Sr. Staff Engineer - Back End (Wildfire)

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 163,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Principal Security Researcher to lead vulnerability research and production‑quality detections within our Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) stack. You will shape ATP’s detection strategy, drive exploit analysis efforts, and mentor fellow researchers in rigorous testing and validation.

The role combines hands‑on research with technical leadership, guiding cross‑functional teams across product, QA, and engineering to deliver scalable protections against real‑world

Qualifications

• Deep hands-on experience in vulnerability research, exploit analysis, IPS/IDS detection, or related threat prevention work.
• Proven ability to identify critical problems, propose detection ideas, drive execution, and deliver measurable impact.
• Strong understanding of vulnerability classes and exploit techniques across memory corruption, injection, RCE, XSS, SQLi, CSRF, and related areas.
• Experience translating vulnerability insights into production‑quality detections and protections.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex technical work with ambiguity and guide researchers or developers.
• Shape ATP detection strategy and drive deployment of new protections.
• Provide hands-on leadership in vulnerability research, exploit analysis, and production detection work.
• Collaborate with product, QA, engineering, and research partners to ensure production-ready protections.

Skills

Vulnerability research

Exploit analysis

IPS/IDS detection

Offensive security

Network protocols

AI/ML in security

Leadership

Communication

Programming/scripting

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science/Engineering or related field

Tools

Python

Research tooling

Job description

Principal Security Researcher

Santa Clara, California, United States of America

San Francisco, California, United States of America

San Jose, California, United States of America

Product Engineering Ref ID: JR-019138

Our Mission

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

You will be part of the team that builds and delivers the threat detection capabilities powering Palo Alto Networks’ Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP). The ATP detection team is responsible for decoding network protocols, identifying applications, and detecting threats across our enterprise customers’ networks. As a Principal Security Researcher, you will play a key technical leadership role in shaping how ATP detects and prevents real‑world attacks. You will propose and drive innovative technical ideas from concept to production, own multiple projects or a broader technical area with measurable impact, and provide technical leadership to other researchers or developers. This is a hands‑on leadership role: you are expected to define direction, make technical decisions, and contribute directly to vulnerability research, exploit analysis, and production detection work.

Your 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.

Qualifications

• 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.

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 (opens in new window) (opens in new window).

$162,700.00 - $263,175.00/yr

Our Commitment

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 [e-mail] (opens in new window) (opens in new window).

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?: Yes