Sr. Security Research Engineer

About

Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity. We protect how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools. Over 80 % of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations trust Proofpoint to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience across their people and AI workflows. Our mission is simple: safeguard the digital world and empower people to work securely and confidently.

How We Work

At Proofpoint you'll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values:

• Bold in how we dream and innovate
• Responsive to feedback, challenges and opportunities
• Accountable for results and best‑in‑class outcomes
• Visionary in future‑focused problem‑solving
• Exceptional in execution and impact

The Role

As a Sr. Security Research Engineer on Proofpoint's Threat Research team, you’ll be part of a highly‑collaborative, industry‑leading team focused on tracking threat actors and their associated tactics, techniques, and procedures. This role is designed to enable research and analysis activities by creating tooling to enhance or automate workflows and to facilitate tracking and data analysis processes.

If desired, the role also offers the opportunity to undertake research in pursuit of the Threat Research program’s mission to find and remediate malicious activity in Proofpoint datasets. The work directly impacts the efficacy of Proofpoint products, the quality of Proofpoint’s intelligence, and the protection of Proofpoint customers.

Your day‑to‑day (Responsibilities)

• Stay abreast of a constantly evolving threat landscape and modern tech stacks needed to support research.
• Work in partnership with threat researchers to design and implement tools and systems which enable their ability to track, contextualize, and report on malicious activity.
• Liaise with other engineering units within Proofpoint to ensure stakeholder requirements are communicated and act as a consultant to help those units understand the needs of a security‑focused end‑user constituency.
• Work effectively as part of a remote team using chat, video chat, and conference calls.

What you bring to the team (Requirements)

• Passion for threat research and a well‑rounded understanding of the threat landscape.
• Ability to understand the threat researcher’s needs, transform them into consistent & efficient system requirements, and implement them.
• Experience developing tooling in a variety of programming languages, predominantly Python.
• Experience integrating existing tooling into comprehensive systems that are deployable to a distributed team (DevOps, architecture).
• Experience working with large datasets and associated tools and libraries, such as relational databases, AWS, Splunk, Pandas, Jupyter, etc.
• Self‑directed and accountable.
• Outstanding communication skills and the ability to present complex technical topics to a variety of internal stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Understanding of malware analysis fundamentals, e.g., interpreting the results of sandbox analysis.
• Experience with LLM and agent/agentic framework development and support.
• Prior experience tracking threat actors and/or malware families.
• Experience performing the above in a fully remote environment.

Additional Information

• Travel: 10 %

Why Proofpoint? (Benefits)

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive benefits
• Career success on your terms
• Flexible work environment
• Annual wellness and community outreach days
• Ongoing recognition for your contributions
• Global collaboration and networking opportunities

Our Culture

Our culture is rooted in values that inspire belonging, empower purpose, and drive success‑every day, for everyone. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to accessibility@proofpoint.com.