Palo Alto Sr Staff Research Analyst Cortex Vulnerability Management Scanning 

United States, California 

834955824

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

• Conduct vulnerability assessment research and testing, enhance automation processes, and ensure a smooth workflow for identifying, validating and mitigating customer security risks.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive, industry-leading repository of vulnerability content for network and endpoint based scanners to enhance detection and mitigation strategies.

• Analyze existing solutions, identify barriers to quality, recommend changes, then implement.

• Take part in architecture strategy sessions; design solutions that accommodate the requirements of the various groups across Cortex.

• Collaborate with teams to solve problems, reduce technical debt, and evolve development practices. Drive technical best practices and evangelize new technologies within the engineering organization.

• Mentor other researchers and ensure that your team delivers high-quality output.

• Take ownership of projects, drive them to completion, and support them in production.

Your Experience

• 4+ years of experience in vulnerability management, security research, or penetration testing.

• Strong understanding of TCP/IP and common networking protocols (e.g., HTTP, FTP, SSH, SNMP), with practical experience applying this knowledge in the context of network-based vulnerability scanning and asset discovery.

• Familiarity with common open source security software such as Nuclei, OpenVAS, or Nmap.

• Experience authoring and conducting vulnerability assessments on one or more operating system platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS, or Unix-based) using agent-based and network-based scanning tools.

• Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks and vulnerability methodologies.

• Familiarity with current penetration and security assessment tools such as Metasploit, Nmap, Burp Suite, Wireshark, etc.

• Cybersecurity knowledge demonstrated with base level certifications (eg. OSCP, GPEN, or Pentest+) or willingness to obtain.

• Experience contributing to public vulnerability research, submitting CVEs or creating proof-of-concept exploits.

Nice To Haves

• Able to switch between research, design, prototype, and implementation.

• Proficient in Python. Familiar with, or eager to learn Java, Golang, C/C++ or RUST.

• Hands-on experience configuring, tuning and troubleshooting enterprise vulnerability-management platforms (e.g. Nessus, Qualys, Tenable, Rapid7) and interpreting scan-data to validate and prioritize remediation.

• Experience deploying and managing vulnerability assessment solutions (agent-based and network-based) to support compliance initiatives such as SOC 2, or CIS Benchmarks, including policy configuration, scan scheduling, and evidence generation for audits.

• Experience using cloud managed services (ideally in GCP).

• Are familiar with distributed data stores, such as BigQuery and BigTable, as well as relational databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL.

• Familiarity with patch management processes and tools (eg.WSUS or SCCM) knowing how vulnerabilities are remediated.

• Familiarity with embedded systems, mobile platforms (eg Android and iOS).

• Knowledge of network architectures; understands subnetting and routing and how VLANs work and affect network scanning.

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/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $151,000 - $200,000/YRThe offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found .

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.