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vulnerability research jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills

As of 2026-09-30, vulnerability research appears in 302 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Security Software Engineer has the most postings mentioning vulnerability research.

Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-30

Postings · last 90 days
302
Top role · 14.9% of skill postings
Security Software Engineer
Top hiring metro
Redmond

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Frequently asked questions about vulnerability research

+Is vulnerability research in demand in 2026?

Yes. vulnerability research appears in 302 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Security Software Engineer accounts for the most postings mentioning vulnerability research (14.9% of all postings mentioning vulnerability research).

+What jobs require vulnerability research?

According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning vulnerability research are Embedded Security Engineer (47.2% of that role’s postings mention vulnerability research), Security Software Engineer (36.9% of that role’s postings mention vulnerability research), Vulnerability Research Engineer (35.0% of that role’s postings mention vulnerability research).

+What skills are commonly paired with vulnerability research?

Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-30), vulnerability research most often appears alongside Python, incident response, C++, network security, Operating system security.

+Where is vulnerability research most in demand?

As of 2026-09-30, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring vulnerability research are Redmond, Hawthorne, Bastrop, Palo Alto, New York City, according to the Skillenai jobs index.

+How can I keep up with new vulnerability research content and jobs?

Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning vulnerability research alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new vulnerability research content from your Skillenai account.

+Which skills come before and after vulnerability research?

The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.

Weekly indexed postings requiring vulnerability research — last 90 days

Salary distribution

Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized

Career paths around vulnerability research

Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.

Historical career profiles · all locations

Skills before vulnerability research

Before vulnerability researchBluetooth traffic analysis → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability reporting → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairbug bounty program → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairEndpoint Security → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairTrendMicro → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairpassword audit → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairVoIP → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairwireless communication security → vulnerability research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerabilityresearchBluetooth traffic analysis: 1 movesBluetooth trafficanalysis1 movesvulnerability reporting: 1 movesvulnerabilityreporting1 movesbug bounty program: 1 movesbug bounty program1 movesEndpoint Security: 1 movesEndpoint Security1 movesTrendMicro: 1 movesTrendMicro1 movespassword audit: 1 movespassword audit1 movesVoIP: 1 movesVoIP1 moveswireless communication security: 1 moveswirelesscommunicationsecurity1 moves

Skills after vulnerability research

After vulnerability researchvulnerability research → Incident response (PSIRT/CSIRT): 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → SBOM/VEX: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → AI security research: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → Compliance: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → Cloud Security: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → Vulnerability and malware research, threat hunting: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → EU CRA: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerability research → SSDLC: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairvulnerabilityresearchIncident response (PSIRT/CSIRT): 1 movesIncident response(PSIRT/CSIRT)1 movesSBOM/VEX: 1 movesSBOM/VEX1 movesAI security research: 1 movesAI securityresearch1 movesCompliance: 1 movesCompliance1 movesCloud Security: 1 movesCloud Security1 movesVulnerability and malware research, threat hunting: 1 movesVulnerability andmalware research,threat hunting1 movesEU CRA: 1 movesEU CRA1 movesSSDLC: 1 movesSSDLC1 moves
How to read this chart · view counts

Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.

The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.

Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.

Observed connections and move counts
ConnectionMoves
Before: Bluetooth traffic analysis1
Before: vulnerability reporting1
Before: bug bounty program1
Before: Endpoint Security1
Before: TrendMicro1
Before: password audit1
Before: VoIP1
Before: wireless communication security1
After: Incident response (PSIRT/CSIRT)1
After: SBOM/VEX1
After: AI security research1
After: Compliance1
After: Cloud Security1
After: Vulnerability and malware research, threat hunting1
After: EU CRA1
After: SSDLC1

Roles most likely to require vulnerability research

Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.

RolePostings mentioning skill% of role postings mentioning skill
Embedded Security Engineer1747.2%
Security Software Engineer4536.9%
Vulnerability Research Engineer735.0%
Security Research Engineer1832.1%
Security Researcher1323.6%
Offensive Security Engineer1421.5%
AI Security Researcher29.5%
Product Security Engineer278.4%
Safeguards Enforcement Analyst27.4%
Cyber Software Engineer27.1%

Roles with the most vulnerability research postings

RolePostings mentioning skillShare of skill postings
Security Software Engineer4514.9%
Security Engineer299.6%
Product Security Engineer278.9%
Security Research Engineer186.0%
Embedded Security Engineer175.6%
Offensive Security Engineer144.6%
Security Researcher134.3%
Application Security Engineer72.3%
Vulnerability Research Engineer72.3%
Vulnerability Researcher72.3%

Top companies posting jobs requiring vulnerability research

Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.

Top companies posting jobs requiring vulnerability research
CompanyPostings · 90 days
SpaceX79
Anthropic13
ServiceNow11
Elastic10
Flywire8
Google7
Clarity Innovations7
Twosixtechnologies6
CrowdStrike5
Parsons Corporation4

Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.

Top metros hiring for vulnerability research

NamePostingsShare
Redmond237.6%
Hawthorne227.3%
Bastrop155.0%
Palo Alto134.3%
New York City103.3%
Herndon93.0%
San Francisco93.0%
Tel Aviv93.0%
Bengaluru51.7%

Skills commonly paired with vulnerability research

Python (173)incident response (104)C++ (87)network security (84)Operating system security (81)Secure/Authenticated boot (79)Applied cryptography (79)penetration testing (78)Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) (77)reverse engineering (77)

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How this was computed

Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning vulnerability research by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s vulnerability research postings by all vulnerability research postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). An adjusted trend is not shown because comparable posting coverage is insufficient.

source
Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
entity_id
77961e492392b654
data_as_of
2026-09-30
window_days
90
Hiring engineers who use vulnerability research?

The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.

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Compiled by Jared Rand · Data sourced from the Skillenai labor market index