Principal Penetration Tester

Compensation

Base salary: 250,000 USD

Target total compensation: up to 500,000 USD

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Overview

ProDefense is hiring a Principal Penetration Tester to lead our most complex offensive security work. You will work directly with leadership and senior penetration testing and security experts. This role is for someone who can own engagements end to end, go deep technically, and help set the bar for how we test.

What you will do

• Lead advanced penetration tests across web apps, APIs, cloud, and infrastructure
• Find and exploit high impact issues, including multi step attack chains
• Do hands on security research and occasional exploit development
• Build and improve internal tooling and automation
• Mentor other testers and help drive technical standards
• Communicate results clearly to technical teams and leadership at clients

What we are looking for

• 10+ years in penetration testing or offensive security
• Strong web and API testing skills, plus real cloud experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong scripting and tooling ability (Python required, Go or Rust a plus)
• Comfortable leading projects, scoping work, and driving outcomes
• Excellent reporting and communication

Certifications and extras

• OSCP required
• OSEP, OSED, OSCE, CRTO, or similar is a plus
• Public research, tools, writeups, or talks are a plus

Profit sharing, how TC reaches 500,000 USD

• Base salary: 250,000 USD
• Quarterly profit share: you receive a fixed percentage of quarterly company profit, plus an additional performance multiplier tied to impact (delivery quality, client outcomes, research, tooling)
• Principal roles are weighted highest in the profit share pool
• Target total comp (base plus profit share) is up to 500,000 USD, with upside tied to company performance