Senior Security Research Engineer - Elastic

About the Role

Elastic is looking for a Senior Security Research Engineer to join the Endpoint Protections team. You will research, design, and build visibility and prevention capabilities for Elastic Defend, our core endpoint and SIEM security solution. You will collaborate with a global, diverse team of researchers, data scientists, and engineers to secure users against emerging threats.

What You Will Be Doing

• Research & Protection: Analyze real-world attacker tradecraft (in-memory threats, injection, ransomware, kernel tampering) and develop robust protections.
• Visibility: Instrument new event sources across Windows, macOS, and Linux to deepen telemetry.
• Development: Write performant, stable C/C++ code for millions of endpoints.
• Reverse Engineering: Study malware and evasion techniques to harden security controls.
• Efficacy Ownership: Investigate customer telemetry, false positives, and performance regressions at scale.
• Leadership: Mentor junior engineers, lead technical initiatives, and contribute to Elastic Security Labs and open-source projects.

What You Bring

• 6+ years of professional experience in security research, threat analysis, and detection engineering.
• 6+ years of development experience in C, C++, and Python.
• Deep knowledge of OS internals (Windows preferred, with macOS/Linux experience).
• Strong reverse engineering and malware analysis skills.
• An adversarial mindset with the ability to anticipate evasion techniques.
• Experience using AI to accelerate development and debug complex systems.
• Ability to work autonomously in a distributed, asynchronous team environment.

Bonus Points

• Vulnerability research, exploit development, or red teaming experience.
• Kernel-mode development and driver debugging.
• History of open-source security tool maintenance.
• Conference speaking experience (Black Hat, DEF CON, etc.).
• Experience applying machine learning to endpoint security.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary with stock program eligibility.
• Company-matched RRSP (up to 6%).
• Flexible work locations and schedules.
• Generous vacation policy and parental leave (min 16 weeks).
• Volunteer time off and donation matching program.
• Comprehensive health coverage.