Experienced software developer

Breakpoint Research builds novel, mission-critical offensive cyber capabilities, to strengthen and advance democracy. Behind every capability we field is the engineering that turns a fragile proof-of-concept into something dependable. We're hiring experienced software developers to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our research team and help close that gap.

What you will help with

• Building and maintaining the tools our researchers depend on every day.
• Turning research into capabilities reliable enough to depend on in the field.
• Owning the testing and automation that keeps it all dependable.

How we work

We are relentlessly curious, unafraid to try new things, and we own our failures alongside our wins. We act with honesty, integrity, humility and kindness. Everything we've built came from a culture of deep collaboration, and we work hard to keep it that way.

About you

You're a generalist, comfortable wearing several hats - debugging a kernel crash one-week, refactoring test harnesses the next, building a tool a researcher will use every day after that. Moving between low- and high-level languages comes naturally, and you reach for the right level of abstraction rather than your favourite one.

Good engineering standards matter to you: version control and tidy branching, code review and documentation worth reading. That holds even when the people around you are heads-down on the research.

The things that don't show up in a demo are what you care about - code that's still legible in six months, the test that catches a regression before the customer does, the tool that makes the next person faster. Better to build something the whole team can rely on than something only you can maintain. Ask when you don't know, share when you do, pick teammates up when they get knocked down.

Much of the best work in this field can't be talked about publicly, and a track record without public artefacts is no obstacle for us. We're also open to candidates with non-traditional backgrounds.

Nice to have

• Industry experience building developer and researcher tools, testing, CI, or automation frameworks.
• Experience in taking research work through to deployable products or capabilities.
• Comfort working close to the metal: kernels, firmware, embedded systems, or similar.
• Familiarity with assembly and reverse engineering concepts - enough to follow what the research team is doing and build tooling that fits how they work.
• Experience working with file formats, protocols, and parsing - a solid grasp of how data is structured on disk and over the wire, and how to handle input that isn't always clean or well-formed.
• Experience maintaining long-lived software where reliability genuinely matters.
• Open-source contributions, public projects, or conference talks.

Where you'll work

Remote, globally. We consider applicants from any country and any background. The team works in English, so you'll need to be fluent. We have a particular interest in UK-based candidates; holding or being eligible for Developed Vetting is a positive but not a requirement.

What we offer

Salaries are benchmarked for each local market we hire from — whether UK, US, Australia, or elsewhere. Come to us with your expectations. On top of that:

• 25 days annual leave plus your local public, bank, or federal holidays. We expect everyone to take it.
• Bonus scheme — when the business does well, everyone shares in it.
• Training and conference budgets — go to the cons that matter, wherever they're happening.
• Employee assistance program giving you and your immediate family confidential access to counselling, mental health support, and financial and legal advice.
• Regular get-togethers — seasonal parties, technical workshops, and an annual offsite that brings the whole team into one place.

Plus, depending on where you're based:

UK

• Annual leave rises by 1 day per year up to 28 days
• 6% matched pension
• Private medical insurance
• 4x death in service
• Cycle-to-work scheme

USA

• Matched 401(k) up to 4%
• Healthcare, dental, and vision cover

Australia

• Minimum 12% superannuation

For candidates elsewhere in the world, we'll put together a package matched to your local market.

Breakpoint Research is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

We aim to respond to all candidates via email within a week of their application. Please note that emails may go to your spam or junk folder.