Senior Threat Researcher - Agentic Endpoint Security(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

What you will do

• Research threat actors, campaigns, and techniques relevant to browser extensions, SaaS apps, autonomous agents, MCP/tooling ecosystems, and related endpoint behaviors.

• Build and maintain threat intelligence: TTPs, IOCs where appropriate, ATT&CK-style mappings, and internal knowledge bases.

• Design, test, and tune detection logic (behavioral rules, heuristics, models, or equivalent) in collaboration with detection and data science teams.

• Analyze customer and telemetry datasets to find novel abuse patterns, false positives, and detection gaps.

• Produce clear outputs for multiple audiences: technical blogs, customer-facing briefings, internal playbooks, and engineering specs.

• Work with reverse engineering, data engineering, and product to turn research into durable platform capabilities.

• Participate in incident-driven research and time-sensitive investigations when new threats emerge.

Qualifications

Required qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in cyber threat research, threat intelligence, or detection engineering (commercial, government, or high-quality independent research).

• Strong understanding of offensive techniques and how they appear in endpoint, identity, or SaaS/browser telemetry—not only classic PE malware.

• Proficiency in scripting for analysis (e.g., Python), SQL, SIEM or equivalent investigative query languages, and low-level inspection of behaviors relevant to threat research and detection.

• Excellent written communication; ability to explain tradeoffs between precision, coverage, and operational load.

• Collaborative mindset; experience working with engineering teams on shipped features or detections.

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.