Principal Security Researcher – Advanced Threat Prevention

Palo Alto Networks

Principal Security Researcher responsible for shaping threat detection strategies at Palo Alto Networks. Leading innovative detection projects and providing technical guidance to researchers and developers.

Posted 7/18/2026full-timeSanta Clara • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $162,700 - $263,175 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates deep hands-on experience in vulnerability research, exploit analysis, and IPS/IDS detection, with a strong ability to translate technical understanding into production-quality protections. Proven leadership in guiding technical teams and influencing cross-functional decisions to enhance security measures and detection strategies.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Vulnerability ResearchExploit AnalysisIPS/IDS DetectionProgramming or Scripting SkillsNetwork Protocols Understanding

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Vulnerability ResearchExploit AnalysisIPS/IDS DetectionMemory CorruptionSQL InjectionRCEXSSAutomationDetection DevelopmentNetwork Detections

Soft Skills

Strong Communication SkillsTechnical LeadershipProblem DecompositionExecution Guidance

Tools & Technologies

AIMLResearch ToolingDetection Pipeline Improvements

Certifications & Qualifications

BS/MS in Computer ScienceComputer EngineeringCybersecurity

Industry Keywords

Zero-DaysCVEAttack VectorsApplication-Layer BehaviorTechnical Review Standards

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Cyber SecurityDNSSMTPSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Shape ATP detection strategy by identifying important vulnerability, exploit, and attack technique areas where new or improved protections are needed.
Drive innovative detection ideas from concept to production, delivering measurable improvements in coverage, quality, speed, or scalability.
Improve rapid response capability for zero-days, high-impact CVEs, and emerging attack vectors by guiding technical assessment, detection strategy, and release decisions.
Raise the quality and consistency of IPS protections by defining detection approaches, validation expectations, and technical review standards for complex cases.
Expand the team’s ability to deliver protections at scale through practical automation, detection pipeline improvements, and AI-assisted research workflows.
Provide hands-on technical leadership to researchers or developers through direction, review, problem decomposition, and execution guidance.
Influence cross-functional decisions with product, QA, engineering, and research partners to ensure detections are technically sound, customer-relevant, and production-ready.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Deep hands-on experience in vulnerability research, exploit analysis, IPS/IDS detection, offensive security, or closely related threat prevention work.
Proven ability to identify important technical problems, propose detection ideas, drive execution, and deliver measurable product or customer impact.
Deep understanding of common vulnerability classes and exploit techniques, including memory corruption, injection, authentication bypass, path traversal, SSRF, RCE, XSS, SQL injection, CSRF, MITM, and DoS.
Strong ability to analyze vulnerability root cause, exploitability, PoC behavior, network traffic, protocol behavior, application-layer attack patterns, and detection tradeoffs.
Experience translating vulnerability or exploit understanding into production-quality IPS signatures, IDS detections, network detections, or other customer-facing protections.
Strong understanding of network protocols and application-layer behavior, especially HTTP, DNS, SMB, FTP, SMTP, TCP/UDP, TLS, and related protocols.
Strong programming or scripting skills for research automation, tooling, test generation, detection development, or pipeline improvements.
Ability to lead complex technical work under ambiguity, guide other researchers or developers, and make sound technical decisions under time pressure.
Experience using AI, ML, automation, or research tooling to improve security analysis, detection development, validation, or response workflows is highly desirable.
Foundational understanding of AI security scenarios or AI-assisted security workflows is a plus.
Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical direction across research, product, QA, and engineering partners.
BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Benefits

Comp & perks

A description of our employee benefits may be found here.