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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Infiltration Specialist (Red Team Operator)

💰 $120,000 - $195,000

CybersecurityOffensive SecurityRed TeamInformation Technology

🎯 Role Definition

The Infiltration Specialist, a key role within our Red Team, serves as an ethical adversary tasked with challenging our enterprise security controls, detection capabilities, and incident response procedures. You will be responsible for emulating the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) of real-world threat actors to conduct full-scope penetration tests and objective-based red team engagements. This position requires a deep technical understanding of offensive security, a creative mindset, and the ability to communicate complex risks to both technical and executive leadership, ultimately making our organization more resilient to cyber threats.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Penetration Tester
  • Security Analyst (SOC Tier 2/3)
  • Cybersecurity Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Senior Red Team Operator / Principal Infiltration Specialist
  • Offensive Security Team Lead or Manager
  • Director of Threat Management

Lateral Moves:

  • Threat Intelligence Analyst
  • Purple Team Engineer
  • Security Architect

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Plan, execute, and lead complex red team operations and penetration tests against enterprise networks, cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), and critical applications.
  • Emulate advanced persistent threat (APT) actors by developing and deploying custom attack methodologies and toolsets to bypass modern security defenses like EDR, WAF, and network segmentation.
  • Conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments and in-depth penetration testing across web applications, APIs, mobile platforms, and internal infrastructure, identifying and validating security flaws.
  • Develop and maintain a sophisticated offensive security toolchain, including custom scripts (Python, PowerShell, C#), implants, and exploit code to support engagement objectives.
  • Perform covert post-exploitation activities, including lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration, to demonstrate the potential business impact of a successful breach.
  • Author exceptionally detailed and high-quality engagement reports that clearly articulate identified vulnerabilities, attack narratives, business risks, and actionable remediation recommendations for a diverse audience.
  • Conduct social engineering campaigns, including phishing, vishing, and physical security assessments, to test human vulnerabilities and procedural controls.
  • Collaborate in purple team exercises, working directly with the Blue Team (Defenders) to test and enhance their detection and response capabilities in real-time.
  • Perform threat modeling on new and existing systems and applications to proactively identify potential attack vectors and design flaws before they are implemented.
  • Maintain a deep and current understanding of the global threat landscape, including emerging adversary TTPs, zero-day vulnerabilities, and new attack surfaces.
  • Reverse engineer malware, software, and firmware to discover vulnerabilities or understand internal mechanics for exploitation purposes.
  • Assess and exploit Active Directory environments, identifying misconfigurations and pathways to domain dominance.
  • Provide expert security guidance and consultation to development and infrastructure teams, helping them to build more secure products and systems from the ground up.
  • Continuously research and develop novel attack techniques to ensure our testing methodologies remain ahead of the curve and representative of advanced threats.
  • Manage the operational infrastructure for red team engagements, ensuring all tools and systems are secure, covert, and effective.
  • Contribute to the formalization of the organization's offensive security framework, standards, and rules of engagement.
  • Present findings, attack demonstrations, and strategic security recommendations to senior management and executive leadership.
  • Mentor junior members of the security team, fostering a culture of continuous learning and offensive security mindset.
  • Evade and document weaknesses in security monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to provide direct feedback for improvement.
  • Conduct wireless and network hardware security assessments to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in our physical and logical network layers.
  • Analyze and review source code from a security perspective to identify potential vulnerabilities and recommend secure coding practices.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc requests for security assessments and provide expert consultation on emerging threats.
  • Contribute to the organization's offensive security strategy and capability roadmap.
  • Collaborate with Blue Team and development units to translate findings into defensive engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies for coordinated Purple Team exercises and projects.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proficiency with offensive security platforms such as Cobalt Strike, Metasploit Framework, or similar C2 frameworks.
  • Advanced expertise with security assessment tools like Burp Suite Pro, Nmap, Wireshark, and Nessus.
  • Strong scripting and development skills for tool creation and task automation (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash, Go, C#).
  • Deep understanding of Active Directory exploitation techniques and Kerberos-based attacks.
  • Expertise in exploiting web application vulnerabilities as defined by the OWASP Top 10.
  • Knowledge of the MITRE ATT&CK Framework and its application in planning and executing engagements.
  • Experience assessing cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Proficiency in network traffic analysis, evasion of Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), and Web Application Firewalls (WAF).
  • Familiarity with reverse engineering and binary analysis using tools like IDA Pro, Ghidra, or x64dbg.
  • Experience with mobile application (iOS/Android) penetration testing and associated tools.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional problem-solving skills and a highly analytical mindset.
  • Creativity and the ability to think "outside the box" to discover novel attack paths.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Strong ethical compass and professional integrity.
  • High degree of self-motivation, personal responsibility, and attention to detail.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a high-performing team.
  • A persistent and determined approach to overcoming technical challenges.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent demonstrated practical experience in offensive security.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's Degree in Cybersecurity or Information Security.
  • Industry-leading certifications such as OSCP, OSCE, OSEP, GPEN, GWAPT, GXPN, or CRTO.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Cybersecurity
  • Information Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4-7+ years in a dedicated offensive security role (e.g., Penetration Tester, Red Team Operator).

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated experience leading red team engagements from planning to reporting.
  • A portfolio of public security research, conference presentations (e.g., DEF CON, Black Hat), or CVEs.
  • Experience operating in highly regulated industries such as finance or healthcare.
  • Proven ability to develop custom exploits or offensive security tools.
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