I've never done anything with them, but e.g. http://www.rootlabs.com/engineer-job.html sounded a lot more interesting than what you describe. On the open-source front, you find stuff like Metasploit, nmap, Snort, previously Nessus (forked as OpenVAS), web stuff like Nikto, etc.

Don't forget that lots of "programmers" are barely-skilled and working on VBA macros - one label can cover a wide range of skill.