Principal Researcher (Cortex)

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

Job Summary

As a Principal Security Researcher for Cortex Cloud, you will be integral to protecting cloud applications from expanding threats. You will identify, research, and develop security and compliance detection rules to safeguard customers from misconfigurations. This role involves leading groundbreaking cybersecurity research and collaborating with top-tier engineering and product teams to ensure every business can operate securely in the cloud.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain detection rules to protect against attacks and ensure cloud security compliance.
• Conduct research on emerging cloud services and identify potential security misconfigurations.
• Investigate cloud attack techniques and tactics, mapping detection methods to security frameworks and compliance standards.
• Propose and implement innovative security detection rules to enhance our defense mechanisms.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to simplify and improve security operations outcomes.
• Actively contribute to process enhancements in security content development, automation, and deployment practices.
• Engage in public forums and publish research to establish industry thought leadership and advocate for security best practices.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications-

• 8+ years of experience in the security compliance and threat research domain.
• Minimum of 2 years of hands-on experience in public cloud security and compliance (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Strong command-line skills and troubleshooting experience in Linux environments.

Preferred Qualifications-

• Proficiency in Python programming and knowledge of GenAI/LLM based automations.
• Familiarity with Git version control, CI/CD pipelines, and bug tracking tools.
• Experience with BigQuery, SQL, JSON, REST APIs, and Terraform.

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  accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

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.