Sr. Staff Security Researcher

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

Job Summary

We are seeking a passionate and self-driven Sr. Staff Researcher to join our Cloud-Delivered Security Services this role you will be pivotal in developing and refining the security content that powers our next-generation products. You will build and optimize automation systems to process real-time data collaborate with experienced researchers to analyze emerging threats and contribute directly to the detection and prevention of malware and other digital threats.

Key Responsibilities

• Design build and optimize automation systems for real-time data collection and processing to support threat detection.

• Apply advanced AI/ML methods including anomaly detection and deep learning to analyze real network traffic for threat detection and mitigation.

• Conduct in-depth research on network security countermeasures to identify and mitigate sophisticated cyber attacks.

• Proactively collaborate with fellow security researchers to analyze adversarial activities and implement robust proactive protections.

• Building high-quality complex systems as a part of an incredible research team - creative thinker and team player with a passion for data-driven and AI-driven security research.

• Translate threat research findings into tangible security solutions and protections within our product ecosystem.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• MS and/or PhD with 3-5 years of experience

• Strong research communication and presentational skills.

• Basic understanding of malware types (e.g. phishing Spyware Ransomware Exploits) and popular vulnerabilities (e.g. command injection buffer overflow).

• Strong familiarity with key network protocols such as HTTP SMTP DNS TCP/IP and FTP.

• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python or Go.

• Strong engineering and coding skills ability to fastly learn and adapt to new programming languages and technologies.

• In-depth cybersecurity background ideally with expertise in detecting security threats over the Internet.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ML/GenAI techniques (e.g. anomaly detection deep learning NLP) tools (e.g. TensorFlow PyTorch Scikit-Learn) - including training and testing workflows and technologies.

• Practical exposure to malware analysis and Capture-the-Flag (CTF) exercises.

• Hands-on experience with traffic analysis tools (e.g. Wireshark tcpdump) and reverse engineering tools.

• Prior work experience in early-stage fast-growth startups is a plus.

• Hands-on experience on open source projects is a plus.

• Experience with malware traffic analysis signature mining sandboxing is a plus.

• Experience with crawling infrastructures and security scanners is a plus.

• Experience with email or browser security is a plus.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications experience and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary commission target (for sales/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

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.