Palo Alto Networks · 1 week ago
Director AI Security Research (Prisma AIRS)
Santa Clara, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
10+ years expPalo Alto Networks is a company committed to being the cybersecurity partner of choice. As the Director AI Security Research, you will lead a team focused on discovering and mitigating threats against AI systems, shaping product strategy and enhancing detection capabilities.
Agentic AICloud SecurityCyber SecurityNetwork SecuritySecurity
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
Qualification
Required
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.)
Preferred
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
Benefits
Restricted stock units
Bonus
Company
Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is a cybersecurity company that offers cybersecurity solutions for organizations.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Palo Alto Networks has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (579)
2024 (482)
2023 (341)
2022 (452)
2021 (493)
2020 (235)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$65MKey Investors
Icon VenturesLehman HoldingsGlobespan Capital Partners
2012-07-20IPO
2008-11-03Series C· $10M
2008-08-18Series C· $27M
Leadership Team
Helmut Reisinger
CEO EMEA
Nikesh Arora
Chairman CEO
Recent News
2026-01-09
2026-01-08
Company data provided by crunchbase