Principal Threat Hunter

Principal Threat Hunter (Remote, US)Location: Remote, United States Team: Product & Engineering Employment Type: Full-Time, RemoteAbout VulnCheckExploitation prevention is only as strong as the intelligence driving those efforts, and most of the industry is still running on intelligence that lacks exploit context. VulnCheck, The Exploit Intelligence Company, delivers structured exploit intelligence on what is actively weaponized in the wild, purpose-built for the data lakes, ETL pipelines, automation, and AI and LLM workflows your infrastructure already runs on, raising the capability of everything it powers.About the RoleVulnCheck is hiring a Principal Threat Hunter to discover, investigate, and document real-world exploitation and attacker infrastructure, and turn those discoveries into durable improvements to VulnCheck's detection capabilities.VulnCheck operates infrastructure across the internet that gives us a direct view into attacker activity. Canary Intelligence deploys intentionally vulnerable systems and captures real exploitation attempts, giving researchers a steady stream of attacker binaries, source infrastructure, payloads, and exploitation techniques. Target Intelligence maintains a continuously updated view of internet-facing systems, including their exposure to known vulnerabilities and their relationships to scanners, proxies, C2 infrastructure, and other attack infrastructure.Together, these datasets provide a foundation for research that is difficult to replicate elsewhere. You can observe exploitation as it happens rather than infer it from secondary telemetry, analyze what attackers deploy after gaining access, and pivot from an attacking host into the broader infrastructure behind it.The role spans the full research process. You will hunt for interesting activity, investigate what you find, develop methods and detections to identify similar activity at scale, and turn those investigations into original threat intelligence. You will help build the tooling and detections needed to support your research and improve VulnCheck's ability to identify meaningful attacker activity.You will be the first full-time threat hunter at VulnCheck, so there is no existing threat hunting pipeline or playbook to inherit. You will have substantial latitude to define areas of research and help establish how VulnCheck approaches threat hunting as the function grows.This role is fully remote and open to candidates based anywhere in the United States.What You'll DoHunt for emerging exploitation activity, attacker infrastructure, and novel attacker behavior across VulnCheck's dataTurn discoveries from threat hunting into durable improvements to VulnCheck's detection capabilities, including new rules, queries, tooling, and automationInvestigate exploitation attempts, attacker payloads, binaries, infrastructure, and post-exploitation activityBuild tooling and automation to support threat hunting and large-scale analysisPivot across vulnerabilities, hosts, IPs, domains, payloads, and other infrastructure to uncover relationships and broader activityTurn research findings into actionable threat intelligence for VulnCheck customersWrite customer-facing threat intelligence reports and technical blog posts that clearly explain what you found and why it mattersPresent research at conferences and other industry eventsWork with vulnerability researchers and other members of the VulnCheck research team to connect observed exploitation with vulnerability intelligenceHelp shape the direction, methodology, and capabilities of VulnCheck's threat hunting function as it growsUse VulnCheck's data and products as an expert customer, identify gaps in our ability to detect or investigate attacker activity, and help drive improvements to close those gapsWhat You'll BringA demonstrated track record of communicating technical security research through public writing, threat intelligence reports, blogs, presentations, or other published workExperience hunting for threats, analyzing attacker activity, conducting threat intelligence research, or performing closely related security researchThe ability to read and analyze PCAPs and reason about network traffic and protocolsDemonstrated experience developing and tuning detections, including Suricata and/or Snort rules, and translating research findings into repeatable detection capabilitiesExperience writing Nuclei templates or other scanners to identify vulnerabilities, exposed services, or attacker infrastructureStrong programming or scripting ability, with comfort reading and writing code in multiple languages and picking up unfamiliar languages when the research requires itExperience working with Linux systems, networking, and internet-facing infrastructureThe ability to analyze malware, payloads, scripts, and other artifacts encountered during an investigationExperience working with large datasets and developing queries or tooling to find meaningful activity within themThe ability to pivot across technical data sources and follow an investigation from an initial indicator to a broader set of infrastructure or activityThe curiosity and independence to identify interesting research questions and pursue them without a predefined playbookPreferred QualificationsA substantial body of published security research, particularly work that has had an impact on the security communityExperience researching exploitation campaigns, malware families, attacker infrastructure, or vulnerability exploitation in the wildExperience working across multiple areas of security research, such as vulnerability research, reverse engineering, malware analysis, threat intelligence, or detection engineeringExperience leading threat intelligence or security research initiatives, including establishing research direction, methodologies, or operational processesWhat We OfferWe believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted, and valued. VulnCheck offers benefits designed to meet a wide range of needs and lifestyles:Benefits and PerksUnlimited PTO401k planComprehensive healthcare coverageGenerous paid parental leaveRemote friendly environment with flexibilityExpense reimbursement for Cell Phone & InternetOngoing professional development, coaching, and learning resourcesOpportunities for career advancement within a fast-growing teamWhy Join UsBuilt on over two decades of cybersecurity experience, our team of experts understands the intricacies of vulnerabilities, their exploitation in the wild, and how to leverage this data to build more effective cybersecurity products that produce better outcomes for organizations.VulnCheck gives organizations a tactical advantage by providing best-in-class exploit & vulnerability intelligence information. We have a sense of duty to protect the critical infrastructure we rely on including medical devices, power grids and telecommunication networks. We were founded in 2021 in Lexington, Massachusetts.VulnCheck has a transparent, collaborative, and supportive culture — we are looking for people who have a growth mindset, are curious and innovative. Our team is smart, but humble, hardworking, and supportive.VulnCheck is proud to be an Equal Employer Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. VulnCheck is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. Even if your experience doesn't perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply — we value potential just as much as a perfect resume.