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Adversarial Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

NextDeavor Inc.

WAF Adversarial Engineer

Seattle, WA · On-site

$56.34 - $70.42/hr

WAF Adversarial Engineer Full-time Seattle, WA, US You'll be joining Adobe on a contract opportunity, employed through NextDeavor Benefits You'll Love NextDeavor offers health, vision and dental ...

Nrel

Adversarial Cybersecurity Researcher

Golden, CO · Hybrid

Posting Title Adversarial Cybersecurity Researcher . Location CO - Golden . Position Type Regular ... Spanning foundational science to applied systems engineering and analysis, we focus on solving ...

Finastra

Sr. Adversarial AI Security Engineer

Atlanta, GA · On-site +1

$110K - $151K/yr

This role will design and deliver realistic adversarial cyberattacks, including the AI enabled/Orchestrated attacks, that will test the effectiveness of the security stack as well as the company ...

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Adversarial Engineer information

What engineers make $500,000?

Senior engineers in specialized fields such as software engineering, data engineering, or cybersecurity can earn $500,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills, and in high-demand industries. Roles like machine learning engineers, cloud architects, and adversarial engineers with expertise in security and AI are among those reaching this compensation level, often including bonuses and stock options.

Which 3 jobs will survive AI?

Adversarial engineers, who develop and defend AI systems against malicious attacks, are likely to continue being in demand as AI security becomes more critical. Roles involving complex problem-solving, creativity, and human oversight—such as AI ethics specialists and cybersecurity analysts—are also expected to persist due to the need for human judgment and expertise. These jobs require specialized skills and ongoing learning to adapt to evolving AI technologies.

What is the highest paid cyber security job?

The highest paid cybersecurity roles often include Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Security Director, or Security Architect, with CISOs typically earning the highest salaries due to their strategic and leadership responsibilities. These positions require extensive experience, advanced certifications like CISSP, and a strong understanding of security frameworks, often commanding six-figure or higher compensation. Salary levels vary by industry and location but are generally among the top in cybersecurity careers.

What is the difference between Adversarial Engineer vs Penetration Tester?

AspectAdversarial EngineerPenetration Tester
CredentialsSecurity certifications (e.g., OSCP, CEH), strong coding skillsSecurity certifications (e.g., OSCP, CEH), ethical hacking skills
Work EnvironmentDevelops attack simulations, tests defenses, often in R&D or security teamsPerforms authorized security assessments, often in consulting or internal security teams
Industry UsageUsed in cybersecurity, product security, and threat simulationCommon in cybersecurity, vulnerability assessment, and compliance testing

While both roles focus on security testing, an Adversarial Engineer develops sophisticated attack strategies to identify vulnerabilities proactively, often working on threat simulation and defense development. A Penetration Tester conducts authorized security assessments to find vulnerabilities, typically in a more tactical and testing-focused capacity. Both roles require similar certifications and skills but differ in scope and objectives.

What are Adversarial Engineers?

Adversarial Engineers are professionals who specialize in testing and improving the security and robustness of machine learning models and AI systems by simulating attacks and identifying vulnerabilities. Their work often involves crafting adversarial examples—inputs designed to deceive AI systems—and developing defenses against such attacks. Adversarial Engineers play a critical role in ensuring that AI technologies can withstand malicious manipulation and function safely in real-world environments.

What engineers make $300,000 a year?

Senior engineers in specialized fields such as software engineering, data science, or cybersecurity can earn $300,000 or more annually, especially with experience, advanced skills, and in high-demand industries. Roles like machine learning engineers, cloud architects, and adversarial engineers often reach or exceed this salary level, particularly in competitive markets or with additional bonuses and stock options.

What are some common challenges Adversarial Engineers face when testing machine learning systems?

Adversarial Engineers often encounter challenges such as staying ahead of evolving attack techniques, understanding the intricacies of different machine learning models, and designing realistic threat scenarios. They must balance creating effective adversarial examples with ensuring those tests reflect real-world risks. Additionally, collaboration with data scientists and security teams is essential to integrate findings into model improvements and broader security strategies.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as an Adversarial Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as an Adversarial Engineer, you need a deep understanding of cybersecurity principles, machine learning, and programming languages such as Python, often supported by a degree in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with penetration testing tools, adversarial attack frameworks, and certifications like OSCP or CEH is commonly required. Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication skills help professionals excel in identifying vulnerabilities and collaborating with cross-functional teams. These competencies are critical to proactively defending systems and improving the robustness of AI models against evolving threats.
Infographic showing various Adversarial Engineer job openings in the United States as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 97% Full Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution.
WAF Adversarial Engineer

WAF Adversarial Engineer

NextDeavor Inc.

Seattle, WA • On-site

$56.34 - $70.42/hr

Contractor

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement

Posted 11 days ago

Job description

WAF Adversarial Engineer
Full-time
Seattle, WA, US

You’ll be joining Adobe on a contract opportunity, employed through NextDeavor

Benefits You'll Love

NextDeavor offers health, vision and dental benefits for contract employees Paid sick leave eligibility is contingent on state of residence Optional 401k Plan (excludes employer match) Opportunity to get your foot in the door at a well-established corporation, with potential for extended or permanent full-time employment

Become a Key Player as a WAF Adversarial Engineer

You will validate and harden the client's web application firewall (WAF) program by running continuous adversarial testing and translating offensive findings into actionable rule candidates. Your work will influence edge security, incident response, and rule-deployment cadence across the security and engineering teams. This role is hybrid/remote with Seattle preferred and open to remote candidates.

Here's How You'll Make an Impact on the Team
  • Run adversarial test campaigns against the client's WAF stack after each rule update cycle, targeting encoding evasion, HTTP parsing differentials, request smuggling, and other edge-layer weaknesses.
  • Build and maintain a versioned WAF bypass library organized by vulnerability class (e.g., SQLi, XSS, SSRF, path traversal, SSTI) and validate against staging and production WAF configurations.
  • Conduct adversarial testing of API endpoints behind the WAF (business logic abuse, BOLA/BFLA, mass assignment, parameter manipulation) and document which attack classes the WAF can and cannot reliably cover.
  • Triage complex false positives by reproducing ambiguous traffic from the attacker side and recommending targeted rule adjustments.
  • Produce concise validation reports that deliver a reproducer plus a rule recommendation suitable for refinement and deployment.
  • Provide adversarial perspective during active edge incidents, identifying likely attacker behavior, blind spots, and next probable moves.
  • Integrate continuous validation into the team's rule update cadence rather than running standalone penetration tests.
Here's What You'll Need to Be Successful in This Role
  • Demonstrated WAF bypass experience against at least two commercial WAF platforms (e.g., Akamai, AWS WAF, Fastly, Cloudflare).
  • Deep working knowledge of HTTP protocol edge cases affecting WAF inspection: request smuggling primitives, chunked transfer encoding abuse, multipart boundary manipulation, Unicode normalization differentials, and header injection patterns.
  • Proven web application penetration testing track record with WAF-specific scope; tool-running alone does not qualify.
  • Certifications or demonstrated outputs such as OSCP, BSCP, OSWE, or a portfolio of disclosed bypasses, conference talks, or prior validation engagements.
  • Strong scripting skills in Python or Go for building test harnesses, payload generators, and replay tooling.
  • Comfortable working in CI/CD pipelines and cloud environments (AWS or Azure) and integrating with existing infrastructure.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Security, or a related technical field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Here's What Else Might Help You Out
  • Deep API-specific attack knowledge: GraphQL injection, BOLA/BFLA, mass assignment.
  • Familiarity with Akamai internals (KRS / ASE rule engine, custom Lua / EdgeWorkers).
  • Experience with bot evasion techniques at the behavioral layer (headless browser fingerprinting bypass, behavioral mimicry).
  • Familiarity with edge-layer LLM/GenAI guardrails and prompt injection mitigation at the WAF tier.
  • Public security research, CVE disclosures, or conference talks demonstrating original bypass work.
Pay Range

$56.34 - $70.42/hour

Ready to Make Your Mark?

This role may fill quickly. Submit your resume to be considered.

Apply with Pioneers here