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Cybersecurity Research Expert – Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research

MercorLegit · not rated yetPosted on 4 Aug 2026

Pay: $200–250/hr

Who can apply
Open worldwide
Hours
40 hrs/week · Part-time
Where
Remote, work from home
Job type
Expert (SME) review

At a glance: A part-time, remote expert (SME) review job with Mercor. It pays $200–250/hr for 40 hours a week. People in any country can apply.

  • Ongoing · listed since 4 Aug 2026

    Mercor keeps this listing open to recruit all year. It is still open, but it isn’t a new opening.

What happens after you click Apply

  1. You leave AI Trainer HQ and go to Mercor’s own site.
  2. Upload your résumé on work.mercor.com
  3. Confirm your work authorization
  4. Sit the AI interview, which takes about 20 minutes
  5. Complete any written assessment attached to the listing
  6. On receiving an offer, sign it, configure payouts and verify your identity

How this pay compares

This job pays more than 98% of the 205 other software engineering jobs on the board that state pay; 1% pay more.

This job
$225/hrMiddle of $200–250/hr
Median on Mercor
$80/hrFrom 295 other paid jobs
Median in software engineering
$65/hrFrom 205 other paid jobs
How we compare pay

Requirements

Qualifications
  • Professional experience in offensive security, application security, vulnerability research, product security, or security engineering
  • Experience with reverse engineering tools such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, Binary Ninja, or Radare2
  • Familiarity with fuzzing, symbolic execution, static analysis, or dynamic analysis frameworks
  • Experience with Linux internals, Windows internals, browser security, cloud security, embedded security, or mobile security
  • Strong programming skills in C/C++, Rust, Python, Go, or Java
  • Excellent written communication and ability to explain complex security concepts clearly
Languages
  • English
Equipment
  • Computer with a reliable internet connection

About this job

We're looking for highly accomplished Cybersecurity Research Experts to help evaluate cutting-edge AI systems in advanced security reasoning, vulnerability analysis, exploit development, and secure software engineering. This project is ideal for practitioners with a strong track record in offensive security research and publicly recognised technical contributions.

What You'll Do

• Evaluate AI-generated analyses of complex cybersecurity scenarios, exploits, and vulnerability reports.

• Review technical writeups for correctness, exploitability, and mitigation quality.

• Validate vulnerability root-cause analysis across software, operating systems, networking, cloud, and web applications.

• Provide structured feedback on security reasoning, exploit chains, and defensive recommendations.

• Contribute to benchmark development for advanced AI security capabilities.

Ideal Background

We are looking for candidates with multiple of the following credentials:

• Member of a top-ranked Capture The Flag (CTF) team with demonstrated competitive achievements.

• Discoverer or co-author of CVEs affecting widely used open-source or commercial software.

• Publicly recognised bug bounty researcher with findings accepted by major programs (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, GitHub, Mozilla, Chromium, Kubernetes, Linux Foundation, etc.).

• Research experience at a well-respected security laboratory or academic research group (e.g., KAIST Security Lab, SSLab, university security research groups, or equivalent industry research organisations).

• Author of high-quality security research publications, conference papers, or widely cited technical writeups.

• Strong understanding of exploit development, reverse engineering, binary analysis, vulnerability research, operating systems, networks, web security, or cryptography.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional experience in offensive security, application security, vulnerability research, product security, or security engineering.

• Experience with reverse engineering tools such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, Binary Ninja, or Radare2.

• Familiarity with fuzzing, symbolic execution, static analysis, or dynamic analysis frameworks.

• Experience with Linux internals, Windows internals, browser security, cloud security, embedded security, or mobile security.

• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Rust, Python, Go, or Java.

• Excellent written communication and ability to explain complex security concepts clearly.

Nice to Have

• Hall of Fame recognition from major bug bounty programs.

• Black Hat, DEF CON, USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, NDSS, or similar conference presentations/publications.

• Maintainer or significant contributor to well-known open-source security tools.

• Offensive Security certifications (OSCP, OSEP, OSCE3), GIAC certifications, or equivalent credentials.

Why Join?

• Work on frontier AI models tackling real-world cybersecurity problems.

• Collaborate with leading researchers on advanced security evaluation tasks.

Listing history

First seen on our board
(9 days ago)
Posted by Mercor
Last checked
Source
Mercor

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