Security Researcher Jobs for OPT Students
Security Researcher jobs on OPT are available at defense contractors, tech companies, and government-adjacent firms. Many roles qualify as STEM OPT, giving you up to three years of work authorization. Strong candidates typically hold degrees in computer science, cybersecurity, or electrical engineering and have hands-on research experience.
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Get Access To All JobsAbout Semgrep
Semgrep, the leader in code security for builders, empowers invention without friction. Teams catch, flag, and fix real issues before they ship, powered by security that learns as they build. Semgrep secures code as it’s written and provides guardrails that pave the road for developers to move fast and stay secure. Built for builders and trusted by security, Semgrep lives where developers work, delivering fixes without breaking flow, and giving security teams visibility, control, and confidence. Semgrep gets smarter as you build, with AI that learns your context to cut false positives and prioritize reachable vulnerabilities, validated by 95% of security reviewers across 6M+ findings. Semgrep makes zero false positives a reality with AppSec teams triaging 80% fewer false positives across Code and Supply Chain, dramatically shrinking the backlog.
Founded in San Francisco and backed by Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, Semgrep is recognized by Gartner in Application Security Testing and is trusted by leading organizations, including Snowflake, Dropbox, and Figma.
About the role
You will lead the team of Security Researchers responsible for driving the coverage through rules for Secrets, Code, and Supply Chain: across all of our products. This team owns:
- Writing high-quality detection rules
- Advancing research and automation to make rule writing faster and more accurate
- Measuring and improving the overall quality and coverage of detections
As the Manager of the Security Research Coverage team, you’ll report to the Head of Security Research. You’ll set the roadmap, partner with Product Management to focus on the most impactful detection areas, and drive continuous improvements in both accuracy and breadth of our vulnerability coverage. Success in this role means leading a team that delivers world-class detections, scales rule generation through automation and AI, and pushes the boundaries of what modern vulnerability research can achieve.
You will:
- Hire, develop, and grow the team, cultivating a productive, engaging, diverse, and inclusive work environment that aligns with Semgrep's core values
- Work closely with product management, sales, and product development teams across all product lines
- Understand, measure, and elevate the velocity and quality of Semgrep detection rule delivery
- Prioritize your team’s work and schedules, balancing current product needs with strategic research that will help scale the team through AI and automation
- Contribute to the technical direction and to the research (depending on your profile)
- Directly impact the security posture of many customers by improving the quality of our detection
You are ideal for this role if you have:
- 2+ years experience as a People Manager
- 5+ years experience as a Tech Lead in the Security space: App Sec Engineer, Security Researcher, Vulnerability Researcher, etc
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced environments where prototypes are rapidly iterated or discarded
- Comfortable tech leading and mentoring Security Researchers
- Excellent proactive communication skills, both verbal and written
- Fit in our low-ego high-impact culture
- Excitement about building for customers, iterating fast, and seeing solutions solve real developer problems
- Curiosity and a love of new technologies, especially AI/ML
- Comfortable writing code, especially in Python or Rust
Some example projects you might work on include:
- Improve and scale Semgrep’s automated pipelines for generating and validating high-confidence detection rules
- Lead a team to identify and analyze vulnerability patterns (CVEs or from first-principle) across languages and ecosystems, and turn those into detection rules. Example: Improve supply chain reachability product for a given language, Code product can report security issues that cross the Android JNI interfaces, etc.
- Put in place unified measurements for performance of detection to ensure the best quality across our customers
The estimated starting annual salary range for this position is $255,200 to $319,000 USD. The actual base salary will be determined based on a number of factors, which may include job-related skills, relevant experience, qualifications, location, internal equity, and market data. In addition to base salary, total compensation may include equity, variable compensation, and benefits. We view equity as a meaningful part of our compensation philosophy and a way for employees to share in the long-term value they help create. Compensation ranges are reviewed regularly and may be adjusted as the role, individual performance, or market conditions evolve.
What we offer (FTE only)
Our goal is to competitively and fairly compensate every Semgrep employee with a system that equally rewards those who are vocal and those who are less comfortable making demands during the final steps of the hiring process. To that end, we generate internal compensation bands that are used when discussing and negotiating salaries. We update these based on market data to make sure they’re above the average for comparable roles.
We invest in our employees’ well-being and long-term success through a competitive, market-aligned benefits program that meets or exceeds local market standards across all of the regions in which we hire. Benefits offerings vary by location to reflect local requirements and norms.
Who we are
We bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines—from physics and philosophy to formal methods research and full-fledged corporations. We’re new parents and new grads, dog lovers and dogfooders. We get together often to bike, bake, and meet up in parks. In our interactions, we believe respect and honesty go hand in hand, and prioritize both.
Semgrep is an equal-opportunity employer seeking a diverse range of backgrounds. We value who you are — including your cultural heritage, your socioeconomic status, your age, your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, your disabilities. We value what’s vitally important to you — your family, your religion, your politics. We value what you love in this world — your music, your weekend pursuits. We believe in welcoming varied professional backgrounds, educations, and interests. If you’re exceptional in your role, believe in Semgrep’s mission, and treat Semgrep’s values as your own, you belong here.
Please Note: For US-based roles open to remote work, we are currently able to hire employees in the following states only: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
About Semgrep
Semgrep, the leader in code security for builders, empowers invention without friction. Teams catch, flag, and fix real issues before they ship, powered by security that learns as they build. Semgrep secures code as it’s written and provides guardrails that pave the road for developers to move fast and stay secure. Built for builders and trusted by security, Semgrep lives where developers work, delivering fixes without breaking flow, and giving security teams visibility, control, and confidence. Semgrep gets smarter as you build, with AI that learns your context to cut false positives and prioritize reachable vulnerabilities, validated by 95% of security reviewers across 6M+ findings. Semgrep makes zero false positives a reality with AppSec teams triaging 80% fewer false positives across Code and Supply Chain, dramatically shrinking the backlog.
Founded in San Francisco and backed by Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, Semgrep is recognized by Gartner in Application Security Testing and is trusted by leading organizations, including Snowflake, Dropbox, and Figma.
About the role
You will lead the team of Security Researchers responsible for driving the coverage through rules for Secrets, Code, and Supply Chain: across all of our products. This team owns:
- Writing high-quality detection rules
- Advancing research and automation to make rule writing faster and more accurate
- Measuring and improving the overall quality and coverage of detections
As the Manager of the Security Research Coverage team, you’ll report to the Head of Security Research. You’ll set the roadmap, partner with Product Management to focus on the most impactful detection areas, and drive continuous improvements in both accuracy and breadth of our vulnerability coverage. Success in this role means leading a team that delivers world-class detections, scales rule generation through automation and AI, and pushes the boundaries of what modern vulnerability research can achieve.
You will:
- Hire, develop, and grow the team, cultivating a productive, engaging, diverse, and inclusive work environment that aligns with Semgrep's core values
- Work closely with product management, sales, and product development teams across all product lines
- Understand, measure, and elevate the velocity and quality of Semgrep detection rule delivery
- Prioritize your team’s work and schedules, balancing current product needs with strategic research that will help scale the team through AI and automation
- Contribute to the technical direction and to the research (depending on your profile)
- Directly impact the security posture of many customers by improving the quality of our detection
You are ideal for this role if you have:
- 2+ years experience as a People Manager
- 5+ years experience as a Tech Lead in the Security space: App Sec Engineer, Security Researcher, Vulnerability Researcher, etc
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced environments where prototypes are rapidly iterated or discarded
- Comfortable tech leading and mentoring Security Researchers
- Excellent proactive communication skills, both verbal and written
- Fit in our low-ego high-impact culture
- Excitement about building for customers, iterating fast, and seeing solutions solve real developer problems
- Curiosity and a love of new technologies, especially AI/ML
- Comfortable writing code, especially in Python or Rust
Some example projects you might work on include:
- Improve and scale Semgrep’s automated pipelines for generating and validating high-confidence detection rules
- Lead a team to identify and analyze vulnerability patterns (CVEs or from first-principle) across languages and ecosystems, and turn those into detection rules. Example: Improve supply chain reachability product for a given language, Code product can report security issues that cross the Android JNI interfaces, etc.
- Put in place unified measurements for performance of detection to ensure the best quality across our customers
The estimated starting annual salary range for this position is $255,200 to $319,000 USD. The actual base salary will be determined based on a number of factors, which may include job-related skills, relevant experience, qualifications, location, internal equity, and market data. In addition to base salary, total compensation may include equity, variable compensation, and benefits. We view equity as a meaningful part of our compensation philosophy and a way for employees to share in the long-term value they help create. Compensation ranges are reviewed regularly and may be adjusted as the role, individual performance, or market conditions evolve.
What we offer (FTE only)
Our goal is to competitively and fairly compensate every Semgrep employee with a system that equally rewards those who are vocal and those who are less comfortable making demands during the final steps of the hiring process. To that end, we generate internal compensation bands that are used when discussing and negotiating salaries. We update these based on market data to make sure they’re above the average for comparable roles.
We invest in our employees’ well-being and long-term success through a competitive, market-aligned benefits program that meets or exceeds local market standards across all of the regions in which we hire. Benefits offerings vary by location to reflect local requirements and norms.
Who we are
We bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines—from physics and philosophy to formal methods research and full-fledged corporations. We’re new parents and new grads, dog lovers and dogfooders. We get together often to bike, bake, and meet up in parks. In our interactions, we believe respect and honesty go hand in hand, and prioritize both.
Semgrep is an equal-opportunity employer seeking a diverse range of backgrounds. We value who you are — including your cultural heritage, your socioeconomic status, your age, your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, your disabilities. We value what’s vitally important to you — your family, your religion, your politics. We value what you love in this world — your music, your weekend pursuits. We believe in welcoming varied professional backgrounds, educations, and interests. If you’re exceptional in your role, believe in Semgrep’s mission, and treat Semgrep’s values as your own, you belong here.
Please Note: For US-based roles open to remote work, we are currently able to hire employees in the following states only: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
How to Get Visa Sponsorship in Security Researcher
Lead with published research
CVEs you've discovered, conference papers, or open-source security tools carry more weight than coursework alone. Document your research output clearly. Employers in this space hire for demonstrated capability, not just credentials.
Clarify your STEM OPT timeline upfront
Security research roles almost always qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, giving you three years total. Confirming this early removes a common objection and signals you understand your own work authorization status.
Target employers with existing cleared research programs
Defense contractors and security consultancies already sponsor security staff regularly. They have legal and HR infrastructure in place, which makes sponsorship conversations far less complicated than approaching companies with no prior experience.
Highlight offensive and defensive research skills separately
Employers distinguish between penetration testing, vulnerability research, malware analysis, and threat intelligence. Be explicit about your specialization. Generalist descriptions make it harder for hiring managers to assess fit quickly.
Address security clearance eligibility honestly
Many federal research roles require clearances that non-citizens cannot currently hold. Focus applications on commercial security research, private sector red teams, and civilian-facing roles where clearance is not a listed requirement.
Network through security conferences and CTF communities
DEF CON, Black Hat, and capture-the-flag communities are where hiring decisions start. Presenting research or placing well in competitions puts your name in front of hiring managers before a job posting ever goes live.
Security Researcher jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
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Get Access To All JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Do Security Researcher jobs qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Most Security Researcher positions qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension because the role typically requires a degree in computer science, cybersecurity, electrical engineering, or a related STEM field. You need to confirm your degree CIP code is on the STEM designated degree program list and that your employer meets the E-Verify requirement before filing the extension.
Can I work as a Security Researcher on OPT without a security clearance?
Yes. Many security research positions in the private sector, including roles at tech companies, financial institutions, and cybersecurity consultancies, do not require a security clearance. Federal government roles and some defense contractor positions do require clearances that are generally unavailable to non-citizens on OPT, so filtering for commercial sector roles is the practical approach. Migrate Mate lists OPT-friendly security research roles where clearance is not a barrier.
What degree fields best support an OPT Security Researcher application?
Computer science, cybersecurity, information security, electrical engineering, and computer engineering are the most common qualifying degree fields. Some employers also accept applied mathematics or software engineering degrees when paired with strong research experience. The degree must appear on SEVIS as your program of study, and it should align with the specific research domain the role covers.
How do employers typically verify OPT work authorization for this role?
Employers will ask to see your EAD card, which serves as your work authorization document, and will run E-Verify as required for STEM OPT employers. Some security-focused employers also request your I-20 to confirm your STEM OPT approval and end date. Having these documents ready before your start date prevents onboarding delays.
What types of companies sponsor Security Researchers on OPT?
Commercial cybersecurity firms, large technology companies, financial services security teams, healthcare organizations with dedicated security programs, and independent research labs are the most active sponsors. These employers regularly hire international researchers and are accustomed to OPT timelines. Browsing roles on Migrate Mate lets you filter specifically for positions open to OPT candidates so you are not spending time on applications that will not move forward.
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