Senior Staff Security Researcher (Wildfire)

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.

FLEXWORK is an employee-centric reimagining of how we work. We built FLEXWORK based on employee feedback – it is about flexibility, trust, and choice whenever possible. It’s been a journey of disruption that has yielded the best of our values. We offer as much flexibility as possible, and choices that enable you to be most productive, including benefits that meet your needs and learning opportunities that you feel passionate about.

Job Description

Your Career

We are the WildFire Team in the Content Delivered Security Service (CDSS) organization. Our engineering and Security Research team is at the core of our products and deliver the best of security services in the cloud to prevent cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating and challenging the way we, and the whole industry, think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don't shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before.

As a member of the team, you will work with researchers on implementing different projects that detect and defend against various emerging threats. You will be a key person in transforming ideas into products which are part of the next generation security platform. The team is responsible for innovating new security techniques.

We expect office-based employees to be in the office four days per week, with one day working from where they choose. We believe being together facilitates casual conversations and those magic moments where we can work on issues and ideas informally. These moments build capability and deepen trusted relationships and allow our people to feel safe in taking risks and being disruptive. Like so many companies, we are working through the details and things could change …. but in general if a role is deemed office-based we want our teams to be together four days per week.

Your Impact

• Track and research emerging malware families and innovate new ways to identify malicious behaviors
• Participate/lead in the complete software development life cycle including requirement analysis, architectural design, development, testing, deployment and operation support
• Write clean, testable, readable, scalable and maintainable Python/C code that scales and performs well for thousands of customers
• Design and build cloud native scalable systems
• Clearly communicate goals and desired outcomes to internal project teams
• Collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to continually improve the systems

Qualifications

Your Experience

• At least 2+ years security industry experience including but not limited to malware analysis & detection, reverse engineering
• Proficiency in at least one of the programming languages - Python, Java, C, Golang 
• Experience with malware analysis on the MacOS/Linux/Android platform is a big plus
• Experience with vulnerability research is a big plus
• Low-level development and debugging experience on the operating system, hypervisor or emulator is a plus
• Good knowledge of machine learning models and experience in AI and data driven approaches is a plus
• Hands on and can-do attitude, willing to learn new technologies
• Be comfortable working independently and efficiently
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) and presentation skills
• BS/MS/PhD in computer science/engineering, or equivalent experience or equivalent military experience required

Additional Information

The Team

To stay ahead of the curve, it’s critical to know where the curve is, and how to anticipate the changes we’re facing. For the fastest growing cybersecurity company, the curve is the evolution of cyberattacks, and the products and services that proactively address them. Our engineering team is at the core of our products – connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. They are constantly innovating – challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. These engineers aren’t shy about creating products to solve problems no one has tackled before. They define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital en