Senior Staff Researcher

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

This role is remote, but distance is no barrier to impact. Our hybrid teams collaborate across geographies to solve big problems, stay close to our customers, and grow together. You will be part of a culture that values trust, accountability, and shared success where your work truly matters.

Job Description

Job SummaryAs a Senior Staff 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 ResponsibilitiesDesign, 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 (Additional Job Description)

Required Qualifications4+ 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 QualificationsProficiency 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.