Principal Security Researcher

About the Position

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.

We are seeking a Principal Security Researcher to join our Application Security Team to conduct cutting-edge security research on GitLab's AI-powered DevSecOps capabilities. As GitLab transforms software development through intelligent collaboration between developers and specialized AI agents, we need security researchers who can proactively identify and validate vulnerabilities before they impact our platform or customers.

In this role, you'll be at the forefront of security research, working with our GitLab DevSecOps platform, Duo Agent Platform, GitLab Duo Chat, and AI workflows that represent the future of human/AI collaborative development. You'll develop novel testing methodologies (including for AI agent security), conduct hands-on penetration testing, and translate emerging threats into actionable security improvements. Your research will directly influence how we build and secure the next generation of AI-powered DevSecOps tools, ensuring GitLab remains the most secure software factory platform on the market.

This position offers the unique opportunity to shape security and AI security practices in one of the world's largest DevSecOps platforms, working with engineering teams who are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI-assisted software development. You'll have access to cutting-edge AI systems and the freedom to explore creative attack scenarios while contributing to the security of millions of developers worldwide.

This role reports to the Senior Manager of Application Security.

Responsibilities

• Conduct and lead security research projects across multiple functional areas.
• Identify novel, systemic, and chained vulnerabilities in GitLab, where individual weaknesses combine for outsized impact.
• Validate security vulnerabilities through hands-on testing, developing proof-of-concept exploits that demonstrate real-world attack scenarios.
• Assess emerging industry vulnerability classes against the GitLab codebase, and drive remediation of the class rather than the instance.
• Lead security research into GitLab's AI and agentic surfaces, and define the security requirements that engineering teams build against.
• Build and direct the tooling and automation that scales security research, including agent-assisted vulnerability discovery across our codebase.
• Research the security posture of open source tools and dependencies integrated with GitLab, report findings to their maintainers, and track mitigation following our responsible disclosure guidelines.
• Solve technical problems of the highest scope, complexity, and ambiguity.
• Help shape the team and sub-department roadmap.
• Lead the integration of security research results into the engineering and business functions that need to act on them.
• Teach, mentor, and advise other domain experts and individual contributors across several teams.
• Share knowledge and novel vulnerability types with the security community.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in security research, penetration testing, or offensive security roles
• Strong ability in discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in large codebase and complex systems
• Proficiency in two or more of Ruby, Go, Python, TypeScript, or Rust.
• Ability to read and analyze code across multiple languages and codebases
• Strong knowledge of AI frameworks
• Strong understanding of AI attack vectors including prompt injection, agent manipulation, and workflow exploitation
• At ease in establishing and driving complex remediation initiatives involving cross-functional teams
• Excellent written communication skills with an ability to articulate complex topics in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to translate complex technical findings into clear risk assessments and remediation recommendations
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with creative thinking about attack scenarios

Nice to Have

• Published security research or conference presentations
• Background in software engineering with distributed systems expertise
• Experience with GitLab or similar DevSecOps platforms

We Offer

• Competitive salary range: $203,200 - $275,000 USD
• Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental Leave

About the Company

GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.