Sr Staff Security Researcher (AI-Assisted Vulnerability Research)

Qualifications Your Experience Required

Qualifications: Master's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Demonstrated ability to independently drive a technical research project from problem formulation to implementation, evaluation, and written results. Evidence of original security research or high-signal technical output, such as CVEs, responsible disclosures, bug bounty findings, security conference papers, technical writeups, GitHub projects, fuzzers, harnesses, exploit analyses, AI/security benchmarks, open-source security tools, or comparable research artifacts. 5+ years of experience in vulnerability research, offensive security research, reverse engineering, fuzzing, exploit development, program analysis, security automation, or a closely related security research role. Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following: vulnerability research, reverse engineering, fuzzing, exploit development, root-cause analysis, exploitability assessment, PoC development, patch analysis, program analysis, or security tooling. Experience designing or building reproducible security experiments, including target setup, harness development, validation logic, oracle design, evaluation metrics, false-positive analysis, or reporting workflows. Strong programming skills. Strong knowledge of modern operating systems, network protocols, application security, software vulnerability classes, and common exploitation or validation techniques. Strong written communication skills, including the ability to document methods, evidence, limitations, reproduction steps, impact, and remediation guidance clearly. Preferred

Qualifications: PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, Systems, Programming Languages, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated research experience. Experience building AI agent harnesses, fuzzing harnesses, evaluation harnesses, vulnerability validation workflows, exploitability triage systems, patch validation pipelines, security benchmarks, or open-source vulnerability research tooling. Experience handling real vulnerabilities end-to-end, including target selection, environment setup, harnessing, reproduction, root-cause analysis, exploitability assessment, patch comparison, responsible disclosure, and maintainer communication. Knowledge of security in one or more of the following areas: Web Security, OS & Kernel Security, Browser Security, Software Supply Chain Security, OT/IoT Security, Network/Protocol Security, Cloud Security, Application Security, file parser security, or protocol parser security. Strong practical artifacts are highly valued. A public track record of security research, such as conference presentations, publications, CVEs, responsible disclosures, bug bounty results, technical blogs, GitHub projects, open-source security tools, AI/security benchmarks, agent frameworks, or security research artifacts. High-impact maintainer relationships, experience reporting vulnerabilities to major open-source projects, or a track record of clear, actionable, well-received vulnerability disclosures is a strong 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 . $139,600.00 - $225,775.00/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

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