Senior Security Researcher

Palo Alto Networks•Santa Clara, CA

4d•$139,600 - $225,775•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Security Researcher, you will be at the forefront of cyber defense, focusing on vulnerability research, reverse engineering, and exploit development. You will leverage cutting-edge AI models to create agentic defenders and autonomous systems for vulnerability discovery, validation, and remediation. Your work will involve deep-dive analysis in areas like Web Security, OS & Kernel Security, Software Supply Chain Security, OT/IoT security, participation in bug bounties, and contributing to the global security community through CVEs and research.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
3+ years of experience in offensive security, vulnerability research, or a similar role.
Demonstrated experience in one or more of reverse engineering, fuzzing, exploit development, or vulnerability root-cause analysis.
Familiarity with penetration testing tools and methodologies, with emphasis on vulnerability discovery, exploitability assessment, and validation.
Strong knowledge of modern operating systems, network protocols, and application security.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or PhD in a relevant field.
Experience applying AI/ML models (LLMs, Reinforcement Learning) to cybersecurity challenges.
Knowledge of security in one or several of the following areas: Operational Technology (OT) or Internet of Things (IoT) systems, Web Security, OS & Kernel Security, Software Supply Chain Security, Browser Security.
A public track record of security research, such as conference presentations, publications, or CVEs.
Experience with model training, post-training, or evaluation techniques such as Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Reinforcement Learning, RLHF, or security-focused benchmark design.
Experience building AI agent harnesses, fuzzing harnesses, evaluation harnesses, or vulnerability validation workflows is a plus.

Responsibilities

Conduct advanced vulnerability research, reverse engineering, fuzzing, root-cause analysis, and exploit development across various platforms.
Leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced ML techniques to automate and scale bug hunting across diverse domains, including Web, OS & Kernel, Software Supply Chain, OT/IoT, and Browser Security.
Use AI agents to accelerate PoC generation, exploitability analysis, and finding validation, with an emphasis on reducing false positives.
Design and deploy AI-guided fuzzers, smart static/dynamic analysis tools, and autonomous agentic workflows specifically built for vulnerability research.
Develop and utilize agent harnesses for vulnerability discovery, PoC validation, patch validation, and defensive security research workflows.
Publish research, document findings, and contribute to the responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities (CVEs).