Junior Cybersecurity Engineer

Run our bug bounty program, red-team our people and processes, and raise the security bar of the whole company.

Since July 2023, we have distributed $1.8B+ to 5M+ wallets across 60+ chains, for 1000+ companies including Coinbase, PayPal, Robinhood, Kraken, MetaMask, and Uniswap. We are independent, and the global leader in our category.

We're looking for a Junior Cybersecurity Engineer to help build the next phase of Merkl.

Team

Merkl is a small team of 20 people. If you join the team, you will learn alongside us and be deeply involved in product design and the research we are conducting.

Missions & responsibilities

As a Junior Cybersecurity Engineer at Merkl, you will help protect the systems that move billions of dollars in rewards onchain. With $1.8B+ distributed and millions of users relying on our infrastructure, security is not a feature for us: it is the foundation of the trust our partners place in Merkl. You will work across every team (Engine, Product, Infra) to find weaknesses before attackers do, make sure they get fixed, and continuously raise the security bar of the whole company.

You will work closely with our senior engineers and the Infra team, who will support and mentor you as you ramp up. Step by step, you will take ownership of our bug bounty program, challenge our people and processes through internal red team exercises, and become the go-to person for everything related to vulnerability management during our security audits. It's a unique opportunity to learn security hands-on, on real high-stakes systems, with a lot of responsibility early on.

Specifically, your responsibilities will include:

• Running our bug bounty program: triaging incoming submissions, assessing their severity and real-world impact with the support of senior engineers, communicating with researchers, and owning the associated fix tasks end-to-end until they are shipped and verified.
• Running internal, educational pentests (red team): simulating social engineering attacks (phishing, pretexting, ...), stress-testing our development processes (code review, CI/CD, secrets, access management, ...), and attempting various injections and exploits against our applications and APIs.
• Turning every finding into a learning opportunity: sharing results with the team in a pedagogical way, running post-mortems and awareness sessions, and helping engineers build a security-first mindset.
• Owning evidence in security audits: being responsible for the proofs related to vulnerability management (scanning, triage, remediation SLAs, tracking, reporting, ...) and working with auditors to demonstrate our security posture.
• Building and maintaining our vulnerability management process: from detection (SAST/DAST/SCA, dependency scanning, ...) to prioritization, remediation and follow-up.
• Collaborating with the Infra and Engine teams to harden our cloud infrastructure, applications, and data pipelines.

What we offer

By joining the Merkl team, you will be part of one of the most innovative and fast-growing teams in onchain finance. We offer the opportunity to work with an ambitious team, shipping quickly and making an impact in the industry. For full-time positions, we provide:

• A highly stimulating intellectual environment: You'll collaborate with some of the best researchers and engineers in onchain finance, on systems that move real money for Coinbase, Robinhood, and PayPal. Our stack is solid web2 engineering (TypeScript, Go, Postgres, Kubernetes) applied to financial infrastructure.
• An AI-native way of working: AI coding agents, whichever one you prefer, and our own MCP servers are part of everyone's daily workflow. You get the best tools, and the time they save goes into understanding more of the system, not only shipping more code.
• Growth and future opportunities: Be part of an independent, rapidly scaling company, working on the infrastructure that shapes the future of finance.
• Competitive salary: We offer a competitive compensation package with flexible working hours, ensuring a healthy work-life balance.
• Equipment stipend: We provide you with the tools and devices you need to optimize your work environment and fit your working style.
• Team retreats: Every year, you'll have the chance to join the team on retreats to reflect on our journey, plan for the future, and bond while having fun in exciting locations.

You are

You're at the beginning of your career in cybersecurity, passionate about breaking (and fixing) things, and eager to grow fast in a fast-paced, innovative environment. We're looking for someone who is:

• A fast learner and problem-solver: You are intellectually curious, able to quickly grasp new technologie