Escape

Senior Software Engineer - Security / AI

New York, US Full-time

Location: Paris (75002) | Hybrid (2 days remote/week)

About Escape
Join Escape, a fast-growing leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. Our mission-driven engineering team (18 engineers, 4 technical leads, 3 product owners) is dedicated to redefining application security with cutting-edge detection and automation. Led by CEO Tristan Kalos and CTO Antoine Carossio, we operate at the forefront of technology and research from our Paris office.

About the Role
As the Lead Security Researcher, you will guide and mentor a team of 3 talented security researchers. You’ll set technical direction, champion innovation, and ensure research translates into impactful production solutions. This is a hands-on leadership role where your expertise will accelerate our AI-driven detection capabilities and make a tangible impact on the future of automated security.

What You'll Do

  • Agentic scanning systems: Build systems that autonomously explore applications, maintain context, and execute complex testing strategies.

  • Security detection engine : Design and implement reliable, production-grade vulnerability detection logic (injection, auth issues, business logic flaws, etc.).

  • AI-driven testing: Integrate LLMs and structured reasoning into scanning workflows to improve coverage and reduce false positives.

  • Distributed infrastructure: Work on systems that orchestrate thousands of concurrent scans (Kubernetes, queues, resource management).

  • Performance & reliability: Ensure scans are fast, deterministic, and cost-efficient despite high complexity and concurrency.

  • Core platform design: Contribute to architecture decisions around memory systems, execution environments, and data models.

Our Tech Stack & Focus

  • Languages: Python (primary), Go (performance/network components)

  • Runtime: Containerized workloads on Kubernetes (EKS), supporting long and resource-intensive scans

  • Scaling: Kubernetes Jobs & queue-driven autoscaling

  • Web Automation: Playwright + headless Chromium

  • Data: PostgreSQL, S3-compatible object storage, Redis (limited use)

  • Messaging: Kafka

  • Observability: OpenTelemetry, Grafana Cloud

  • CI/CD & Infra: GitLab CI, Terraform

Perks & Benefits

  • 💸 Significant equity (Stock Options/BSPCE) – become a core stakeholder in Escape’s journey

  • ❤️‍🩹 Top-tier health insurance with Alan

  • 🍕 Meal vouchers with Swile

  • 💪 EGYM Wellpass sport subscription

  • 📚 Continuous learning: budgets for books and online courses

  • 💻 Premium equipment to support your work

  • 🎁 Dedicated time for open-source projects

  • 🌍 Present research at top international conferences (RSAC, BlackHat, DEFCON, BSides, APIDays)

About You

  • 4+ years of experience in backend engineering, security research, or applied R&D in a product environment

  • Strong software engineering fundamentals and ability to work across domains (systems, networking, web architectures)

  • Proficient in at least one backend language (Python, Go, or similar)

  • Experience designing and shipping production systems with measurable impact

  • Ability to translate complex ideas or research into reliable, scalable implementations

  • Strong analytical mindset, with a focus on pragmatism and impact

  • Comfortable collaborating across engineering and security to deliver end-to-end solutions

Nice to have:

  • Experience in application security (web security, pentesting, bug bounty, etc.)

  • Exposure to AI/LLM-based systems

  • Familiarity with browser automation or large-scale distributed systems

Ready to lead the next wave of AI-powered vulnerability detection? Apply now to join Escape and make a real impact in cybersecurity!

🚀 Y Combinator Company Info

Y Combinator Batch: W23
Team Size: 29 employees
Industry: B2B Software and Services -> Security
Company Description: Offensive security for the teams that are 100x outnumbered

💰 Compensation

Salary Range: $70,000 - $100,000

📋 Job Details

Job Type: Full-time
Experience Level: 3+ years
Engineering Type: Backend

🛠️ Required Skills

Go Python