Job Type
Flexible Contract (Remote), 10 to 40 hours per week Job Summary: We are hiring security researchers with a completed PhD, including faculty, research scientists and experienced postdocs, for a contract project that tests whether frontier AI models can do real security work in a command line environment. You will design security tasks that a leading AI model cannot solve, then analyse how and why it fails. What you will do
• Design self-contained command line security tasks, such as finding and exploiting a vulnerability in a small service, analysing a binary or malware sample, reconstructing an attack from logs, hardening a misconfigured system, or breaking a flawed cryptographic implementation.
• Build the task workplace (code, services, data and dependencies in Docker), write a reference solution, and write automated tests that check whether a solution is correct.
• Run your task against a frontier AI model, review its attempt with the rigour of a peer reviewer, and refine the task until the failure reflects a real gap in capability rather than ambiguity.
• Work with reviewers to bring each task to acceptance. Who we are looking for
• A completed PhD in computer security, computer science or a closely related field. Current PhD students are not eligible for this project.
• Research or industry experience in security:



vulnerability research, exploitation, reverse engineering, systems or network security, or applied cryptography.
• At least one publication, ideally at a security venue (USENIX Security, CCS, IEEE S&P;, NDSS) or a related journal.
• Fluency in Linux, shell scripting, Docker and Git, plus strong Python or C.
• CTF experience, or experience designing security course labs or automated grading, is a strong advantage. Why Cobalt AI
• Advance frontier AI where it counts. Apply your research expertise to the data that frontier labs cannot obtain any other way, where your reasoning directly shapes how the next generation of models works through technical problems.
• Grow professionally. Expand your influence through evaluation projects, advisory roles, and research collaborations, while deepening your understanding of how frontier models are trained and assessed.
• Work with a top-tier network. Collaborate with researchers from leading institutions and labs on high-impact, flexible work.
• Set your own schedule. Flexible 10 to 40 hour weeks that fit around your research position and your life.
• Competitive pay. Rates vary by project and are determined by a number of factors, including scope, skillset, and experience.

📌 Security Researcher (Canada)
🏢 Cobalt
📍 Canada