Director AI Security Research (Prisma AIRS)

Palo Alto Networks • Santa Clara, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Your Career The Prisma AIRS team is building the future of AI security. With organizations building complex ecosystems of AI models, applications, and agents, a dynamic new attack surface is emerging. Prisma AIRS delivers a comprehensive platform for AI security, encompassing model security, posture management, AI red teaming, and runtime protection. As the Director AI Security Research, you will lead an elite team of researchers focused on discovering and mitigating novel threats against AI systems. You will be the organization's subject-matter expert on the AI attack surface, blending deep technical research with strategic leadership. Your team's work will directly shape our product strategy, inform our detection and prevention capabilities, and establish Palo Alto Networks as the definitive leader in AI security research.

Requirements

• Education: MS or PhD in Computer Science or a related field with a focus on AI/ML or cybersecurity is highly preferred.
• Experience: 10+ years of hands-on experience in the cybersecurity research field, with at least 3+ years in a leadership or management role.
• AI/ML Expertise: Deep practical and theoretical knowledge of modern AI systems, infrastructure, and data pipelines. Proven track record of discovering security issues related to AI systems is a major plus.
• Security Acumen: Strong understanding of the attacker mindset and proven experience in vulnerability research, offensive security, or threat detection engineering.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a strong ability to articulate highly complex technical concepts and research findings to diverse audiences, including executives and customers.
• Data-Driven: Strong proficiency in data analysis and scripting (e.g., Python) and hands-on experience with query languages and databases (SQL, KQL, etc.).

Nice To Haves

• A public portfolio of research, including blog posts, conference talks, research papers or vulnerability disclosures.
• Experience with cloud security (AWS, GCP, Azure) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Hands-on experience in building, training, and deploying ML models in a production environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead Advanced Research: Build and mentor a world-class applied research team focused on discovering and creating proof-of-concepts for new security vulnerabilities related to AI models, AI infrastructure, and AI-driven applications.
• Drive Protection Strategy: Partner directly with engineering and product leaders to translate research findings into tangible, customer-facing security protections. Design practical, product-level mitigations to prevent novel attacks on AI systems.
• Innovate with AI: Leverage Palo Alto Networks' security leadership to derive new insights, identify emerging threat trends, and build novel AI/ML-driven detection methodologies.
• Thought Leadership: Serve as a primary AI security subject-matter expert for the company. Publish cutting-edge research through technical blogs, white papers, research papers and conference presentations, establishing industry-wide influence.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with product management and engineering teams to ensure our platform is protected against the threats you discover.
• Customer & Industry Engagement: Collaborate with industry partners, the open-source community, and key customers to share findings and advance the state of AI security.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees