerabilities and strengthen defenses.

Responsibilities include simulated attacks, tooling development, and threat modeling. This role emphasizes practical impact, cross-functional collaboration, and staying ahead of evolving threats in a fast-paced environment.