Senior Security Engineer, Offensive Security
Datadog · New York, New York, USA · Security · listed April 30, 2026
The shape of it
Seniority
Senior
Experience asked
5+ years
Where
Hybrid
Stated pay
$195,000 – $240,000 USD
Requirements listed
6
Length
812 words
In the posting’s own words
Here at Datadog, we think about offensive security a little bit differently. We embrace automation and AI to run adversary simulations continuously across a massive cloud-native environment, and we expect our offensive engineers to build the tooling that makes that possible. We're looking for a Senior Security Engineer who can execute sophisticated red team operations, write the code that scales them, and take an AI-first approach to offensive security engineering.
What it asks for · 6
- You have 5+ years of hands-on experience in offensive security (red teaming, penetration testing, or adversary simulation) with a track record of operating against mature, well-defended environments
- You write production-quality code (Python, Go, or similar), can build your own tools, and automate your workflows rather than relying exclusively on off-the-shelf frameworks
- You have deep expertise in at least a two of the following areas: macOS security, Linux security, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, or CI/CD pipelines
- You have experience developing evasion techniques against modern defensive controls and understand how detections work from the blue team side
- You have strong communication skills, with the ability to convey complex offensive findings clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- You are comfortable operating with ambiguity, scoping your own work, identifying what matters most, and driving projects from prototype to deployed and validated
What the job covers
- Plan and execute red team engagements end-to-end, simulating real-world threat actors across cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and corporate environments
- Build and maintain custom offensive tooling, automation frameworks, and engagement infrastructure, treating offensive operations as a software engineering problem
- Develop custom payloads and evasion capabilities tailored to Datadog's environment and modern defensive controls (EDR, SIEM, network monitoring)
- Improve the efficiency of offensive operations through thoughtful use of automation and AI, accelerating reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, and reporting workflows
- Partner with the Detection & Response team on purple team exercises to validate detection logic, improve alert fidelity, and influence threat models
- Translate offensive findings into concrete improvements by working directly with defensive security and engineering teams to close gaps
Tools and skills named
Cloud & infra
- Datadog4×
- AWS2×
- CI/CD2×
- GCP2×
- Kubernetes2×
- Azure
- Linux
Security & compliance
- Security7×
- Penetration testing
Languages
- Go
- Python
Ways of working
- Testing
Words the posting leans on
- offensive9×
- security7×
- build4×
- automation3×
- detection3×
- engineering3×
- offensive security3×
- red3×
- adversary2×
- aws gcp2×
- ci/cd pipelines2×
- cloud2×
- code2×
- custom2×
- defensive controls2×
- engagement2×
Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.
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