Principal Security ML Research Engineer

Elastic

8d • Remote

About The Position

As a Principal Security ML Research Engineer on the Threat Research and Detection Engineering team, you'll play a key role in enhancing the Elastic Security threat protections by developing advanced AI and machine learning solutions. In this position, you will address real-world cyber threats. You will use innovative ML detection techniques and effective workflows. You will also work with a diverse team that focuses on research and community involvement. If you’re a skilled professional ready to shape the future of security analytics, this role invites you to make a tangible impact in the field.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related field, or 5+ years designing and implementing security machine learning models
• Experience with vector search technology for data retrieval, Retrieval-Augmented Generation techniques, working knowledge of deep learning, clustering, and graph algorithms, and experience training models using scikit-learn, xgboost, PyTorch/Tensorflow
• Knowledge of behavioral anomaly detection in security telemetry and expertise in profiling threat actor behaviors using machine learning
• Ability to develop evaluation frameworks for ML model performance metrics and experience with benchmarking pipelines for testing accuracy and latency
• Experience developing industry-leading scalable machine learning models that significantly improved threat detection while ensuring minimal false-positive rates
• Published research in reputable security and machine learning journals or presented findings at major security conferences and workshops
• Proficiency in modern AI/ML frameworks and hands-on experience integrating LLM APIs into production applications
• You possess the ability to comfortably rotate across projects, collaborate across functions and teams, and seamlessly adapt to evolving team structures.
• Proven ability to seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or scrum teams based on dynamic business priorities.
• You work autonomously and can drive decisions and results in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Responsibilities

• Design innovative ML architectures that enhance threat detection and response capabilities.
• Prototype advanced AI agent workflows to streamline incident investigation processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define project specifications and ensure models are optimized for real-world performance and accuracy.
• Develop machine learning models aimed at detecting behavioral anomalies in security telemetry.
• Create techniques for profiling threat actors to better understand and predict their behaviors.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to refine security use cases, ensuring the applicability of ML models.
• Build evaluation frameworks to assess ML model performance metrics while developing benchmarking pipelines to test for accuracy and latency.
• Implement guardrails that minimize false-positive rates in detection systems.
• Measure the endurance of models against adversarial attacks and prompt injections, and conduct regular audits of model robustness to report findings to stakeholders.
• Mentor senior engineers in machine learning best practices and security methodologies to elevate the team's expertise.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management to ensure that security research aligns with product roadmaps.
• Foster well-developed relationships with engineering teams to guarantee the seamless implementation of machine learning solutions.
• Produce technical blogs that showcase your innovative findings in security machine learning.
• Author white papers that tackle emerging threats and detection strategies.
• Present insights at industry conferences to share advancements in security ML, and engage with the security research community to promote collaboration and information sharing.

Benefits

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles
• Generous number of vacation days each year
• Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love
• Embracing parenthood with minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal