Security Research Engineer

Who We Are:

We’re in business to secure the modern world. Operant’s unique technology solves several of the biggest problems in modern cybersecurity - protecting applications across every layer of the cloud native stack from infra to APIs, and data to AI. We are passionate about bringing state of the art technological innovations from Operating Systems/Distributed Systems/AI to the world of cloud native security, and building a product that is ready to take on the rising complexity and massive scale of today’s cloud native applications. Having already been named as a vendor in Gartner’s market guide for API Protection and Kubernetes Runtime Security as well as Forrester’s Zero Trust landscape all in the first half of 2024, the sky's the limit for leading this growing market.

Who We Are Looking For:

As our first Security Research Engineer hire, we are seeking someone to build out Operant’s cloud native threat research efforts that uncover key security problems within modern application stacks including AI application stacks. If you are excited by the idea of being an early engineer at a startup that is poised to lead the next wave of cloud application security products, we would love to hear from you.

‍Responsibilities:

• Develop experiments and PoCs that uncover and demonstrate key security problems in cloud native environments and how to fix them
• Document research findings and communicate with the broader team
• Actively contribute to open source projects within Operant such as Secops-Chaos which is a tool built by Operant to apply chaos engineering principles to cloud-native security
• Partner with product and engineering teams to influence future product roadmap with key security research findings 
• Share and advocate research in technical blogs, conferences, and forums
• Review and contribute to security best practices within Operant’s product
• Build and lead a security research team at Operant over time 
• Function independently while being able to make choices in the presence of unknowns
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Operant’s founding team and other engineering leaders
• Take active interest in understanding real customer pain points while doing technical research

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in a security research or engineering role performing hands-on work as part of a fast paced engineering org 
• 2+ years of leadership experience building teams in the cloud native security space
• Experience with Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Azure, networking layers L3-L7+ required
• Experience with C++, Webassembly, Golang is preferred
• Expert level knowledge of Operating Systems /Network Security fundamentals
• Experience contributing to open source community projects in the cloud native space is preferred
• Excellent communication and writing skills with the ability to distill deeply technical things in an easy to understand form
• BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering with a focus on Cybersecurity, or similar equivalent industry experience is preferred

Bonus Points:

• Awareness of ML/LLM/AI application stacks

Work Hours & Location:

• Operant is a remote-first company and welcomes qualified applicants from across the US and Canada.
• This position will require you to be available during core PST business hours (9am-5pm) and to adjust schedules occasionally based on customer and business needs including business travel, client meeting/call schedules, and team off-sites.

What you can expect from us:

Operant is an equal opportunity workplace where you will find an open and supportive environment to share your thoughts and ideas, while enabling you to springboard your career in a high-growth, high-energy startup.

‍Benefits:

• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Life insurance
• 401k
• Paid holidays
• Generous PTO
• Stock options