Senior Security Researcher - GenAI

The Security Research team at Datadog tracks the evolving threat landscape and develops impactful detection content for our Security platform. As a Security Researcher focused on Generative AI, you’ll explore the security assumptions of foundational AI models, uncover vulnerabilities, and share your findings through detection content, product improvements, open-source contributions, and public research. You’ll work alongside a diverse group of hackers and builders, collaborate across teams, and help drive our leadership in the security community through publications, vulnerability disclosures, and conference presentations. This is a high-impact opportunity to help shape the security posture of AI technologies across Datadog and our customers.

At Datadog, we place value in our office culture - the relationships and collaboration it builds and the creativity it brings to the table. We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our Datadogs can create a work-life harmony that best fits them.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead research initiatives to identify novel vulnerabilities and threats in Generative AI and large language model (LLM) technologies
• Develop and demonstrate proof-of-concept attacks and adversarial techniques for educational and defensive purposes
• Translate findings into actionable detection content, product improvements, and engineering backlogs
• Collaborate with product managers, detection engineers, and software teams to integrate research into Datadog’s platform
• Share research through blog posts, conference talks, and open-source contributions to promote customer trust and industry awareness
• Engage with external stakeholders—including cloud providers and open-source communities—for responsible disclosure and remediation

Who You Are:

• Experienced in Generative AI systems, with a deep understanding of vulnerabilities like prompt injection or model poisoning
• Familiar with the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs and the application of traditional security principles (e.g., input handling, access control) to AI environments
• Background in offensive security, penetration testing, or vulnerability research in cloud or SaaS environments
• Able to independently plan and execute research projects with stakeholder alignment
• Skilled in communicating complex findings clearly—through documentation, internal sharing, or public forums
• Proficient in programming languages such as Go, Python, or Rust for building tools and systems for research

Bonus Points:

• Experience working in a Security Research organization.
• A proven track record in discovering, disclosing, and documenting vulnerabilities.
• Experience presenting your research at large conferences.
• Experience working in an OKR driven environment.

Benefits and Growth:

• New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
• Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing
• Intradepartmental mentor and buddy program for in-house networking
• An inclusive company culture, ability to join our Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups)
• Access to Inclusion Talks, our internal panel discussions
• Free, global mental health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+
• Competitive global benefits