Principal / Sr. Principal Security Research - Advanced Cyber Research (Cortex)

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to 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 you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re 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!

We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Summary

We are seeking a visionary and highly technical Principal / Sr. Principal Security Researcher to join our security research team. In this role, you will be at the forefront of innovating automated defense systems to rapidly protect platform customers against advanced cyber threats at an unprecedented scale. This position offers a unique opportunity to blend deep traditional cybersecurity expertise - including OS internals, reverse engineering, and advanced detection engineering with cutting-edge AI technologies like LLMs, SLMs, and agentic workflows.

You will spearhead the creation of innovative prevention solutions, leveraging massive streams of agent telemetry to design AI-driven logic that neutralizes threats before they execute. As a key technical leader, you will partner closely with top-tier data scientists and product engineers to translate cutting-edge security research into production-grade capabilities, ensuring we stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop Automated Defense Systems: Create, engineer, and deploy automated solutions for the prevention and detection of advanced cyber threats, analyzing complex data to rapidly protect platform customers at scale.
• Innovate with AI: Partner closely with data scientists to leverage LLMs, SLMs & deeplearning techniques to fuel these advanced prevention solutions and automated defense capabilities.
• Enhance Palo Alto Networks Agentix: Research, develop, and continuously improve the Agentix solution. Drive the development of next-generation security content by designing and implementing specialized AI agents to automate security operations and workflows.
• Drive Security Innovations: Spearhead new research initiatives from the ground up. Act as the primary driver across key stakeholders, leading top-tier data scientists and engineers to ensure the successful delivery of enterprise-grade security capabilities.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in the cybersecurity research field.
• Threat Research & OS Internals: Proven track record of applying deep cyber and analytical expertise to build robust security logic using endpoint telemetry. Supported by a profound understanding of Windows and Linux OS/kernel internals to engineer advanced defenses.
• Reverse engineering experience: Demonstrated expertise in reverse engineering (e.g., IDA Pro, Ghidra) across multiple platforms to dissect malware and identify sophisticated attack vectors.
• Programming & Native Code Comprehension: Strong proficiency in Python for data analysis and rapid prototyping, combined with the ability to comprehend native code (C, C++, or Rust) to effectively read and interpret agent code, low-level system interactions, and memory operations.
• End-to-End Research Ownership: A scientific, data-driven approach to solving complex security challenges, with a proven track record of owning research initiatives from initial ideation through to the deployment of production-grade capabilities.
• Communication & Mentorship: Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex threat research to diverse audiences, mentor junior team members, and champion security initiatives across the organization.

• AI Agents & Frameworks: Hands-on experience developing and working with AI Agents and agentic workflows. Technical understanding of the architectural distinctions between an agent, a skill, and Model Context Protocol (MCP). Proven experience utilizing common agentic frameworks.
• Data Scale & Telemetry Analysis: Proficiency in query languages (e.g., SQL) and big data platforms (e.g., GCP) to parse, manipulate, and query large-scale agent telemetry, extracting actionable security insights and uncovering threat patterns from massive datasets.

We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t 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 [email protected].

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.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.