Offensive Security Researcher, Senior

Salesforce•San Francisco, CA

3d•$148,500 - $246,000

About The Position

Salesforce is seeking a Senior Offensive Security Researcher with an attacker mindset to discover, analyze, and remediate security vulnerabilities across its products and platforms. The role focuses on identifying root causes, architectural weaknesses, and recurring security anti-patterns, then driving secure-by-default solutions to prevent vulnerabilities. The researcher partners with and influences engineering teams on design decisions, security posture, and application security maturity.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in Application Security or Offensive Security, with an attacker mindset.
Demonstrated experience independently finding and remediating vulnerabilities in complex applications.
Deep understanding of web application security, including OWASP Top 10 and beyond; authentication and authorization flaws; API security; injection attacks; logic flaws; access control bypasses; secure design; and threat modeling.
Hands-on experience with manual security testing beyond automated tools.
Ability to translate complex security findings into clear, actionable guidance for engineers and technical leadership.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, with a track record of influencing engineering teams.

Nice To Haves

Published security research or CVEs, such as technical blogs, advisories, whitepapers, or conference presentations.
Experience implementing platform-level or framework-level security improvements.
Background in vulnerability discovery, security research, or red teaming.
Experience implementing Secure by Default or security-by-design concepts.
Familiarity with cloud-native architectures, microservices, and distributed systems.
Ability to balance security requirements with product velocity and developer experience.

Responsibilities

Lead offensive security assessments, including manual testing, code review, architectural analysis, and threat modeling, across application ecosystems.
Identify critical, high-impact, and systemic vulnerabilities as well as isolated issues.
Conduct security research into emerging attack vectors, abuse cases, and bypass techniques relevant to applications and platforms.
Partner with software engineers, tech leads, and architects to explain risk, impact, and exploitability; design and implement effective remediations; and ensure fixes are scalable, maintainable, and suited to engineering realities.
Lead Secure by Default initiatives by applying security guardrails, patterns, and baseline controls; remediating insecure defaults and unsafe configurations; and preventing vulnerabilities through platform- and framework-level updates.
Influence application and platform designs early in the development lifecycle to prevent vulnerabilities before release.
Set and apply security standards, best practices, and architectural guidance during application development.
Mentor engineers and peers by sharing security knowledge and offensive techniques.
Collaborate with detection, monitoring, and incident response teams to improve visibility into real-world exploitation.