Malware Research Manager – Rapid Response (Cortex)

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks were united by a shared missionto protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here everyone has a voice and every idea counts. If youre ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are youre in the right place.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption Collaboration Execution Integrity and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest we invite you to join us!

Job Summary

As the Manager of the Rapid Response (RR) team you will lead a group of malware analysts responsible for developing improving and deploying our rapid anti-malware prevention capabilities. Your team is on the front lines of statically analyzing urgent customer issues stopping malicious activities in their tracks and developing to halt attacks at the earliest possible this role you will guide the teams technical direction drive automation initiatives and act as the critical bridge between frontline support global research and engineering.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead mentor and develop a team of fast-paced malware analysts fostering a play to win culture.

• Oversee the daily triage investigation and resolution of urgent customer escalations specifically False Positive (FP) and False Negative (FN) malware prevention events - ensuring swift and accurate mitigation.

• Drive the teams automation efforts identifying opportunities to automate routines to reduce response times and scale the teams capabilities.

• Direct the analysis of emerging malware families OS internals and attack frameworks to ensure the team maintains an up-to-date overview of the current threat landscape.

• Guide the development of rapid high-quality prevention signatures (e.g. YARA IPS) to enhance product coverage.

• Act as the primary technical escalation point and work in close coordination with global research teams support engineering and other cross-functional stakeholders.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 2 years of experience managing or technically leading a security research SOC Incident Response or malware analysis team.

• Strong technical background in malware analysis OS internals and the broader threat landscape (including common attacker tools tactics and techniques).

• Experience managing high-pressure customer escalations and team resources in a dynamic fast-paced environment (with the understanding that rapid response occasionally requires handling critical issues during non-regular hours and in rare cases weekends or holidays).

• Strong sense of ownership exceptional organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.

• Experience with signature development (YARA IPS)

• Familiarity with Python Git and data querying (SQL/BigQuery) coupled with a strong mindset for driving automation and process digitization within a team.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English with the ability to articulate complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical cross-functional teams.

Our Commitment

Were trailblazers that dream big take risks and challenge cybersecuritys status quo. Its simple: we cant accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need please contact us at .

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age ancestry color family or medical care leave gender identity or expression genetic information marital status medical condition national origin physical or mental disability political affiliation protected veteran status race religion sex (including pregnancy) sexual orientation or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.