Senior Principal Security & Detection Engineer

Jobs Paloaltonetworks; United States; On-site; USD 184,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Security / Detection Engineer to analyze multi-stage attack behavior and translate it into deterministic signatures. You’ll own the end-to-end detection lifecycle, from rule creation to FP tuning, ensuring high performance for inline engines without degrading throughput.

You’ll collaborate with threat research and ML teams to integrate behavioral signatures with automated classifiers, leveraging MITRE ATT&CK mappings to strengthen defenses.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Cyber Security, or equivalent practical experience.
• 4+ years of dedicated experience in detection engineering, threat analysis, or security research.
• Deep expertise in writing and optimizing signature-based patterns (e.g., custom Snort/Suricata rules, Yara, PAN-OS custom threat signatures).
• Thorough understanding of application-layer evasion techniques.
• Strong knowledge of the detection-as-code philosophy and building automated testing pipelines for signature validation.
• Experience with Python, Regex, or other scripting tools to automate packet capture analysis, rule creation, and parsing threat telemetry.
• Solid understanding of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and translating offensive techniques into robust defensive controls.

Responsibilities

• Analyze complex, multi-stage attack behavior sequences and transform them into precise, deterministic signatures.
• Develop and maintain high-performance signatures that can be safely enforced by inline engines without impacting network throughput.
• Own the entire signature lifecycle from research and threat modeling to deployment, automated regression testing, and deprecation.
• Drive continuous False Positive tuning and validation to minimize alert fatigue while maximizing true positive detection rates.
• Implement version pinning strategies and dependency management for threat content updates across distributed firewall deployments.
• Partner with threat research groups and inline machine learning teams to integrate behavioral signatures with automated deep learning classifiers.

Skills

Detection engineering

Threat analysis

Security research

Python programming

Regex/scripting

MITRE ATT&CK

Threat telemetry parsing

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or Cyber Security

Tools

Snort/Suricata rules

Yara

PAN-OS threat signatures

Job description

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Security / Detection Engineer to analyze multi-stage attack behavior and translate it into deterministic signatures. You’ll own the end-to-end detection lifecycle, from rule creation to FP tuning, ensuring high performance for inline engines without degrading throughput.

You’ll collaborate with threat research and ML teams to integrate behavioral signatures with automated classifiers, leveraging MITRE ATT&CK mappings to strengthen defenses.