Staff Security Researcher, Vulnerability Research (Emergent Threat Response & Metasploit)

mymoose; United States; In loco; USD 180.000 - 260.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

Rapid7 is seeking an experienced vulnerability researcher to lead Emergent Threat Response work and contribute to Metasploit, with zero-day research as a secondary focus. The role emphasizes rapid n-day analysis, exploit development, and attacker-focused vulnerability intelligence.

You will reproduce vulnerabilities from patches, publish rigorous analyses, and advise detection engineers while mentoring other researchers and presenting findings to diverse audiences.

Competenze

• Expertise across vulnerability classes and exploitation techniques.
• Ability to reproduce vulnerabilities and attacks quickly and effectively.
• Strong reverse engineering and binary/code diffing skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication for diverse audiences.

Mansioni

• Rapidly analyze newly disclosed and exploited vulnerabilities to determine root cause and impact.
• Reproduce vulnerabilities and build working exploits from patches and advisories.
• Publish clear, technically rigorous root cause analyses for defenders.
• Advise detection and vulnerability teams on urgency and prioritization.
• Serve as go-to expert during high-velocity events (e.g., Log4Shell).
• Develop and contribute high-quality Metasploit exploit modules.
• Review community/internal contributions and raise code quality and stability.
• Collaborate with Metasploit engineering on roadmap priorities.

Conoscenze

Vuln analysis

Exploit development

Reverse engineering

OS internals

Public talks

Mentoring

Clear communication

Strumenti

Metasploit Framework

Descrizione del lavoro

Rapid7's vulnerability intelligence team does industry-leading offensive research that helps organizations worldwide understand and prioritize real risk. When a critical vulnerability starts getting exploited in the wild, we're the team that figures out what's actually happening, how bad it is, and what defenders need to do about it. We're looking for an experienced vulnerability researcher to help lead that work, with a strong focus on rapid n-day analysis and on making Metasploit better for the security community.

About the Team

Rapid7 vulnerability researchers analyze high-priority n-day vulnerabilities, write Metasploit modules, find and publish zero-day vulnerabilities, and help customers, the media, internal teams, and the public understand which threats matter and why. We drive Rapid7's company-wide Emergent Threat Response (ETR) program, coordinating our research, product coverage, and customer guidance when widespread attacks hit. We aren't satisfied with being purely reactive, though. We also look for the vulnerabilities and attack patterns that will become tomorrow's widespread threats.

About the Role

This role sits at the Staff level, a senior technical leadership position on our individual contributor track. Your time will be focused primarily on Emergent Threat Response and Metasploit, with zero-day research as a secondary focus.

Primary focus: Emergent Threat Response (n-day research)

• Rapidly analyze newly disclosed and actively exploited vulnerabilities, often under tight timelines, to determine root cause, exploitability, and real-world impact
• Reproduce vulnerabilities and build working exploits from patch diffs, advisories, and limited public information, documenting behavioral differences across affected versions and platforms
• Publish clear, technically rigorous root cause analyses that help defenders act quickly and reflect Rapid7's attacker-focused approach to vulnerability intelligence
• Advise detection and vulnerability check engineers as they build coverage, and help internal teams and customers understand what's urgent, what isn't, and why
• Serve as a go-to expert during high-velocity events (think Log4Shell), knowing when to raise alarms and when to counsel patience

Primary focus: Metasploit

• Develop and contribute high-quality exploit modules to Metasploit, especially for high-priority vulnerabilities coming out of ETR work
• Drive improvements to the Metasploit Framework itself, including new capabilities, tooling, library enhancements, and quality improvements that make the framework more effective for researchers and practitioners
• Review community and internal module contributions, raising the bar for code qua
  lity, reliability, and stability across the project
• Partner with the Metasploit engineering team on roadmap priorities and help shape where the framework goes next

Secondary focus: Zero-day research

• Identify and research, new vulnerabilities in technologies that matter to enterprise organizations
• Help define longer-term research priorities with the broader team, bringing a point of view on emerging attack surface

Across all of it

• Contribute technical trend analysis to Rapid7's research reports and publications
• Represent the team's work through conference talks, webcasts, blog posts, and media engagements
• Mentor and develop other researchers through code review, pairing, documentation, and technical guidance
• Explain technical risk clearly to audiences ranging from engineers to executives

The skills and qualities you'll bring include

• Demonstrable expertise across most major vulnerability classes and exploitation techniques, with the ability to reproduce vulnerabilities and attacks quickly and effectively
• Experience developing complex exploit chains from scratch, including from patch diffs or minimal public detail
• Strong reverse engineering and binary/code diffing skills, including against large codebases or binaries
• Expert-level understanding of networking, operating system internals for one or more major OSes, and/or bypassing common exploit mitigations
• A track record of writing about vulnerabilities and exploits for a public audience, and of speaking about your research at conferences, on webcasts, or similar venues
• The ability to build custom tooling as needed and to scope work into clear milestones rather than monolithic deliverables
• A willingness to mentor and teach. You don't need to be a people manager, but you should enjoy making the people around you better.
• Communicate in a clear manner that conveys objectives and rationale when explaining complex attack patterns and risks to technical stakeholders and detection engineers.
• Eager and open to understanding "why" a change is happening, acting as an active driver of it, and focusing forward versus in the past to tackle emerging threats.
• Hold self and others responsible for driving outcomes and meeting commitments that deliver value for the business and our customers by establishing ownership within research projects.

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