Staff Security Researcher

Invicti Security; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Hybrid work in Austin

401(k) match

Discretionary time off

Job summary

Invicti Security in Austin, TX is seeking a hands-on offensive security researcher who turns vulnerability and malware knowledge into detection content that ships. You will own detection rules, write clean rules, and maintain low false positives while shaping our security checks for customers.

You’ll create OpenGrep-based detections, expand language support, and explore cutting-edge tooling to catch threats at scale. Join a team driving innovation in appsec and AI-driven defenses.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of offensive security or application security research experience.
• Broad knowledge of programming languages (JavaScript; Python a plus).
• Strong understanding of security principles and best practices.
• Deep knowledge of vulnerability classifications and exploitation methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Create and write detection rules for malware and vulnerabilities.
• Extend support for new languages in the analysis pipeline.
• Research novel attack vectors and translate findings into production detections.
• Build attack chain templates and evaluation benchmarks.
• Collaborate across engineering, product, AI/ML, and security teams.
• Mentor junior researchers on detection writing and exploitation techniques.

Skills

OpenGrep

Semgrep

JavaScript

Python

Web security

OWASP Top 10

Burp Suite

nmap

fuzzing

AI/LLM security

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Burp Suite

sqlmap

nmap

ffuf

OpenGrep

Semgrep

Job description

Who we are:

Delivering the industry’s most accurate application security platform, Invicti Security has been transforming the way web applications are secured for nearly 20 years. Recognized as a leader in Application Security Testing and a DAST Innovator by Latio, Invicti enables organizations to continuously scan and secure their web apps and APIs with the rigor of runtime testing and the speed of constant innovation. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Invicti serves more than 3,600 organizations worldwide. Invicti serves more than 3,600 organizations worldwide. To learn more, visit Invicti.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Who You Are:

You are a hands-on offensive security researcher who enjoys turning vulnerability and malware knowledge into detection content that ships. You take ownership of the security checks you build, write clean and accurate detection rules, and care deeply about quality and low false-positive rates. You have strong opinions that are loosely held, apply established research principles in your day-to-day work, and help ensure our security checks deliver solid results for our customer base.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Create new detection rules (primarily OpenGrep) to catch novel malware and vulnerability patterns and boost detection accuracy.
• Extend support for new programming languages across our analysis pipeline.
• Explore and experiment with cutting-edge tools and techniques to detect threats and malware at scale.
• Research novel ways to exploit and analyze modern web applications and APIs — building proof-of-concept attacks and translating findings into shippable capabilities.
• Research new vulnerability classes, exploitation techniques, cloud-native attack paths, and AI-specific attack vectors, and convert research into production-ready detections.
• Direct the application of existing detection and exploitation principles while contributing to new policies, research standards, and attack methodologies.
• Build attack chain templates that combine low-severity findings into high-impact exploitation paths.
• Contribute to evaluation harnesses and benchmarks that measure detection effectiveness — false-positive rates, coverage, and accuracy.
• Design and maintain evaluation harnesses, testing frameworks, and benchmarking systems that continuously measure detection accuracy, exploit reproducibility, false-positive rates, and coverage.
• Contribute to internal research and help shape our public research agenda.
• Write and publish blog posts on novel attacks and large-scale incidents, and represent Invicti in the security community through CVEs, tool releases, and conference contributions.
• Stay current on industry trends in AppSec, AI red-teaming, offensive AI, LLM vulnerabilities, agent security, MCP security, and cloud-native attack techniques, and translate those insights into research priorities and product capabilities.
• Triage packages from our analysis pipeline and validate findings.

• Mentor junior and mid-level researchers on detection writing and exploitation technique.
• Collaborate across engineering, product, AI/ML, and infrastructure teams to ensure research output ships and stays operational.
• Partner with platform and infrastructure teams to improve security automation across CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native environments.
• Help maintain detection quality across the platform, including triaging difficult or ambiguous findings.

What You'll Need:

• 8+ years of offensive security or application security research experience (Bachelor's + 5 years, or Master's + 3 years).
• Broad knowledge of programming languages — JavaScript is a must, Python is a huge plus.
• Strong understanding of security principles, standards, and best practices.
• Deep understanding of vulnerability classifications, exploitation methodologies, and secure software development practices.
• Complete knowledge and full understanding of detection writing for DAST scanners, fuzzers, or comparable systems — including detection logic, response interpretation, and false-positive management.
• Experience designing testing frameworks, evaluation harnesses, or large-scale validation systems for security tooling.
• Deep web application pentesting experience covering the OWASP Top 10 and adjacent classes — authentication, authorization, business logic, modern API surfaces (REST, GraphQL).
• Comfortable researching and tackling hard problems and algorithms (e.g., parsing with ASTs).
• Fluency with offensive tooling (Burp Suite, sqlmap, nmap, ffuf, custom payload generation) and the underlying HTTP/web protocol fundamentals.
• Experience with cloud platforms, Kubernetes, containers, infrastructure-as-code, and CI/CD security is highly desirable.
• Practical experience researching or securing LLM-powered applications, AI agents, or AI-assisted development workflows, including prompt injection, model abuse, tool invocation risks, MCP security, and emerging AI attack techniques.
• Fluent in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to convey technical details to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across multi-disciplinary teams and exercise judgment on when to elevate issues.
• A hands-on attitude, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to research across traditional application security, cloud-native security, and the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem, including LLM vulnerabilities, agent security, and MCP security.

Bonus Points:

• OpenGrep (or Semgrep) experience.
• Static analysis experience.
• Experience building production-ready systems.
• Public security research output (CVEs, advisories, talks, open-source tools).
• YARA experience.

Why Invicti:

Your Health & Wellness Matters:

Health Insurance: Taking care of our team goes beyond the office. We cover 100% of employee health care, vision and dental premium costs. For dependents, we contribute 75% of the health care and 50% vision/dental premium cost, so you can be sure that you and your family are in the best possible health. Coverage is effective your first day.

Employee Assistance Program: Emotional Support Counseling services - 24/7 Life Coaching, Dependent Care, Elder Care, Financial & Legal Support, Wellness Coaching, New Parent Support and more

Parental Leave16 week paid leave for birthing parent recovery. 4 week paid leave for non-birthing/bonding parent

401(k) Savings Plan: 50% up to 6% company match with 100% annual cliff vesting

We Value Adult/Life Balance:

Hybrid: Twice a week from our Austin office, hybrid/home schedule

Discretionary Time Off: Enjoy a flexible vacation schedule where you do not have to wait to use time off until it is accrued

Quarterly Thrive-Wellness Days: One extra vacation day per quarter where the entire company takes a break from normal, daily activities to refresh and rejuvenate

Volunteerism Time Off : 5 days of paid time off each year to participate in the volunteer activities of your choice

Paid Birthday Off: Take your birthday off to celebrate you!

We Value You:

Employee Recognition: Ongoing recognition & rewards. A Culture that emphasizes personal and professional growth

At Invicti, we believe our people are at the core of our success. Our Total Rewards approach is designed to attract, support, and grow exceptional talent by offering a balanced mix of competitive compensation, meaningful benefits, and opportunities for recognition and development. We take a global, flexible approach that aligns with our business goals and values while adapting to regional needs. Above all, we are committed to transparency and ensuring our employees understand how we invest in their success and well-being.

As we operate in a dynamic, fast-paced industry, this role evolves with the business. While core responsibilities are outlined above, duties may adapt over time to meet operational needs and support both team success and your professional growth

"At Invicti, we embrace diversity and individuality in all forms. Discrimination has no place here - regardless of race, religion, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, or any other aspect that makes you unique. We're all about creating a space where everyone feels valued and included. So come as you are and join us in shaping the future of our industry."