Sr Staff Security Researcher (Decoder)
About the role
The Decoder team at Palo Alto Networks is responsible for developing the Intrusion Prevention System to power the company's next-generation firewall. This role involves researching networking protocols, file types, and defense mechanisms against protocol and firewall evasions. Key responsibilities include developing protocol and file decoders, integrating detection solutions with Palo Alto Networks products, building common services for various network security services, and creating internal tools for monitoring and supporting cyber security products.
Responsibilities
- Research networking protocols and related application networking behavior.
- Research file types and file properties.
- Research and provide defense mechanisms against popular protocol/firewall evasions.
- Develop protocol and file decoders, and integrate the detection solutions with Palo Alto Networks products.
- Build common services to support various network security services.
- Develop internal tools to monitor and support the cyber security products.
- Collaborate with different intelligent teams to discover and integrate advanced cybersecurity features to inline product solutions.
Requirements
- Strong programming and debugging skills, experience coding in Go required and C/C++ experience preferred.
- Excellent understanding of L4-7 networking protocols such as HTTP, TLS, SMTP, FTP, Websocket, GRPC, TCP/IP, etc.
- Experience with packet processing, stream reassembly, protocol parsing, and traffic analysis systems.
- Familiar with Linux/Unix development environment.
- Team player, and good communication skills to work with cross-functional groups.
Qualifications
- BS/MS in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering or equivalent Military experience.
- 3+ years industry experience.
- Knowledge and experience of next generation firewall and cyber security services.
- Understanding of protocol evasion techniques, fragmentation, and traffic obfuscation.
- Experience with Suricata, Zeek, eBPF, DPDK, or similar technologies.
- Experience with pattern matching engines, rule-based detection systems, or DFA/NFA concepts.
- Familiarity with performance profiling tools such as pprof, perf, or valgrind.
- Experience applying AI techniques to traffic classification, protocol identification, or anomaly detection is a big plus.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of protocol evasion techniques, fragmentation, and traffic obfuscation.
- Experience with Suricata, Zeek, eBPF, DPDK, or similar technologies.
- Experience with pattern matching engines, rule-based detection systems, or DFA/NFA concepts.
- Familiarity with performance profiling tools such as pprof, perf, or valgrind.
- Experience applying AI techniques to traffic classification, protocol identification, or anomaly detection is a big plus.
Pay
$139,600.00 - $225,775.00/yr
Schedule
Most of the teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when needed.
Benefits
Details on benefits may be found here.
Skills
Not specified
Benefits
Not specified
Schedule
Not specified
Pay
Not specified
Role Eligibility for Immigration Sponsorship
No