Staff Software Engineer

Who you are

• It's a great fit for someone who thrives in an agile, fast-paced environment and is excited to ship high-quality work that has a real impact on the cybersecurity landscape
• Technical Leadership: Owns the end-to-end technical vision for the workstream and rallies the team around it — from blank doc through shipping, iterating, and deprecating
• Software Engineering: Production code contributions at Lead/Staff level in a modern backend language (Go, Rust, Python, or similar) in a service-oriented environment
• Self-Motivation: The ability to work independently with minimal supervision, demonstrating initiative and a high level of energy
• Collaboration: Work closely with other cross-functional partners to build and improve our product portfolio
• Communication: Strong technical writing and documentation skills, with the ability to convey findings and methodologies to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Technical Design: Proficiency in designing, presenting, and evaluating technical solutions, ensuring high-quality software and secure development practices
• Sets and raises the technical bar (design reviews, code quality, operational discipline) by example rather than by mandate
• Mentors and enhances the engineers around them; Build the frameworks and architecture for others to do the best work of their careers
• Holds the team accountable to outcomes rather than activity; surfaces risks and tradeoffs early and in writing
• Translates ambiguous product goals into concrete technical roadmaps
• Partners closely with PM — comfortable in PRD reviews, not just sprint planning
• Sequences an MVP without painting the team into a corner
• Python: Expert-level proficiency in large-scale Python software development
• Network Security: Deep experience with network security topics such as reconnaissance and lateral movement
• Windows Experience: Proficiency with Active Directory, Windows authentication, and other windows internals
• Network Protocols: Strong understanding of network protocols such as SMB and WMI and their intricacies, including their role in exploitation vectors
• Database Experience: Experience with relational (Postgres) or graph (Neo4j) database systems
• Security Experience: Minimum of 4 years of experience in building offensive or defensive security solutions, ideally in endpoint, threat detection, or low-level systems
• Education: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field
• Equivalent experience may be considered if demonstrable through proof-of-concept write-ups, published vulnerability research, or similar achievements
• OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional), GCWN (GIAC Certified Windows Security Administrator) or equivalent certifications
• Previous experience in red teaming or penetration testing, incident response, detection engineering, deception technologies, or other deeply technical roles with relevant skill sets
• Previous experience working on large-scale software projects
• Experience administering, attacking, or defending cloud environments
• Knowledge of and experience with Docker and containerization technologies
• Familiarity with identity and directory services such as Active Directory, Entra ID, or Okta
• Familiarity with cloud authentication and authorization technologies such as Azure Service Principals or AWS IAM
• We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences, and we encourage all qualified individuals to apply

What the job involves

• We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Detection & Deception (DnD) Team to help build Horizon3’s deception capabilities.
• The team works across product, design, and engineering to deliver features such as Tripwires and Rapid Response
• This role will focus initially on evolving Tripwires — a threat detection and deception capability within the NodeZero platform that uses autonomous pentests to place decoys (honeytokens) along high-risk attack paths
• When an attacker interacts with a tripwire, the system generates an alert so defenders can investigate and respond
• As a Staff Software Engineer on the Tripwires team, you'll combine deep security domain expertise with hands-on full-stack development to design, prototype, and ship new security capabilities within NodeZero
• You'll partner with product managers and designers to identify high-impact opportunities, and work alongside product engineers to quickly turn those ideas into MVPs and production features
• Day-to-day work spans product research, threat-informed design, and feature development — with a particular focus on honeytoken and honeypot creation, deployment, and detection logic for Tripwires and adjacent products like Rapid Response
• By building these capabilities, you'll deepen customer engagement with our platform and deliver novel solutions that measurably improve their security posture
• We are a fully remote company, and this job may require up to 5% of travel to be successful

Benefits

• Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career advancement opportunities
• Innovation-Driven Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Flexible Work Environment: Enjoy the convenience and work-life balance that comes with remote work
• Inclusive and Diverse Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive