Lead Security Research Engineer

About the Role

Join a collaborative environment where innovation powers some of the most critical security missions globally. As a Lead Security Research Engineer, you will spearhead vulnerability research, exploit examination, exposure verification, and signature development for Qualys’ security platform. Your leadership will prioritize genuine security risks by distinguishing theoretical vulnerabilities from those with confirmed exploits, thereby enhancing customer protection.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead research efforts targeting vulnerabilities in operating systems, databases, enterprise software, cloud services, container platforms, and network devices.
• Investigate newly announced, widely known (N-day), and actively exploited security flaws.
• Develop exposure validation techniques based on exploit simulations to verify vulnerability exploitability in practical contexts.
• Review designs, research methodologies, and code contributions to maintain high quality and consistency standards.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Product teams to shape product roadmaps and security content strategies.
• Implement controlled validation mechanisms to emulate attacker actions without impacting production environments.
• Analyze root causes of vulnerabilities, attack paths, exploit conditions, and possible impacts on business.
• Mentor and guide security research engineers in vulnerability and exploit analysis, and signature crafting.
• Create validation logic to assess effectiveness of security controls such as WAFs, firewalls, EDRs, IPS, and compensating measures against exploitation.
• Lead automation efforts for research, validation, content generation, testing, and deployment processes.
• Define and enforce best practices, coding standards, and quality metrics for signature development.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent practical experience.
• Over 8 years of direct experience in vulnerability research, penetration testing, detection engineering, or related security research fields.
• Comprehensive knowledge of network protocols including TCP/IP, HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, SSL/TLS, and contemporary web standards.
• Expertise in vulnerability analysis, exploit development, and attack methodologies.
• Strong familiarity with operating systems, databases, cloud infrastructures, web technologies, and enterprise environments.
• Proficient programming skills.
• Experience in packet analysis, network troubleshooting, and reverse engineering of protocols.
• In-depth understanding of common threat actor tactics, OWASP Top 10, and prevalent attack techniques.
• Excellent communication skills across written, verbal, and technical domains.
• Proven ability to lead projects and mentor technical teams effectively.

Additional Preferred Skills

• Knowledge of Lua scripting (preferred), Bash, or Python.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, Oracle, etc.
• Competency in crafting and using regular expressions.
• Experience with containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience with vulnerability scanners, intrusion detection systems, and other security tools.
• Certifications such as OSCP, CISSP, or SANS GIAC are advantageous.