Security Researcher (Research Coding Tasks)
Listing checked October 30, 2026 · pay as published by AfterQuery
Key details
- Pay
- $80/hr
- Location
- Remote
- Job type
- contract
- Posted
- October 29, 2026
Overview
AfterQuery pays researchers to convert their own peer-reviewed security work into coding tasks that frontier AI agents then attempt. You take a paper with public code, cut out the piece carrying the core contribution, and reshape the rest into a benchmark an agent can work against. Subject matter spans fuzzing and vulnerability detection through binary analysis, systems security and LLM agent security. Each task pays $200 once approved, takes a few hours to build, and you decide when to work.
What You'll Do7
- Pick a recent security paper with released code and pinpoint the module that implements its central idea.
- Remove that contribution from the codebase, then turn what remains into a clear task statement for an agent.
- Set held-out evaluation workloads and a pass threshold for every metric you report.
- Write a hidden reference solution that puts the missing contribution back.
- Produce a second solution that clears the threshold, proving the target is reachable.
- Grade agent attempts on your task and decide which ones clear the bar.
- Package the setup so the evaluation reproduces on another machine.
Requirements7
- Published security research at USENIX Security, CCS, IEEE S&P, NDSS or a venue of comparable standing.
- Code released for at least one paper, linked from GitHub or an artifact page.
- PhD in computer science or a related field, completed or still in progress.
- First-author papers that report measured gains over a baseline carry extra weight.
- Comfort with Docker and repeatable benchmark setups.
- Depth in at least one area: fuzzing, vulnerability detection, binary analysis, systems security or LLM agent security.
- Meets the experience and education bar described in the full listing.
Who Should Apply
A security PhD or research engineer who has shipped code alongside a published paper and wants to repackage their own results into an agent benchmark. Strong fit if you can set pass thresholds and defend them.
Salary Insight
$200 per approved task, and the listing puts each task at a few hours of work, which lines up with the $80/hr figure quoted for the role. That rate matches PhD-level security researchers holding a publication record and a public code release. Payment lands per approved task rather than per hour.
Pay and demand for Cybersecurity roles
Market estimates from live NearSkill listings — separate from this job's published terms.
This role · as published
$80/hr
Taken from the listing itself.
Typical pay · estimated
$75/hour
Median of 37 similar roles that publish pay · 3 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Most Cybersecurity roles pay $60–$90 per hour. This role's pay falls inside that range.
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
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- Listed in last 30 days
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Hiring most right now: micro1 (16) · Neon (13) · AfterQuery (8)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- technical writing28%
- red teaming16%
- python14%
- policy evaluation12%
Figures from Cybersecurity roles live on NearSkill when this page loaded. A role can close before you apply, so check the listing itself.
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