Threat Researcher

About the Role

Abnormal AI is looking for a Threat Researcher to join our Threat Intelligence team.

This is an analyst role for someone who is equally interested in understanding threats and figuring out how to make intelligence useful.

You will conduct original research into active campaigns, attacker behavior, and emerging email and identity attack techniques. You will also draw on research and data produced by other parts of the Threat Intelligence organization. Your job is to connect those inputs, determine what is meaningful, and turn them into the right intelligence product for the audience and objective.

That might mean a concise threat brief for a security practitioner, a deeper analytical report, tailored intelligence content for Customer Success to use in a customer QBR, a briefing for a prospect, a webinar for a broader audience, or content supporting a high-priority sales pursuit.

The defining skill for this role is intelligence synthesis: combining technical research, data, threat context, and audience needs into a clear assessment and compelling narrative.

You will work closely with Threat Intelligence, Detection, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing teams. You will also interact directly with customers and prospects, bringing intelligence to life through briefings, presentations, webinars, and tailored content.

Success in this role is not measured by how many documents you produce. It is measured by whether you can identify the important intelligence, explain what it means, and put it in a form that helps the audience understand and act on it.

What You Will Do

Analyze & Research

• Independently scope and lead complex or ambiguous threat intelligence investigations into active campaigns, attacker behavior, TTPs, and emerging email and identity attack techniques. Determine appropriate research approaches, evaluate incomplete or conflicting evidence, and develop defensible intelligence assessments with limited direction.
• Use Abnormal's platform, internal telemetry and data, threat intelligence sources, and external research to investigate threats and develop intelligence assessments.
• Identify meaningful patterns, connections, and emerging trends across threat activity.
• Develop a strong understanding of how Abnormal detects and responds to the threats you analyze.

Synthesize Intelligence

• Independently synthesize complex and sometimes conflicting intelligence from disparate sources, determine the most consequential insights, and develop defensible assessments and recommendations tailored to the audience and decision at hand.
• Determine what is most relevant to a particular audience, customer situation, or business objective.
• Translate raw findings into insight, implications, recommendations, and a clear narrative.
• Adapt the depth, framing, terminology, and format of intelligence based on the audience.
• Connect technical threat activity to business risk and explain why it matters.

Create Intelligence Products

• Produce a range of intelligence deliverables, including:
• Threat briefs
• Analytical reports
• Intelligence content and narratives for customer QBRs
• Customer and prospect briefings
• Webinars and presentations
• Marketing and outreach content
• Executive-level intelligence summaries
• Create both rapid-turnaround intelligence products and deeper analytical work.
• Build reusable narratives, templates, and content structures that improve consistency and scale.
• Maintain high standards for sourcing, analytical accuracy, clarity, and editorial quality.

Engage Customers & Prospects

• Independently lead customer and prospect intelligence engagements, including complex or high-visibility threat briefings, webinars, and presentations. Adapt technical depth and narrative in real time, respond to challenging questions, and ensure the intelligence supports the audience's decisions.
• Work with Sales and Customer Success to understand the context behind a customer or prospect request and tailor intelligence accordingly.
• Respond to time-sensitive customer questions and high-priority pursuits with accurate, relevant, and well-sourced analysis.
• Develop trusted relationships with customer-facing stakeholders and use their feedback to improve intelligence products.

Partner Across the Organization

• Collaborate with Threat Intelligence and Detection teams to incorporate research and technical findings into customer-ready intelligence.
• Serve as a technical resource and mentor to P1 and P2 analysts, strengthening analytical judgment, research methods, intelligence synthesis, and product quality through coaching, peer review, and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing to understand upcoming customer moments, pursuits, and content needs.
• Provide targeted enablement and supporting materials that help GTM teams understand and use intelligence effectively.
• Feed insights from customer and field interactions back to Threat Intelligence teams to inform research and detection priorities.

Work Smarter

• Use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Copilot, and similar technologies to accelerate research, synthesis, drafting, tailoring, and editing.
• Develop practical workflows and automation that reduce time spent on routine work while maintaining analytical rigor.
• Apply appropriate human review and validation to ensure AI-assisted work is accurate, well-sourced, and analytically sound.

What We're Looking For

Must Have

• 4+ years of experience in threat intelligence, SOC operations, or a closely related cybersecurity discipline.
• Working knowledge of email and identity attack techniques and the ability to understand and explain IOCs, TTPs, attack campaigns, and threat behavior.
• Demonstrated experience conducting security research and producing written intelligence or security content for different audiences.
• Strong ability to synthesize technical research and data from multiple sources into clear intelligence assessments, narratives, and recommendations.
• Demonstrated analytical judgment in complex or ambiguous investigations, including the ability to evaluate incomplete or conflicting evidence, determine the most consequential findings, and develop defensible assessments and recommendations with limited direction.
• Familiarity with threat intelligence platforms, intelligence-sharing communities, and threat hunting concepts.
• Strong writing skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical subjects clearly and concisely.
• Demonstrated ability to independently present complex technical intelligence to customers, executives, security practitioners, or other stakeholders, adapting communication to the audience and responding confidently to questions or challenges.
• Experience working directly with customers or cross-functional stakeholders and translating technical findings into business relevance.
• Demonstrated proficiency with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Copilot, or similar tools to enhance research, analysis, and writing.
• Strong project management and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage competing requests and deliver high-quality work on time.
• Ability to remain calm, accurate, and responsive in high-pressure or time-sensitive situations.
• Demonstrated ability to independently scope, prioritize, and deliver complex intelligence work from initial investigation through final assessment and customer-ready communication, while identifying opportunities to improve analytical quality and production workflows.
• Ability and willingness to strengthen the technical capabilities of other analysts through constructive peer review, knowledge sharing, coaching, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools or automation to scale research, analysis, or content production.
• Working knowledge of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and common attack techniques, including phishing, business email compromise (BEC), credential harvesting, malware, and account takeover, with the ability to apply this knowledge to threat research, analysis, and intelligence assessments.
• Basic proficiency in SQL, including the ability to write and modify queries to retrieve, filter, and analyze datasets in support of threat intelligence research and investigations.

Nice to Have

• Experience in email security, phishing detection, anti-abuse systems, or email threat containment.
• Experience in detection engineering, incident response, and email security analysis.
• Experience with Abnormal Security or similar security platforms.
• Public-facing security content experience, such as published research, blogs, conference talks, webinars, or industry reports.
• Experience creating intelligence content for sales cycles, customer QBRs, or other customer-facing security engagements.
• Experience creating training or enablement materials for Sales, Customer Success, or other non-technical teams.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, or training earlier-career security analysts.
• Experience using Python or other scripting tools to automate data analysis, investigate threat activity, or improve intelligence research workflows.
• Security certifications such as Security+, GIAC (GCTI, GCIH), CISSP, CEH, or similar.

#LI-NT1

Actual compensation will be determined based on several non-discriminatory factors including skills, experience, qualifications, and geographic location.
In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus or incentive compensation, equity, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Base salary range:

$122,400—$176,000 USD

A note on AI in our process: 
Abnormal AI uses AI-assisted tools to help our recruiting team prepare for candidate interviews. These tools analyze resume content and role requirements to suggest interview questions and areas for the interviewer to explore.They do not make hiring decisions or screen candidates automatically. Every decision about a candidacy is made by a person. Further, if your application is successful and Abnormal AI makes a conditional offer of employment, we will carry out pre-employment checks which must be successfully completed to progress to a final offer. All processes and pre-employment checks are in line with prevailing legislation and Abnormal AI's policies relevant to our security and privacy standards.

Abnormal AI is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. For our EEO policy statement please click here. If you would like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please click here.