Senior Security Research Scientist

About Censys

Censys mission is to be the one place to understand everything on the internet. Frustrated by the lack of trustworthy Internet intelligence, they 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.

Location: This position is remote within the United States.

Role Summary

Security researchers have a strong technical background and excel at creative problem solving. You rely on your expertise to guide your approach to investigations, including generating your own research ideas. This role will help provide the engineering teams with the information needed to provide better coverage, derive deeper insights from our data, and help surface these improvements directly to our customers.

One week you might perform detailed analysis of hosts vulnerable to a particular CVE, and the next week you may be asked to investigate which endpoints we need to scan to improve classification of networking devices. You'll have the opportunity to hunt through the most robust internet-wide scan data available, documenting your findings to share with the broader security community through blogs and talks.

What You’ll Do

• Conduct Internet measurement research using Censys’ Internet-wide scan data; identify and analyze Internet-wide trends with a focus on findings with interesting security implications.
• Partner with Research and Product to deliver new security prototypes to customers as well as to guide where we should develop new products.
• Inspect, mine, transform, and analyze large datasets to identify patterns and trends to further support engineering efforts such as predictive modeling of scan targets, software and hardware identification, vulnerability detection, threat actor identification, and more.
• Work closely with multiple engineering teams to help inform technical decision making in regards to providing better coverage, context, and insights.
• Assist in data classification and dataset interrogation using techniques such as entity and identity resolution, cluster, data gap analysis, and others.
• As needed, serve as a public face for Censys by sharing knowledge and expertise around how Internet-wide security trends impact our customers across the public and private sectors, as well as the broader global security community
• Open to using AI to amplify their skills and strengthen their work - demonstrating curiosity, a willingness to learn, and sound judgment in applying AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact
• Other duties as assigned

What You Bring

• Thorough understanding of Internet protocols and technologies, not just how they’re used but how they work. This includes fundamentals such as TCP/IP, HTTP, TLS, etc.
• High proficiency in using analytical databases and warehouse such as Google BigQuery, Snowflake, etc. to interrogate large datasets.
• Ability to conceive, execute, and derive actionable insights from measurements that involve Internet-wide scanning and data collection by using infrastructure to conduct experiments.
• Have strong communication skills and can explain complex technical concepts to other engineers, designers, and product managers.

Bonus Points

• Familiarity and comfort working in a Linux based environment.
• Basic understanding of design and implementation of fault-tolerant distributed systems.
• Collaborate and communicate well with other engineers working on related systems.
• Enjoy technical architecture discussions and want to help drive technical decision making within the team.
• Continually improve skills, technical approaches, and familiarity with new technologies to help contribute to the success of the team.

Compensation & Benefits

For high cost of living areas (San Francisco Bay, New York City, and Seattle), the expected salary range for this position is $180,000 USD - $212,000 USD, plus bonus eligibility and equity.

For other US locations, the expected salary range for this position is $153,000 USD - $180,000 USD, plus bonus eligibility and equity.

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.

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. Censys’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future. Please see our careers page for more details.

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 facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates to keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired, we would love to bring you to our HQ in Ann Arbor 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.

Our roots are in Ann Arbor, Michigan and our innovation is fueled by the team’s global perspectives. For this role, we are open to remote employees across the continental US. 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.

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Key skills/competency

• Senior Security Research Scientist
• Internet Protocols
• TCP/IP
• HTTP
• TLS
• Data Analysis
• BigQuery
• Snowflake
• Vulnerability Detection
• Threat Intelligence