Autonomous Vulnerability Research (Harness Engineering) Lead

Who you are

• Experience leading engineering, security research, offensive security, or platform engineering teams
• Experience building AI-powered security tooling, agentic systems, or autonomous testing platforms
• Strong understanding of AI systems, LLMs, agentic architectures, and AI evaluation techniques
• Deep knowledge of vulnerability research, penetration testing, application security, or exploit development
• Experience building software platforms, automation frameworks, or large-scale security tooling
• Strong software engineering skills (Python, Go, Rust, Java, or similar)
• Expertise in cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, APIs, and platform engineering
• Experience translating modern research into production-ready capabilities
• Consistent track record of building new teams and capabilities from inception and deliver measurable outcomes
• Excellent partner management and influencing skills
• Experience contributing to vulnerability research, security tooling, or open-source projects
• Cyber security related qualifications or trainings
• MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related discipline
• Knowledge of AI red teaming, LLM security testing, or adversarial machine learning
• Experience operating within highly regulated environments such as financial services

What the job involves

• We're establishing a new Autonomous Vulnerability Research (Harness Engineering) Team with a strong mission: to build the Group's agentic vulnerability research platform, enabling AI-powered vulnerability discovery, exploit validation, risk prioritisation, and remediation verification at unprecedented scale and speed
• This team will sit at the intersection of offensive security, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and security research. By employing frontier AI models, autonomous agents, testing frameworks, and sophisticated security tooling, the team will create a continuously evolving capability that accelerates vulnerability research, strengthens defensive resilience, and enables the Group to remain ahead of rapidly changing threat landscapes
• As the Autonomous Vulnerability Research (Harness Engineering) Lead, you will define the vision, recruit and grow a multidisciplinary engineering team, and own the development of the Group's AI-powered vulnerability research platform. You will shape how offensive security is delivered in the future by combining autonomous systems with human guidance to create a scalable, resilient, and continually improving security capability
• Build and own the Autonomous Vulnerability Research (Harness Engineering) Team, defining strategy, operating model, standards, and roadmap
• Design and deliver LBG's agentic vulnerability research harness and supporting platform services
• Develop autonomous workflows for vulnerability discovery, validation, prioritisation, remediation recommendation, and remediation verification
• Integrate frontier AI models, security tooling, and engineering workflows into a scalable research platform
• Establish evaluation, observability, governance, and safety controls to ensure credible outcomes
• Partner with Offensive Security, AI Security, Engineering, and Architecture teams to operationalise research and accelerate remediation
• Drive innovation in AI-assisted vulnerability research and ensure the capability remains aligned to emerging industry practices

The application process

• End Date: August 14, 2026

Benefits

• Flex cash: This is 4% of your basic salary and can be used to spend on the benefits of your choice, or you can choose to take it as a cash top up in your monthly salary.
• A generous holiday allowance: You’ll be eligible for a minimum of 22 days holiday (excluding bank holidays), rising to 30 days based on length of service and grade.
• A flexible way of working: Whether you want flexibility over your location or when you log on, together we can create an approach that works for you and for the business.
• Family leave: Up to 63 weeks of maternity or adoption leave. Statutory maternity or adoption pay is available for 39 weeks, and 20 weeks will be enhanced to the equivalent of full pay. Partners can have six weeks of fully paid paternity leave.
• Health insurance: Our company funded Private Medical Benefit provides all colleagues with access to good quality medical care, including accommodation, nursing care and specialist advice.
• Colleague Offers: Get discounts on everything from electrical items to cinema tickets and weekly food shopping. You can share this benefit with up to ten family members or friends.
• Financial products: Take advantage of our great financial products, some at a discounted rate, including current accounts, home and car insurance and loans.
• Share plans: Participate in Sharematch and receive matching shares of up to £45 a month from the company, and you can choose to participate in Sharesave, our combined savings and share option plan.
• Pension: We offer a generous pension plan, with all joiners being automatically enrolled in our 'Your Tomorrow' scheme. You can decide how much you save and get a say in where your contributions are invested.