Sr. Software Engineer - Cobalt Strike

Fortra•US-MINNESOTA, MN

20d•$120,000 - $165,000

About The Position

Cobalt Strike is Fortra’s adversary simulation and red team operations platform, used by security teams to emulate advanced threat actor behaviors in controlled, authorized environments. The product helps organizations strengthen security operations and incident response by enabling realistic attack simulation, post-exploitation tradecraft, and collaborative red team engagements. We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join the Cobalt Strike engineering team. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on building and maintaining systems-level capabilities in a complex security product. You should be comfortable writing C, working in an existing Java codebase, and reasoning about low-level Windows behavior. You do not need to have a red team background, but you should be curious about how operating systems, security controls, and adversary techniques work under the hood.

Requirements

Strong professional experience developing in C.
Experience with Java, or the ability and willingness to work effectively in an existing Java codebase.
Working knowledge of low-level operating system internals, especially Windows, with familiarity in Linux and/or macOS internals considered a plus.
Experience designing, maintaining, and debugging complex production software.
Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with keen attention to detail.
Ability to work independently on complex technical problems while communicating clearly with the team.
Experience using Git and participating in code reviews in a collaborative engineering environment.
A practical approach to software quality, including testing, documentation, maintainability, and secure coding practices.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
High ethical standards and sound judgment, especially when working with offensive security technology.

Nice To Haves

Experience with offensive security, red teaming, penetration testing, threat emulation, reverse engineering, malware analysis, endpoint security, or related security disciplines.
Experience with Windows debugging or analysis tools such as WinDbg, Visual Studio Debugger, Process Monitor, Process Explorer, x64dbg, or similar tools.
Experience with Python, scripting, build automation, compiler toolchains, or low-level debugging workflows.
Experience applying AI/ML tools, including LLMs or coding agents, to improve software engineering workflows such as code analysis, debugging, testing, documentation, or developer productivity.
Experience with compiler toolchains such as MinGW/LLVM, with a strong understanding of how compilation, linking, optimization, and binary generation work under the hood.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, test, and maintain core Cobalt Strike functionality across native and Java-based components.
Write high-quality C code for cross-platform capabilities, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, where reliability, maintainability, performance, and correctness matter.
Work with Java-based components of the product, including feature development, maintenance, debugging, and integration of work.
Debug complex issues across native code, Java code, Windows behavior, and customer environments.
Collaborate with engineers, product managers, security researchers, QA, support, and other teams to design practical, maintainable solutions.
Translate product ideas, customer needs, and security research into well-engineered product capabilities.
Participate in design discussions, code reviews, testing, documentation, and Agile planning.
Help improve engineering practices, internal tooling, build processes, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
Serve as a technical resource for areas where you have deep expertise.