Palo Alto Sr Principal AI Researcher/Machine Learning Engineer Cortex 

United States, California 

203449997

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

Your Impact

• Advance the state of the art in Cybersecurity through applied research in Large Language Models, Transformer-based Encoders, Natural Language and Structured Data Processing, Generative AI, Agentic AI, and Deep Learning
• Design and implement research experiments to demonstrate increased accuracy, efficiency, and helpfulness of novel AI systems and techniques
• Train and fine-tune large-scale language models using GPU-accelerated infrastructure
• Develop and implement evaluation metrics for assessing model quality, efficiency, and robustness
• Stay at the forefront of AI advancements and integrate state-of-the-art techniques into our models
• Collaborate with engineers to translate research into production-ready AI systems
• Communicate with AI experts throughout the organization to share research findings and technical progress
• Publish findings in top-tier AI/ML conferences and journals, and participate in relevant conferences and workshops to share knowledge and stay current with industry trends

Your Experience

• Published research in AI/ML, with an advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent published research experience
• 7+ years of relevant experience in AI
• Proven expertise in training, fine-tuning, and evaluating LLMs and with GPU-accelerated model training
• Proficiency in deep learning frameworks, distributed training techniques, and large-scale datasets
• Excellent research programming skills in Python and familiarity with CUDA, TensorRT, or other GPU optimization tools
• Have a strong working knowledge of machine learning algorithms such as LLMs, CNNs, LSTMs, XGBoost/CatBoost, Byte Pair Encoding schemes, etc.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Thrives when working on open-ended problems without known solutions

The Ideal Candidate Would Have One of More of the Following:

• Experience with transformer models in domains beyond text (structured data, tabular data, multi-modal vision-language, audio-text, etc.)
• Knowledge of model distillation, quantization, or pruning techniques
• Experience with distributed cloud systems like GCP or AWS and containerization tools like Docker a plus
• Previous experience applying AI/ML techniques to cybersecurity problems
• Knowledge of data privacy and security considerations in AI/ML
• A solid network of AI Researchers you can reach out to for ideas and external collaboration

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 $179000/yr - $290500/yr. The 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.