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A cybersecurity company that sells autonomous pentesting is building a research function aimed at 'super intelligence' and agentic AI systems, signaling that it is betting its core product direction on AI agents that attack networks on their own rather than on tools that merely assist human testers.
Get to Know Us
Horizon3 is a fast-growing, remote cybersecurity company dedicated to the mission of enabling organizations to proactively find, fix and verify exploitable attack vectors before criminals exploit them. Our flagship product, the NodeZeroTM platform, delivers production-safe autonomous pentests and other key assessment operations that scale across the largest internal, external, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. NodeZero has been adopted by organizations of all sizes, from small educational institutions to government agencies and Global 100 enterprises. It is used by IT Ops/SecOps teams, consulting pentesters, and MSSPs and MSPs.
We are a fusion of former U.S. Special Operations cyber operators, startup engineers & operators, and formerly frustrated cybersecurity practitioners. We're committed to helping solve our common security problems: ineffective security tools and false positives, resulting in alert fatigue, blind spots, "checkbox” security culture, cybersecurity skills shortage, and the long lead time and expense of hiring outside consultants. Collectively, we are a team of learn it alls, committed to a culture of respect, collaboration, ownership, and results.
An Overview
We're looking for an experienced Research Staff Member to join Horizon3 AI Research and lead research problems at the intersection of super intelligence, systems security, and agentic systems for security.
You'll identify and investigate technical problems that arise from real security environments and turn promising research directions into methods, prototypes, experiments, and systems that can influence Horizon3's technology. Depending on the project, this may include AI agents for security, autonomous pentesting, attack-path reasoning, cyber deception, AI safety and security, security evaluation of AI systems, or new methods for reasoning over security data and environments.
This is not a purely academic research role and it is not a conventional software engineering role. We are looking for someone who can move between research questions and working systems: define the problem, understand the relevant literature, develop a technical approach, build or guide implementation, design rigorous experiments, and determine what the results actually tell us.
You do not need to be an expert in every area of AI and systems security. You should bring substantial technical depth in at least one of these areas, strong computer science foundations, and the ability to develop expertise quickly in unfamiliar domains.
This role may be hired at the P3 (Career) or P4 (Senior) level based on experience, technical depth, independence, and demonstrated ability to lead complex research efforts.
What You’ll Do
Identify, formulate, and drive research problems at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and computer systems.
Translate real technical challenges from Horizon3's products, security environments, and research agenda into well-defined research questions.
Independently develop research directions, technical hypotheses, and experimental plans.
Design and lead rigorous experiments in controlled and representative environments, with careful attention to assumptions, baselines, failure modes, and limitations.
Build research prototypes and technical systems, or provide sufficient technical direction for others to implement and evaluate them.
Study and evaluate modern AI techniques, including large language models, agentic systems, reasoning methods, learning algorithms, planning, search, and related approaches when relevant to the research problem.
Reason over complex security data and environments, including attack paths, telemetry, graphs, configurations, identities, networks, cloud environments, and other heterogeneous system data.
Read and critically evaluate academic and technical literature, identify gaps and useful ideas, and determine where existing methods do or do not apply to Horizon3's problems.
Develop evaluation methodologies that measure whether a proposed research approach actually works in realistic security settings.
Work closely with attack engineers, security engineers, product teams, and other technical groups to understand operational constraints and evaluate research results.
Provide technical mentorship and research guidance to junior Research Staff Members and interns.
Help junior researchers refine research questions, evaluate technical approaches, interpret experimental results, and improve the quality of their work.
Provide technical continuity for Lab projects and help guide research efforts when the Lab lead is unavailable.
Communicate research findings clearly through technical reports, internal presentations, prototypes, and, when appropriate, academic publications or other external research outputs.
Help shape future research directions for Horizon3 AI Research based on technical findings, emerging research, and Horizon3's broader security challenges.
What You’ll Bring
Strong foundations in computer science, with the ability to reason deeply about algorithms, systems, software, and data.
Significant technical depth in systems security, super intelligence / machine learning, or a closely related area, along with the ability and motivation to work across AI and security.
Demonstrated ability to independently identify, structure, and solve complex technical problems.
Experience conducting research or advanced technical investigation where the answer was not known in advance and success required careful experimentation and analysis.
Strong programming and software engineering skills, with the ability to translate research ideas into working systems and prototypes.
Ability to design rigorous experiments and evaluation methodologies, analyze results critically, and recognize when evidence does or does not support a conclusion.
Ability to critically evaluate technical literature and quickly develop expertise in unfamiliar research areas.
Interest in both research and engineering. You may have greater depth in one, but you should be able to operate effectively across research questions, experiments, prototypes, and real systems.
Strong technical judgment, including the ability to reason about tradeoffs, assumptions, failure modes, risks, and unintended consequences.
Ability to provide constructive technical guidance and mentorship to junior researchers without requiring formal people-management responsibility.
Ability to work independently while collaborating closely with researchers, engineers, product teams, and other technical stakeholders.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical ideas clearly to different audiences.
A degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent technical experience.
What Sets You Apart
Deep experience in one or more areas of systems security, offensive security, defensive security, penetration testing, vulnerability research, operating systems, networks, distributed systems, cloud security, identity systems, or related fields.
Deep experience in one or more areas of machine learning, deep learning, large language models, AI agents, reinforcement learning, planning, search, graph reasoning, program analysis, or related AI and systems methods.
Experience leading or substantially contributing to research projects from initial problem formulation through implementation, evaluation, and communication of results.
Experience defining new research directions rather than only executing against an already-defined technical plan.
Experience building research systems that operate on realistic environments, real-world data, or production-adjacent infrastructure.
Experience designing experimental infrastructure, evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, or test environments for complex technical systems.
Familiarity with cybersecurity concepts such as attack paths, Active Directory, cloud environments, identity systems, security controls, adversarial techniques, and autonomous security systems.
Experience mentoring junior researchers, engineers, students, or interns.
Strong research publications, patents, conference presentations, open-source contributions, or other evidence of high-quality technical work. A strong publication record is valuable but is not required if the candidate can demonstrate comparable research and technical impact.
Experience transferring research ideas into production systems or working closely with engineering teams to do so.
Travel Required
We are a fully remote company, and this job may require up to 5% of travel to be successful.
Compensation and Values
At Horizon3, we believe that our people are our greatest asset, and our compensation philosophy reflects this core value. We are committed to fostering an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and rewarded for their contributions. Our compensation structure is designed to be fair, competitive, and transparent, ensuring that every team member is recognized and compensated equitably across roles, levels, and locations.
In accordance with various State’s transparency regulations, we provide the following salary range information for this position:
Base salary range: $174,191 - $249,230 annually. The exact salary will be determined based on the selected candidate’s location, qualifications, experience, and relevant skills.
Additional compensation: All full-time roles are eligible for an equity package in the form of stock options.
Perks of Horizon3
Inclusive Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.
Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career development opportunities.
Innovative Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Hybrid & Remote Work: We embrace a mix of remote and hybrid work models depending on role and location, including our Chicago office, where some roles require regular in-office presence.
Competitive Compensation: We offer competitive salary, equity and benefits. Our benefits include health, vision & dental insurance for you and your family, a flexible vacation policy, and generous parental leave.
You Belong Here
Horizon3 is not just an equal opportunity employer - we are a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion as fundamental principles of our culture and success. We are dedicated to fostering a workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, hair length or any other legally protected status by law.
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion means we strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that reflects the varied communities we serve. We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation and strengthen our ability to create cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. At Horizon3, every team member is valued and supported in an environment that encourages personal and professional growth.
We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences, and we encourage all qualified individuals to apply. Come be a part of Horizon3, where your unique contributions are recognized, and your potential is limitless.
Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Application Note
In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
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