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
- You leave AI Trainer HQ and go to Mercor’s own site.
- Upload your résumé on work.mercor.com
- Confirm your work authorization
- Sit the AI interview, which takes about 20 minutes
- Complete any written assessment attached to the listing
- 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
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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