About the Company
Our client is an early-stage cybersecurity startup building foundational endpoint security technology for Windows, Linux, and macOS.Their work lives deep in the operating system: processes, memory, kernel boundaries, and attacker tradeoffs. We focus on real threats, real exploits, and defensive systems that must hold up against skilled adversaries — not academic exercises.
About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Low-Level Security Engineer – Team Manager (Linux) to lead development of our Linux endpoint security capabilities.
This is a hands-on leadership role combining deep technical ownership with team leadership. You will lead a team of engineers, define the technical direction for Linux, and personally contribute to core low-level components.
You will work at the intersection of systems programming, kernel-level engineering, vulnerability research, and security, while shaping architecture and influencing product strategy.
What You'll Do
- Lead the design and development of Linux-based endpoint security components
- Define architecture and technical direction for Linux platform support
- Drive engineering standards, secure coding practices, and performance optimization
- Own critical decisions around system design, scalability, and reliability
- Develop low-level components in modern C++ (C++17/20) and C when needed
- Work directly with Linux OS internals: processes, threads, memory, filesystems, IPC, networking
- Interact with kernel-level mechanisms and system interfaces
- Build security-sensitive code with strong focus on performance and stability
- Analyze real-world attack techniques, exploits, and vulnerabilities in Linux environments
- Design and implement exploit mitigations and hardening mechanisms
- Lead reverse engineering and low-level system analysis efforts
- Translate attacker techniques into prevention and detection strategies
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of low-level Linux engineers
- Conduct deep code reviews and provide technical guidance
- Support hiring and scaling of the team
- Work closely with detection, research, and product teams
- Align engineering execution with product and security strategy
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in low-level systems or security engineering
- Proven experience leading or mentoring engineers
- Strong expertise in C/C++ (systems-level, performance-critical environments)
- Deep understanding of Linux OS internals
- Strong background in multithreading, synchronization, and concurrency
- Experience with reverse engineering and low-level debugging
- Assembly-level understanding (x86, ARM, or similar)
- Strong understanding of vulnerabilities and exploit mitigations (ASLR, DEP, stack protections, sandboxing, etc.)
- Experience analyzing binaries and runtime behavior to identify security issues
Linux-Specific Expertise (Must Have) - Strong familiarity with Linux kernel architecture and user/kernel boundaries
- Experience with system interfaces such as: eBPF / BPF, ptrace, /proc and /sys, netfilter / iptables / nftables
- Understanding of Linux security modules (LSM) and mechanisms such as: SELinux / AppArmor, seccomp, namespaces & cgroups
- Experience working with system calls, signals, and low-level process control
- Debugging using tools like gdb, strace, perf
Leadership & Communication - Ability to lead technical direction while staying hands-on
- Strong decision-making and prioritization skills
- Ability to balance security, performance, and delivery timelines
- Clear communication and cross-team collaboration
Nice to Have
- Kernel development experience (drivers, modules, or kernel contributions)
- Vulnerability research, fuzzing, or exploit development
- Malware analysis / DFIR experience
- Experience with container security (Docker, Kubernetes runtime security)
- Experience with hypervisors or virtualization security
- Offensive security / penetration testing background
- Experience building EDR/XDR or endpoint agents
- Startup or early-stage company experience
