Senior Security Researcher

Company Background

Censys’ mission is to be the one place to understand everything on the internet. Frustrated by the lack of trustworthy Internet intelligence, we set out to create the industry’s most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date map of the Internet. Today, Censys delivers real-time Internet intelligence and actionable threat insights to global governments, over 50% of the Fortune 500, and leading threat intelligence providers worldwide.

As a Principal Security Researcher, you’ll have the opportunity to work at the intersection of large-scale internet measurement, advanced threat research, and real-world cybersecurity events. Our research doesn't just advance academic knowledge—it’s leveraged to directly protect enterprise customers and support critical national security initiatives. You'll collaborate with world-class researchers, engineers, and product teams while having the freedom to pursue ambitious research projects that push the boundaries of what's possible in cybersecurity. With our strong partnerships across government and commercial sectors, your work will have immediate real-world application and visibility at the highest levels of the security community.

We're looking for a Security Researcher with deep, hands-on offensive security experience — penetration testing, red teaming, adversary emulation, CNO — to join our Research team, known as ARC. This is a role that generates original, attacker's-eye insight and turns it into both product capability and public research.You'll work at the intersection of three things: how real attackers operate, what that means for how Censys should scan, fingerprint, and characterize the Internet, and how to communicate that to both engineering teams and the broader security community.

This position is located remotely with no expectation to work from a Censys office.  This position is also expected to travel once per quarter for industry events and team onsites. 

 

What you’ll do:

• Drive product capability. Bring an offensive practitioner's perspective to Censys's scanning, fingerprinting, and attack surface data. Identify gaps in detection logic, protocol coverage, and vulnerability signals that only someone who has actually broken into networks would notice.
• Conduct original research. Investigate emerging attack techniques, exploitation trends, C2 infrastructure, and adversary tradecraft using Internet-wide scan data and your own testing methodology.
• Publish seminal work. Produce research reports, technical blog posts, and conference-caliber material (DEF CON, Black Hat, BSides, etc.) that establishes Censys as an authoritative voice in offensive security.
• Collaborate cross-functionally. Partner with Engineering and Product to translate research findings into new scanning modules, fingerprints, risk indicators, and detection features.
• Lead agentic AI threat research. Build, deploy, and evaluate agentic AI frameworks — autonomous penetration testing agents, LLM-powered vulnerability research tools, multi-agent swarms — both as tradecraft research (i.e., “how do attackers use these tools”) and as Censys product capability (i.e., “how do we detect that adversaries are using them”). Where AI-assisted vulnerability discovery shows promise, determine what Censys’ scanning and fingerprinting posture should be for the signals those tools leave behind.
• Track adversary infrastructure. Use red team and pentest tradecraft knowledge to identify how threat actors stand up, configure, and hide infrastructure — and encode that knowledge into repeatable detection logic.
• Mentor and inform. Act as an internal subject-matter expert on offensive techniques, helping other researchers and engineers reason about attacker behavior.
• Demonstrates curiosity, a willingness to learn, and sound judgment in applying AI 

Skills and experience you’ll have: 

• 5+ years of hands-on penetration testing, red teaming, or adversary emulation experience against enterprise, cloud, or Internet-facing environments.
• Demonstrated ability to independently identify and characterize vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or exploitation techniques.
• Strong understanding of network protocols, service fingerprinting, and Internet-scale scanning concepts (or a fast ability to pick them up).
• Hands-on experience with agentic systems for offensive security. You have built, evaluated, or operated LLM-powered attack agents using autonomous pentest frameworks such as: HackSynth, RedTeamLLM, CAI, PentAG, and successors; AI-assisted vulnerability research pipelines, or multi-agent adversary emulation tooling. You also have demonstrated understanding of the failure modes of this agentic tooling
• Proficiency in scripting or coding (Python, Go, or similar) to build tooling, automate testing, or analyze large datasets.
• Familiarity with red team frameworks and tradecraft (C2 frameworks, initial access techniques, living-off-the-land methods, evasion).
• Comfort working with large-scale Internet scan data or a strong interest in learning to do so.

 

Preferred skills/experience:

• Relevant certifications (OSCP, OSCE, OSEP, GXPN, or equivalent demonstrated skill).
• Experience with IoT, OT/ICS, or embedded device security research.
• Prior work as a researcher at a security vendor.
• Evidence of research/tooling contributions to the agentic offensive space (e.g., benchmarks, PoCs, AI-assisted vulnerability discoveries) and demonstrated agentic AI red teaming work (e.g., Microsoft's PyRIT, the Cloud Security Alliance's Agentic AI Red Teaming Guide, or equivalent tooling and methodology)
• A track record of public research output — CVEs, conference talks, technical blog posts, or tool releases — that shows you can communicate findings clearly to a technical audience.
• Familiarity with compliance-adjacent security testing (e.g., how pentest findings map to SOC 2, ISO 27001, or CMMC control requirements) is a plus, though not the core focus of this role.

You'll have access to a dataset that most researchers only dream about — a continuously updated map of the entire Internet's exposed attack surface — and the mandate to turn what you find into both product impact and public research that shapes how the industry thinks about offensive security.

 

For high cost of living areas in the US (San Francisco / Seattle / NYC), the expected salary range for this position is $220,000 USD - $278,000 USD, plus bonus eligibility and equity.

For all other locations in the US, the expected salary range for this position is $202,000 USD - $254,000 USD, plus bonus eligibility and equity. 

For candidates being considered outside of the US, location specific market data will be evaluated and discussed during the interview process. 

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 83% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

For US Employees: Censys offers a competitive benefits package to employees, including equity, health, dental & vision coverage, retirement with company contribution, parental leave, mental health & wellness benefits, flexible PTO, and a professional development stipend. Censys also offers sales incentive pay for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. Please see our careers page for more details. For employees located outside of the US, location-specific benefits are available and will the information pertaining to those will be provided to you during the interview process.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to your recruiter. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and in attempt to facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates to keep their cameras on during video interviews. You may also be required to meet a Censys employee at one point during your process. Additionally, if hired, you will be invited to visit Ann Arbor, Michigan for in-person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with our Censys Privacy Policy.

We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Censys is an equal opportunity employer. 

Note to external recruiters/agencies: We are not currently engaging with third-party agencies for this role and will not accept unsolicited outreach. We kindly ask that you do not submit resumes or candidate profiles to our team.

California Privacy Rights Notice

Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), we are providing you with notice that we collect personal information from job applicants for business purposes, including evaluating your candidacy for employment, conducting interviews, and, if applicable, completing the hiring process. The categories of information we may collect include identifiers (such as name and contact information), professional or employment-related information (such as work history, education, and references), and other information you provide in your application. We do not sell or share your personal information. For more information on how we use and protect your personal information, and your rights under the CCPA, please refer to our Privacy Policy.