Principal Security ML Research Engineer

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.

What is The Role:

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.

What You Will Be Doing:

• 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.

What You Bring:

• 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.

Additional Information - We Take Care of Our People:

As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. Your age is only a number. It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; we need you for what you can do.

We strive to have parity of benefits across regions, and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.

• 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 a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave

Security & Privacy Responsibilities: Take ownership of protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of organizational data and systems by following applicable privacy and security policies, standards, and procedures. Ensure that all individual contributions follow Elastic’s Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF). Proactively participate in mandatory role-based training to ensure personal technical execution consistently aligns with the highest standards of data protection, data privacy, and system resilience.

Different people approach problems differently. We need that. Elastic is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation.

We welcome individuals with disabilities and strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all individuals. To request an accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email [email protected]. We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws and can view the following posters linked below:

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Poster

Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Poster

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