Principal Security Researcher – Security Automation - EDR, NDR(Cortex Cloud)

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

Imagine waking up each morning knowing the automations you shipped yesterday are already defusing threats while most of the world still sleeps. Our senior research team pushes SOAR beyond “orchestrate” toward true autonomous response, crafting detection-driven playbooks that don’t just raise tickets—they act, heal, and verify at machine speed.

Joining us means immersing yourself in a lab where Cortex XSIAM, EDR, NDR, identity, and cloud telemetry converge into one decision engine. You will investigate attacker tradecraft, mine high-volume datasets for actionable patterns, and translate those insights into Python-powered playbooks ready for real-world deployment. Every workflow you design trims analyst toil and tightens the feedback loop between signal and remediation.

If you thrive on deep technical challenges, value clean, testable code, and want your research to reach real customers quickly, this role will keep you engaged and constantly learning.

Your Impact

• Develop comprehensive IR playbooks integrating high-fidelity alerts with secure and verifiable remediation steps across various security domains (Endpoint, Identity, Cloud, DSPM, NDR).
• Leverage extensive telemetry data to inform decisions, validate assumptions, and implement findings as production-ready automation workflows.
• Deliver impactful automations that significantly increase the rate of fully autonomous remediations for global customers.
• Continuously monitor advanced persistent threat (APT) tactics, red-team tools, and emerging techniques, incorporating this knowledge into new security content.
• Collaborate closely with senior researchers to improve workflows and guide the broader detection community.

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• 5+ years in DFIR, threat-hunting, or red-team roles with a strong understanding of the incident response lifecycle.
• Proficiency in analyzing high-volume, multi-source telemetry to make clear decisions.
• Deep familiarity of attacker methodologies (MITRE ATT&CK, LOLBins, cloud kill chains).
• Proven Python development skills for production environments.
• Expertise in SQL and large-scale data handling (pandas, NumPy, BigQuery, etc.).
• Independent and collaborative work ethic with strong critical thinking abilities.

Advantages:

• Hands-on experience authoring SOAR playbooks (Cortex XSOAR/XSIAM preferred).
• Previous experience in content or engineering for XDR, EDR, NDR, or SOAR products.
• Background in machine learning or statistical modeling for detection and response.
• Practical experience with big data platforms.

Additional Information

The Team

Our research team is at the core of our products and connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating — challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. Our researchers don’t shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before.

We define the industry instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment.

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.