Job Description

ActiveFence is seeking an experienced Malware Research Director to build and manage multiple teams dedicated to malware research and review. This role presents an exciting opportunity to establish a new operation from the ground up, including recruiting top talent, creating processes, and setting up cross-team collaboration while serving as the primary client interface.

The position is primarily leadership and client-facing, requiring exceptional team-building and operational setup skills. The ideal candidate demonstrates proven experience in building teams from scratch, establishing new operations, and strong client relationship management capabilities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and recruit multiple teams of malware researchers from scratch
• Establish operational processes, workflows, and quality standards for the new teams
• Coordinate with other departments to integrate the new operation into the existing infrastructure
• Serve as primary client interface, managing relationships and ensuring client satisfaction
• Present research findings and malicious evidence to clients and stakeholders
• Create training programs and onboarding processes for new team members
• Develop performance metrics and evaluation frameworks for team effectiveness
• Lead client meetings, requirement discussions, and project planning sessions
• Collaborate with sales and business development teams on client engagements

Requirements

Must-Have:

• Management experience - managing at least 10 employees for a minimum of 5 years, with extensive experience in recruiting and building teams
• Proven track record of setting up new teams or operations from the ground up
• Strong client-facing experience with excellent presentation and communication skills
• At least 3 years of proven experience in one of the following: malware research, reverse engineering, penetration testing, software development
• Understanding of malware research principles and the cybersecurity landscape
• Experience managing client relationships and delivering technical solutions to business stakeholders
• Must have a valid international government-issued photo ID (e.g., current passport, or international driver's license) for identity verification and global client interaction.

Nice-to-Have:

• Experience establishing new departments or research operations within organizations
• Background in scaling teams from startup or greenfield environments
• Background in technical sales or business development in cybersecurity
• Experience presenting to C-level executives and technical stakeholders
• Experience with decompilers, debuggers, and disassemblers (e.g., JADX, JEB, LLDB, GDB, x86dbg, Ghidra, IDA Pro)
• Familiarity with instrumentation frameworks like Frida or Xposed
• Proficiency with HTTP debuggers, MITM tools, and network analyzers (e.g., Fiddler, HTTP Toolkit, Burp Suite, Wireshark, Little Snitch, mitmproxy)
• Understanding of network communications and protocols
• Familiarity with multiple programming languages (Java, C/C++, JavaScript, Python)

About ActiveFence

ActiveFence is the leading provider of security and safety solutions for online experiences, safeguarding more than 3 billion users, top foundation models, and the world’s largest enterprises and tech platforms every day.

As a trusted ally to major technology firms and Fortune 500 brands that build user-generated and GenAI products, ActiveFence empowers security, AI, and policy teams with low-latency Real-Time Guardrails and a continuous Red Teaming program that pressure-tests systems with adversarial prompts and emerging threat techniques. Powered by deep threat intelligence, unmatched harmful-content detection, and coverage of 117+ languages, ActiveFence enables organizations to deliver engaging and trustworthy experiences at global scale while operating safely and responsibly across all threat landscapes.