Vulnerability Research Engineer

Socket; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket is building patching infrastructure to deliver secure, vetted packages to developers worldwide. You’ll own scale-out of patch production, contribute to critical vulnerability handling, and build the systems that keep the open source ecosystem secure.

As an early member, you’ll shape the technical roadmap for expanding patching across JavaScript and beyond, collaborating with security researchers and engineers to deliver reliable, scalable tooling.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of software engineering experience with production systems.
• Strong proficiency in Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
• Experience with package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm) and the JavaScript ecosystem.
• Understanding of software security concepts and vulnerability management.

Responsibilities

• Master Socket workflows, tools, and patching processes.
• Lead patching efforts for high-impact vulnerabilities across npm packages.
• Scale patch production to dozens or hundreds of patches per week.
• Help select and prioritize high-value patches.
• Provide technical input on patch prioritization based on ecosystem and customer impact.
• Build and improve automated patching infrastructure and tooling.
• Design and implement scalable patch generation and delivery systems.
• Develop automated vulnerability detection and patch creation workflows.

Skills

Node.js

JavaScript

TypeScript

APIs

Tools

npm

yarn

pnpm

Job description

About Us

Socket helps devs and security teams ship faster by cutting out security busywork. Thousands of orgs use Socket to safely find, audit, and manage open source code. Our customers - from Anthropic to xAI, and Figma to Vercel - love Socket (just check out their tweets to see for yourself!)

Founded by Feross Aboukhadijeh, a long-time open source maintainer with software downloaded over a billion times a month, Socket has raised $125M in funding from top angels, operators, and security leaders.

About the Role

Join Socket to build and scale our patching infrastructure that delivers secure, vetted packages to developers worldwide. You’ll be at the forefront of supply chain security, creating patches for critical vulnerabilities and building the systems that help the entire open source ecosystem stay secure.

This role combines deep technical work with meaningful community impact that benefits the entire ecosystem. As an early member of the Socket team, you’ll help shape how we scale this technology across the JavaScript ecosystem and beyond.

What You'll Do

• Master Socket workflows, tools, and patching processes
• Lead patching efforts for high-impact vulnerabilities across npm packages
• Scale patch production to dozens or hundreds of patches per week
• Help select and prioritize high-value patches
• Provide technical input on patch prioritization based on ecosystem and customer impact
• Build and improve automated patching infrastructure and tooling
• Design and implement scalable patch generation and delivery systems
• Develop automated vulnerability detection and patch creation workflows
• Build APIs and integrations to deliver certified packages
• Create tooling for patch quality assurance and testing
• Work with security researchers to understand and patch critical vulnerabilities
• Help shape the technical roadmap for expansion
• Give developers quick, safe remediation options for widely-used packages
• Help secure the software supply chain for millions of developers

What You'll Bring

Required:

• 3+ years of software engineering experience with production systems
• Strong proficiency in Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript
• Experience with package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm) and the JavaScript ecosystem
• Understanding of software security concepts and vulnerability management
• Experience building and scaling APIs and data processing pipelines
• Familiarity with automated testing, CI/CD, and deployment systems

Preferred:

• Experience with security tooling, vulnerability scanning, or patch management
• Knowledge of software supply chain security challenges
• Experience with other package ecosystems (Python, Go, Rust, etc.)
• Open source contributions or package maintenance experience
• Background in DevSecOps or security engineering
• Experience with high-throughput data processing systems

Our Interview Process

Informational with a