What is The Role

Elastic Security is hiring a VP of Threat Research to own the research agenda for what our platform detects, prevents, and publishes, and to serve as the public voice of that work.

This role reports directly to the GM of Elastic Security. It is a senior individual contributor leadership role for someone with deep technical credibility who wants to shape direction through expertise, judgment, and influence. You will decide what the team builds and why: setting priorities across detection engineering, threat research, endpoint protections, and security ML, while partnering closely with delivery leaders who own execution and people management.

This is also a highly visible, outbound role. You will represent Elastic with customers, at industry conferences, with press and analysts, and in the broader security research community. We are looking for someone who wants to elevate Elastic’s research brand, guide the technical agenda, and help define how the industry thinks about modern threat detection and prevention.

What You Will Be Doing

• Define the research and detection agenda across SIEM, endpoint, threat research, and security ML
• Set the quality bar for what Elastic detects, prevents, and publishes
• Decide where the team should invest next across malware detection, ransomware and memory protections, and AI-driven security capabilities
• Shape the publishing strategy for Elastic Security Labs, including original research, malware analysis, and conference content
• Act as the external face of the organization with customers, analysts, press, and the security community
• Partner with engineering, product, and delivery leadership to turn research priorities into shipped protections
• Help advance Elastic’s point of view on open and transparent security, including public detections and explainable AI-driven protections
• Lead thinking on how AI changes both threat research and attacker behavior, and how Elastic should respond

What You Bring 

• Deep credibility in threat research, detection engineering, endpoint security, or security ML
• Hands-on technical experience doing the work yourself, not only leading teams
• The ability to operate as a senior IC leader who sets direction through technical depth and strong judgment
• Strong public communication skills and enthusiasm for customer engagement, speaking, and industry visibility
• A clear belief in open, transparent security and the value of publishing detections and research openly
• Strong judgment and the ability to lead through influence, expertise, and vision
• Experience setting strategy across technical security domains and translating that into clear priorities
• A thoughtful point of view on AI in security, including both its promise and its risks
• Willingness to travel regularly for customer meetings, conferences, and external engagements

Bonus Points

• Experience leading or contributing to publicly recognized threat research or detection content
• Familiarity with open detection ecosystems, GitHub-based research workflows, or community-driven security programs
• Experience spanning both endpoint protections and SIEM detections
• Background working with malware models, behavioral detections, or small language models in security use cases
• Existing presence in the security community through talks, publications, or media engagement