Senior Security Research Engineer

Elastic

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Canada
Salary: $128,300–$203,000 / yr
Posted: 14 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday

Market check

Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $180k

This role $166k

$117k most similar roles pay here $231k

This role pays less than 58% of similar roles. Most pay $151,493–$208,800 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $166k versus about $180k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Elastic

Elastic is the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash). It sells search, observability, and security products built on that search engine, primarily through its Elastic Cloud managed service.

Elastic currently has 240 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $133,100–$210,600 across 91 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Senior Security Research Engineer

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Senior Security Research Engineer joins the Security Endpoint Protections team to research, design, and build visibility and prevention capabilities for Elastic Defend. You will investigate emerging attacker techniques—including in-memory threats, injection, credential theft, ransomware, and kernel tampering—to develop robust protections against evolving risks. Daily responsibilities involve building and extending endpoint visibility across Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms while writing performant C, C++, and Python code for millions of endpoints. You will reverse engineer malware, study evasion tactics, and ensure feature efficacy by reviewing fleet-scale telemetry to mitigate false positives. The role requires deep operating system internals knowledge, advanced reverse engineering skills, and an adversarial instinct to anticipate bypasses. You will also mentor junior engineers, lead technical direction, and contribute to the company’s research through publications and conference presentations in the security domain.

Skills

C C++ Python Windows Linux macOS Reverse Engineering Malware Analysis SIEM Elasticsearch Kibana Machine Learning Vulnerability Research Exploit Development Red Teaming Open Source Security Research

What you'll do

Research emerging attacker techniques and translate them into shipped security protections.
Build and extend endpoint visibility by instrumenting new event sources across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Develop performant, stable C/C++ code for production use on millions of endpoints.
Reverse engineer malware to identify and mitigate evasion tactics used by attackers.
Monitor customer telemetry at scale to investigate false positives and performance regressions.
Ensure feature parity across different operating systems and hardware architectures.
Lead technical direction, conduct design reviews, and mentor junior engineers.
Publish research on Elastic Security Labs and present findings at industry conferences.

What we're looking for

6+ years of professional experience analyzing attacker TTPs and building detection methods for real security threats.
6+ years of development experience in C, C++, and Python for security-critical codebases.
Deep knowledge of operating system internals in both kernel and user mode, specifically for Windows.
In-depth reverse engineering and malware analysis experience with a proficiency in relevant tooling.
Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug systems, and optimize code.
Ability to work autonomously and communicate effectively within a distributed team.
Experience with vulnerability research, exploit development, or red teaming is preferred.
Familiarity with the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana) and Elastic Security is preferred.

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