---
title: 'Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI at HackerOne'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-hackerone-seattle-qgbjq8v6x5a4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI at HackerOne

- **Company:** HackerOne
- **Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Compensation:** $230k–$280k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-02-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hackerone/ba577aad-d2c1-4467-9a97-14ddcc11759b/application

**Skills:** Large Language Models (LLMs), Generative AI, Machine Learning Frameworks, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Transformers, AI Platform Engineering, Model Deployment, MLOps Pipelines, Model Serving Infrastructure, AI Safety Principles, Agentic Systems, ReAct, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, Agent Action Routing, Prompt Engineering, Fine-tuning, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Cloud-based AI/ML Services

> Architect and build intelligent security agents and AI-driven vulnerability discovery tools for HackerOne's platform. The role involves integrating agentic AI frameworks, developing RAG systems, and establishing evaluation metrics to enhance security automation and resilience.

## Job description

HackerOne is a global leader in Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). The HackerOne Platform unites agentic AI solutions with the ingenuity of the world’s largest community of security researchers to continuously discover, validate, prioritize, and remediate exposures across code, cloud, and AI systems. Through solutions like bug bounty, vulnerability disclosure, agentic pentesting, AI red teaming, and code security, HackerOne delivers measurable, continuous reduction of cyber risk for enterprises. Industry leaders, including Anthropic, [Crypto.com](http://Crypto.com), General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Lufthansa, Uber, UK Ministry of Defence, and the U.S. Department of Defense, trust HackerOne to safeguard their digital ecosystems. HackerOne was recognized in Gartner’s Emerging Tech Impact Radar: AI Cybersecurity Ecosystem report for its leadership in AI Security Testing and has been named a Most Loved Workplace for Young Professionals (2024).

HackerOne is at a pivotal inflection point in the security industry. Offensive security is no longer optional – it is the standard for forward-thinking companies that want to build trust and resilience in a world where AI-driven innovation and adversaries are moving faster than ever. With the industry shifting, HackerOne stands apart: we combine the ingenuity of the largest security research community with a best-in-class AI-powered platform, trusted by the world’s top organizations.

HackerOne Values HackerOne is dedicated to fostering a strong and inclusive culture. HackerOne is Customer Obsessed and prioritizes customer outcomes in our decisions and actions. We Default to Disclosure by operating with transparency and integrity, ensuring trust and accountability. Employees, researchers, customers, and partners Win Together by fostering empowerment, inclusion, respect, and accountability.

Staff Software Applied AI Engineer

Location: Seattle, WA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Washington, DC 1 day onsite per week

Position Summary At HackerOne, we’re advancing a new era of AI-powered offensive security. As a Staff AI Engineer, you’ll help shape the evolution of our autonomous HAI platform, driving the integration of advanced AI and agentic frameworks into HackerOne’s products. You will build intelligent security agents that reason, act, and learn — helping security teams identify, validate, and remediate vulnerabilities faster than ever. This is a high-impact technical role, reporting to the VP, AI Engineering, where you will architect the systems and frameworks that power the next generation of AI-driven vulnerability discovery. At HackerOne, we embrace a Flexible Work approach that gives us the freedom to do our best work while also fostering the connections and community that make us stronger. Reflecting this philosophy, this is a role targeted for candidates within ~50 miles of Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; Washington, DC; or Austin, TX. We believe this balance of proximity and flexibility gives Hackeronies the chance to occasionally come together – fostering collaboration, connection, and in-person moments that enrich our culture – while still preserving the benefits of remote work. Must be able and willing to come to the office once per week on Thursdays.

## What You Will Do

Success in the Staff AI Engineer role will be accomplished by delivering on the responsibilities below in alignment with the Talent Principles that define how we work at HackerOne.

- Architect and enhance our autonomous security agent “Hai,” building intelligent systems capable of natural-language reasoning, vulnerability detection, and actionable recommendations, all grounded in an AI-First mindset.
- Build components and services that integrate agentic AI design patterns—such as orchestration, memory systems, RAG, long-horizon tasks, and LLM-based models—into the HackerOne platform, applying an AI-First approach to improve vulnerability detection and security automation.
- Partner across Product, Security Research, and Engineering to introduce AI capabilities into the broader HackerOne ecosystem. As the company evolves rapidly, bring clarity and stability to shifting requirements by demonstrating strong Change Agility.
- Design and implement AI red-teaming agents and frameworks that proactively surface weaknesses in LLMs, generative-AI systems, and applied AI deployments, using First Principles Problem Solving to break problems down and build durable, foundational solutions.
- Establish meaningful metrics, observability, evaluation frameworks, and continuous feedback loops to improve model performance, safety, and user impact—ensuring decisions are grounded in Data-Driven Decision Making.
- Stay current with emerging AI safety research, adversarial-testing techniques, and agentic-system patterns, and integrate those learnings into HackerOne’s responsible-AI strategy with adaptability and a growth-oriented Change Agility mindset.
- Build APIs and integrations that enable seamless interaction between AI models, security tools, and the broader HackerOne platform, ensuring security, scalability, and interoperability across systems.

## Minimum Qualifications

- 8+ years of experience as a software engineer, including deep experience building and maintaining production-grade AI platforms and infrastructure.
- Must be able and willing to come to the office once per week (typically Thursdays).
- Proven expertise in large language models (LLMs), generative AI, and machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Transformers in production environments.
- Strong hands-on experience in AI platform engineering, including model deployment, MLOps pipelines, model serving infrastructure, and shared AI services architecture.
- Experience building systems that support multiple AI product teams and applications, enabling scalable experimentation and deployment.
- Solid understanding of AI safety and alignment principles, including responsible AI development, bias mitigation, and ethical AI practices.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience building AI development platforms, model registries, experimentation frameworks, and tools that accelerate AI innovation across organizations.
- Familiarity with ReAct, AutoGen, or Semantic Kernel for agentic orchestration and multi-agent collaboration.
- Experience in agent action routing, secure tool usage APIs, and feedback loops for autonomous agents.
- Knowledge of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and advanced LLM optimization strategies.
- Experience with cloud-based AI/ML services (AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, Azure ML) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) for AI workloads.
- Familiarity with Ruby on Rails, GraphQL, and React, and experience integrating AI capabilities into production web applications and APIs.

Compensation Bands: Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; Washington, DC; or Austin, TX $230K – $280K • Offers Equity

## #LI-HM1

Job Benefits:

- Health (medical, vision, dental), life, and disability insurance*
- Equity stock options
- Retirement plans
- Paid public holidays and unlimited PTO
- Paid maternity and parental leave
- Leaves of absence (including caregiver leave and leave under CO's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act)
- Employee Assistance Program

*Eligibility may differ by country We're committed to building a global team! For certain roles outside the United States, India, the U.K., and the Netherlands, we partner with [Remote.com](https://remote.com/preemployment-faq) as our Employer of Record (EOR).

Visa/work permit sponsorship is not available.

Employment at HackerOne is contingent on a background check.

HackerOne is an Equal Opportunity Employer in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, pregnancy, disability or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by international, federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all HackerOne employment practices, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. HackerOne makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

For US based roles only: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, all qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for the position.

## About HackerOne

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: HackerOne provides a unified platform that combines AI and human insight to help organizations identify, manage, and remediate security vulnerabilities through bug bounty, pentesting, and vulnerability disclosure programs.
- **Entity Type**: Private
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (with hubs in eight global locations)
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Founders**: Michiel Prins, Jobert Abma, Alex Rice, Merlijn Boogaard

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Cybersecurity (Vulnerability Management, Bug Bounty, Penetration Testing)
- Target customers: B2B serving Global 2000 companies, technology firms, government agencies, and open-source projects across all industries
- Mission or purpose statement: To empower the world to build a safer internet by making world-class security accessible to everyone [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/company)

## Products & Services
- **HackerOne Platform**: A unified SaaS platform that integrates bug bounty programs, vulnerability disclosure programs (VDPs), and penetration testing services. It leverages a global community of ethical hackers alongside AI-driven vulnerability detection.
- **Bug Bounty Programs**: Organizations pay rewards ("bounties") to ethical hackers for discovering and reporting security vulnerabilities. HackerOne manages the triage, validation, and remediation workflow.
- **Pentest as a Service (PTaaS)**: On-demand, managed penetration testing delivered by HackerOne's internal security experts, providing continuous testing beyond traditional point-in-time assessments.
- **Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP)**: A managed service for setting up a secure channel for external researchers to report security issues, reducing risk from unknown vulnerabilities.
- **HackerOne AI**: Proprietary AI tools and models that analyze vulnerability reports, reduce false positives (25% of findings are actionable), and accelerate remediation workflows [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/company).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Approximately $2.9 billion (as of July 2025, based on secondary market reports; not officially confirmed)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding - Over $160 million raised from notable venture capital firms.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Valor Equity Partners, EQT Partners, Benchmark, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Dragoneer Investment Group, and others. Strategic partnerships include the "Internet Bug Bounty" (IBB) for core internet infrastructure [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/company).
- **Growth Signals**: Over 90% of customers trust HackerOne; 1,300+ companies use the platform; 600,000+ bugs have been discovered; the company reported a 210% increase in vulnerability reports in 2025, and has published millions in AI vulnerability reports [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/company).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Global Hacker Community**: The world's largest community of elite ethical hackers providing unmatched scale and diversity of testing perspectives.
- **Unified Platform + AI**: The only platform that unifies bug bounty, VDP, and PTaaS with proprietary AI, creating a "high signal, low noise" environment (25% of findings are actionable).
- **Deep Integration with Customers**: Offers $4M+ ROI per critical vulnerability before a breach occurs, making it a high-value, sticky platform for enterprise security teams.
- **Founding Member of IBB**: Unique credibility and access to securing core internet infrastructure and open source projects [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/company).

## Strategic Focus
- **AI-Powered Security**: Continuing to invest in AI that enhances vulnerability detection, triage, and remediation, while also using AI to generate new attack simulations.
- **Expanding Enterprise Adoption**: Growing its customer base among Global 2000 companies with PTaaS and managed services.
- **Community Growth and Engagement**: Deepening relationships with ethical hackers through events, training, and increased bounty opportunities.
- **Open Source & Infrastructure Security**: Maintaining its leadership role in securing critical internet infrastructure through the IBB and other community initiatives.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Culture**: Employees ("Hackeronies") are united by a mission to build a safer internet. The company explicitly seeks candidates who are passionate about this mission [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/careers).
- **Flexible Work Philosophy**: HackerOne embraces a "Flexible Work" model with hubs in eight global locations, emphasizing collaboration and community while providing flexibility to perform at one's best [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/careers).
- **Core Values**: The company operates on three core values: Lead with integrity, Default to disclosure (transparency builds trust), and Execute with excellence [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/careers).
- **Diversity, Equity & Inclusion**: HackerOne is committed to creating an inclusive culture where diverse teams increase creativity, belonging, and performance. They have Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to foster community.
- **Comprehensive Benefits**: Includes generous paid time off, parental leave (maternity, paternity, family caregiver), medical coverage, retirement plans, and compensation packages linked to long-term company success [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/careers).
- **Compensation Philosophy**: Pay is based on internal equity and local market data to remain competitive, with a system focused on job duties, experience, location, and tenure [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/careers).
- **Onboarding (HATCH) Program**: New hires join a cohort-based onboarding program that covers culture, product, and tools like "Working Genius" to help employees thrive [hackerone.com](https://www.hackerone.com/blog/recruitment-process-what-expect-when-you-apply-hackerone).

## Sources
1. [HackerOne About Us Page](https://www.hackerone.com/company)
2. [HackerOne Careers Page](https://www.hackerone.com/careers)
3. [HackerOne Recruitment Process Blog](https://www.hackerone.com/blog/recruitment-process-what-expect-when-you-apply-hackerone)
4. [HackerOne LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hackerone)
5. [HackerOne Job Board](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hackerone)

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