Sr. Principal Cybersecurity Researcher - Rapid Response (Unit 42)

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!

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 Summary

We are seeking a Senior Principal Threat Researcher for our Unit 42 Threat Intelligence team to lead coordination efforts during major global cyber events (Rapid Response). This individual plays a critical role in providing timely, actionable threat intelligence and rapid response reporting to provide insightful and actionable content which informs both our customers and internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary SME threat researcher within Unit 42 responsible for triaging, analyzing, and prioritizing emerging threats to determine applicability for declaring a rapid response.

• Triage and prioritize proposals from other researchers for possible rapid response engagements.

• Provide cross-team recommendations for which actions are appropriate to take during specific rapid responses. 

• Collaborate with threat analysts, detection engineers, and security consultants from various teams and departments within the organization. Foster strong relationships, gain buy-in across teams, share threat intelligence, and coordinate joint efforts to address complex threats that span multiple areas of expertise while driving towards a unified approach to reporting on emerging threats..

• Coordinate the development of actionable cross-team intelligence products relevant to both internal and external defenders, security engineers, and threat hunters. Spearhead writing and editing complex technical threat research that informs both executives and defenders of the threat context and technical mitigations

• Harness the full weight of the company's unique data holdings, including security product telemetry, front line Incident Response (IR) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR) data, and Intel Holdings. Utilize these resources to collect threat data and produce valuable insights that enhance the effectiveness and differentiation of our threat intelligence capabilities.

• Coordinate and balance priorities across diverse teams, including Communications, Legal, Policy, Marketing, to align external and internal messaging around global cyber events.

• Work closely with the external engagement team to manage the flow of Rapid Response content, including blogs, social media content, and updates on major cyber events that align with Palo Alto Networks role as a global cybersecurity leader. 

• Develop internal projects and processes to mature, improve, and scale our Rapid Response program.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Seasoned cyber threat intelligence researcher with experience assessing, prioritizing, and contextualizing emerging threat activity.   

• Highly organized with the ability to manage complex multi-tasking, prioritize effectively, and triage competing demands in a fast-paced environment.

• Ability to advance objectives across matrixed teams and influence without direct reporting authority. Demonstrated history of coordinating with cross-organizational threat analysts, facilitating collaboration, and aligning efforts to achieve common goals.

• Ability to pivot across Palo Alto Networks telemetry, paid data sources, and OSINT. 

• Experience reviewing and editing complex technical reporting, navigating differing viewpoints from multiple researchers and providing guidance and mentoring to teammates and stakeholders

• Demonstrated experience engaging with  executives and customers on threats, research, and mitigations 

• Proven experience implementing new processes for multiple stakeholders with different priorities and workflows.

• Experience building capabilities, which leverage AI, to improve the speed, quality, and breath of emerging threat intelligence ingests and outputs, moving the Rapid Response capability towards a more proactive and scalable program.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with graph databases (e.g. Synapse) is a plus.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

$188,000.00 - $304,075.00/yr

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  [email protected].

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?: Yes