Senior Security Researcher - ITDR (Cortex)

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

Job Description

Your Career

We are looking for a Senior Security Researcher to join our Identity Threat Detection and Response team. 

In this role, you will research the evolving threat landscape and develop advanced detections to protect SAAS, Cloud, on-premises, and hybrid identities. You will focus on identifying and mitigating identity-related threats across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments, using statistical classification methods to build effective detection models and protecting customers at scale. Additionally, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams, validate detection concepts on real-world data, and continuously enhance detection capabilities to stay ahead of emerging threats.

Your Impact

• Research innovative methods for detecting targeted attackers operating in endpoints, networks, cloud and SAAS environments.
• Simulate real-world attacks in lab environments and conduct a deep analysis of the behavior.
• Develop and refine statistics-based classification algorithms and techniques to create and improve detection models.
• Research specific scenarios to enhance our model's capabilities.
• Collaborate within a diverse research group, improving our research processes and leading us to be a better team creating a better product.
• Stay informed on the latest APTs, attacker methodologies, and TTPs to ensure our models stay ahead of emerging threats.

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• At least 5 years’ experience with Active Directory security and identity related attacks.
• 2+ years of experience with Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) OR SAAS application - Advantage
• In-depth knowledge of the inner-workings of operating systems
• In-depth Knowledge of network protocols, including but not limited to Kerberos, RPC, SMB, HTTP, SMTP, DNS, DHCP,  etc.
• In-depth knowledge of enterprise infrastructure, including Active Directory, FW, VPN, Security products, etc.
• Experience with red-teaming / pentest of Entra ID - Advantage
• At least 2 Years of experience coding Python - Advantage
• Strong knowledge of SQL language - Advantage
• Experience with machine learning / data analysis / cloud infrastructure / security - Advantage
• Ability to drive and own projects from start to finish.
• Independent and a team player, a critical thinker.

Additional Information

The Team

Cyber threats are adapting fast in a new XDR reality, changing their shape, volumes and sophistication. Every day, SecOps put more and more time and human-power into handling new cybersecurity challenges. The UEBA team is exactly here to address these areas. We leverage the Palo Alto Networks rich cloud-power and visibility to build up data-driven technologies which can save invaluable hours in customers’ day to day security challenges.

Our Commitment

We’re problem solvers that 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.