Senior Security Research Engineer

Job description

Are you passionate about technology and enjoy explaining complex solutions in a way that everybody gets excited? If so, read on! **About Picus** Picus Security, the leading exposure validation company, proves what attackers can exploit and what your defenses stop, then closes real gaps with ready-to-deploy fixes and revalidates to confirm at the machine speed that today’s AI threats demand. The Picus Platform spans Picus Autonomous Penetration Testing, Picus Breach and Attack Simulation, and Picus Exposure Validation, unified by Picus Swarm, a swarm of AI agents that runs the whole validation loop continuously with human oversight. With 75+ integrations, it reaches across on-prem, hybrid cloud, and endpoint environments. Trusted by many Fortune 500 enterprises, Picus was named a 2025 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Adversarial Exposure Validation and is recognized as an Innovation Leader in the Frost Radar for Automated Security Validation. **About Role** We're looking for a **Senior Security Research Engineer** to go deep on real-world threats and turn that research into high-impact technical content, **including research papers, offensive and defensive security reports, whitepapers, blogs**, solution and integration briefs, battlecards, webinars, demos, and conference presentations that showcase Picus's technical depth and competitive differentiation in exposure validation. It's a role that builds two things at once: your own name in the security community through published research and hands-on work, and Picus's growth as that content shapes how the market understands the category. Our research is regularly picked up and cited by the wider community, from major news organizations like Reuters, the Associated Press, and Forbes, to specialist security outlets including Dark Reading, BleepingComputer, Infosecurity Magazine, SCWorld, and Help Net Security, as well as community platforms like Hacker News. Our work has also been referenced by industry authorities such as MITRE ATT&CK and Gartner, and cited in high-impact academic journals. You'll have the opportunity to take your work on stage at industry conferences such as Black Hat and GovWare, and at local meetups and user groups. You'll be constantly challenged to develop your knowledge and skills in cybersecurity and share what you learn with the world, doing meaningful research for a fast-growing cybersecurity company. Are you a SOC analyst, security consultant, threat hunter, security engineer, or red/blue/purple team member looking to transition into a more research- and publication-focused role? Do you blog or contribute to the security community, speaking at conferences or user groups? Then this role is for you. This position is based in our Ankara office and follows a hybrid work model. ### What You’ll Do - Continuously research emerging threats, malware, threat actors, and vulnerability exploitation campaigns, translating your findings into timely, authoritative content, - Produce high-impact technical content, including research papers, offensive and defensive security reports, whitepapers, blogs, solution and integration briefs, battlecards, webinars, demos, and conference presentations, that demonstrates Picus’ technical depth and competitive differentiation, - Partner with Picus Labs, Product, and Engineering to translate new product capabilities into clear, compelling technical narratives that explain how they work, the problems they solve, and what sets Picus apart, - Stay ahead of market developments by monitoring analyst perspectives, category leaders, emerging product categories, and the competitive landscape. Turn these insights into differentiated content that strengthens Picus’ positioning, supports competitive conversations, and influences buyer decisions, - Drive discoverability across search and AI answer engines through SEO and AEO, optimizing technical content to generate organic inbound traffic and build long-term topical authority in the exposure validation market, - Map content across the full buyer journey, from top-of-funnel awareness to bottom-of-funnel decision-making, ensuring it not only educates but also engages prospects, supports evaluation, and drives conversion, - Collaborate closely with Growth, Threat Research, Red and Blue Teams, and Alliances to transform research, technical findings, and integrations into launch, campaign, and public-facing content that reaches and resonates with the market. ### What You Have - 5+ years of experience in offensive and/or defensive cybersecurity utilizing knowledge of the security/threat landscape, - **A portfolio of published technical content or projects (blogs, papers, talks, or research),** - Ability to translate complex technical concepts for different audiences, from practitioners to executives, - Strong proficiency in written and verbal English, - Technical expertise in penetration testing and pentest automation tooling, vulnerability management, and exposure or security control validation, and hands-on familiarity with blue-team tooling (SIEM, EDR/XDR, and similar detection and response platforms), - Autonomous/agentic security validation: interest or early hands-on research (emerging area; exploration counts as much as production experience), - Hands-on experience in adversarial techniques, - Scripting and agentic automation skills (Python, n8n, or comparable agent/workflow tooling), - Strong knowledge of modern security problems, - Community contribution to cybersecurity knowledge, - Presentations at industry events, - Cybersecurity-related certifications (OSCP, CISSP, CCSP, GPEN, GSEC, BTL1 & BTL2, or similar.), - Understanding of SEO/AEO principles and full-funnel content strategy.