Security Analyst / Ad Fraud Researcher

About the Role
 Pixalate is hiring a Security Analyst / Ad Fraud Researcher to find, reverse-engineer and expose fraud schemes targeting mobile apps and Connected TV (CTV). You’ll treat ad fraud the way a threat researcher treats malware: collect samples, take them apart, turn what you learn into detection logic, and tell the market what you found. You’ll sit on the Threat Research team, working with Data Science, Engineering and Product. Your findings feed Pixalate’s MRC-accredited invalid traffic (IVT) detection and its public research on mobile and CTV supply-chain risk 

• Hunt mobile ad fraud: analyze Android and iOS apps (APKs/IPAs) for hidden ads, ad stacking, click injection, SDK spoofing, background ad loading and malicious ad SDKs
• Investigate CTV fraud: uncover SSAI spoofing, device and app-bundle spoofing, emulator/server-side bot traffic, and fake CTV inventory sold programmatically
• Reverse-engineer samples: use static and dynamic analysis to understand how fraudulent apps, SDKs and botnets behave, and document their traffic signatures
• Turn research into detection: write rules, signatures and indicators for Pixalate’s GIVT and SIVT pipelines, and validate them against impression-level data at scale
• Map the supply chain: trace fraud through app-ads.txt, sellers.json, SupplyChain objects and bid-stream data to identify the resellers and publishers behind it
• Track threat actors: follow fraud operations over time, link campaigns to infrastructure, and monitor underground forums and app stores for new schemes
• Publish and present: write blog posts, threat reports and research briefs; speak at industry events, webinars, and with press and clients
• Support customers: help Customer Success and Sales explain findings to advertisers, DSPs, SSPs and platforms, and assist with escalated investigations