Software Development Engineer - Applied Research

About the role

BeyondTrust builds a cyber security SaaS portfolio that protects identities and access. As a Software Development Engineer in Applied Research, you will build the algorithms and detection logic that secure non-human identities and cloud entitlements. The work sits between backend engineering, cloud IAM analysis and algorithm development, and suits someone who wants investigative work to end in shipped software.

Key responsibilities

• Build and optimise detection logic for over-permissioned identities, excessive entitlements and least-privilege gaps
• Study how service accounts, IAM roles, workload identities and API tokens use permissions, and where behaviour diverges from what was granted
• Model effective permissions programmatically across AWS IAM, Azure RBAC and Entra ID, or GCP IAM
• Write heuristics and statistical routines to flag risky permission patterns
• Turn known attack paths, such as privilege escalation and credential misuse, into automated detection coverage
• Prototype, then work with product engineering to scale models into production

Required profile

• 3+ years writing clean, maintainable backend code, ideally Python or Go
• Solid grasp of IAM mechanics in AWS, Azure/Entra or GCP: policies, roles, authorisation flow
• A methodical approach to complex debugging and a deep interest in security
• Strong technical communication with engineering and product colleagues
• Team player who takes initiative, handles ambiguity and adapts to changing requirements
• Follows software development best practices, from testing paradigms to peer code reviews and resilient architectures