Senior Attack Engineer, Internal Systems

Get to Know Us Horizon3.ai 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 seeking a Senior Attack Engineer who blends deep software engineering expertise with a passion for cybersecurity. In this role, you’ll independently lead complex internal network and Active Directory attack projects in NodeZero, our autonomous pentesting platform. Internal enterprise networks and Active Directory remain key targets in modern breaches, and it is exactly where our customers most need NodeZero to find and safely prove exploitable attack paths. The environments we operate in are hardening fast, while tradecraft continues to evolve across network protocols, identity systems, management planes, and hybrid environments. We need someone who can research and weaponize real-world vulnerabilities and misconfigurations into reliable product capabilities. You'll design and build production-grade systems that drive the offensive capabilities of the NodeZero platform. You'll own complex attack capabilities from research and technical design through production delivery and ongoing operation, making consequential technical decisions within the internal network scope. You'll also strengthen the team through proactive mentorship, thoughtful code reviews, and improvements to our engineering and research practices. This is not consulting or manual pentesting. The goal is to turn cutting-edge, often manual techniques into safe, reliable, repeatable autonomous attacks that scale across the largest internal environments in the world. If you love both breaking internal network infrastructure and building scalable software to automate it, this is the seat. What You’ll Do - Research and develop novel attack capabilities for integration into the NodeZero platform, focusing on autonomous red teaming, internal network breach techniques, and offensive security automation. - Research emerging internal tradecraft (network protocol exploitation, Active Directory abuse, management-plane attacks, delegation, credential access, and hybrid identity pivots) and turn it into production attack content. - Design, build, and maintain production-grade Python systems, making clear tradeoffs between attack effectiveness, operational safety, reliability, scalability, and maintainability. - Acquire, configure, and exploit modern, hardened internal test environments to validate and demonstrate complex attack scenarios. - Monitor public vulnerability databases and threat intelligence sources to stay current on emerging threats and incorporate them into internal network attack modules. - Extend and maintain platform architecture and graph data models for new identity, privilege-escalation, and lateral-movement paths. - Help shape the team's coverage priorities using customer needs, threat intelligence, and emerging techniques; scope deliverable projects and proactively raise risks and tradeoffs. - Mentor teammates and improve team processes, code quality, architectural standards, and research safety practices. - Partner cross-functionally with engineers, product managers, and customer-facing teams to resolve issues, enhance features, author technical documentation, and drive customer value. What You’ll Bring - Deep, hands-on offensive security experience against internal enterprise networks and Active Directory, from initial foothold through domain and enterprise compromise. - Expert-level proficiency in Python for large-scale development and a track record of shipping and maintaining tested, documented, production-quality code. - Strong command of internal network attack techniques, including network protocol exploitation, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and credential access. - Experience with object-oriented design, API integration, data structures, and building scalable system components in fast-paced product environments. - Experience designing complex software components or systems, accounting for extensibility, operational safety, performance, and long-term maintenance, and explaining the reasoning behind architectural decisions. - A track record of independently leading complex, high-impact technical projects with significant risk, making sound decisions under ambiguity, and identifying business implications and delivery risks before they become critical issues. - Strong written and verbal communication, including clear technical documentation and the ability to explain design choices, risks, and tradeoffs to engineers and non-technical stakeholders. - Demonstrated investment in teammates' growth through proactive mentorship, architectural feedback, and code reviews, along with experience improving team processes, tooling, or technical standards. - Offensive security and software engineering background with a strong passion for turning security research into safe, maintainable product capabilities. What Sets You Apart - OSCP (or OSEP, CRTO, or equivalent offensive certifications). - Experience researching and implementing attacks against SCCM, Windows Admin Center, and other modern Windows management-plane attack surfaces. - Familiarity with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and working with relational (Postgres) and graph (Neo4j) databases. - Experience developing or contributing to offensive tooling like BloodHound, Impacket, netexec, etc. - Hands-on experience with graph databases (Neo4j) and attack-path analysis, including extending models to represent new identity and privilege relationships. - Experience integrating security research into production, multi-tenant SaaS, with attention to testing, reliability, and customer safety. - Public contributions to the field: open-source tools, technical blog posts, conference talks, or published CVEs. - Experience building production-safe autonomous or automated offensive tooling, including applying AI/LLM technologies to enhance attack workflows. Travel Required We are a fully remote company, and this job may require up to 10% 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: $206,278 - $242,680. 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 http://Horizon3.ai - 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.