Join Our Team at Proofpoint: Threat Research Engineer

At Proofpoint, we believe in our mission! Our commitment lies in bringing passion and customer focus to the forefront of our business. If you want to work in an environment where dedication and enthusiasm drive success, you’ll love being part of our team.

About Proofpoint

Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity firm dedicated to protecting organizations' most critical assets and biggest risks: their people. With an extensive suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint helps companies worldwide to counter targeted threats, secure their data, and fortify their workforce against cyber-attacks. Trusted by leading organizations, including more than half of the Fortune 1000, our people-centric security and compliance solutions offer comprehensive risk mitigation across email, cloud, social media, and web platforms.

Our singular focus on protecting our customers' most vital assets makes us a leader in next-generation cybersecurity. At Proofpoint, we believe Protection Starts with People.

Job Summary: Threat Research Engineer

We are seeking a Threat Research Engineer responsible for creating detections and enabling solutions to protect against emerging threats. This role involves developing rules for our Emerging Threats Pro IDS feed ruleset and static detections for email-based threats. You will research a dynamic landscape of phishing, malware, and exploits to create network and file-based signatures.

Responsibilities

• Write intrusion detection rules for Snort and Suricata platforms
• Create ClamAV rules for internal static processing
• Enhance current rules with additional metadata for better deployment granularity
• Respond to support questions regarding rule guidance and false positives
• Collaborate with the open-source community to maintain and optimize the ETOpen ruleset
• Research new and past threats, including malware, exploit kits, and vulnerabilities

Qualifications

• Creative and enthusiastic about the malware domain
• Insight into current and future threat landscapes
• Experience with network traffic inspection tools like Wireshark, tcpdump, Moloch, etc.
• Proficiency in writing signatures for Snort or Suricata IDS platforms
• Experience with YARA rules and ClamAV signature creation
• Familiarity with virtualization technologies (VMware, VirtualBox, KVM, etc.)
• Experience in scripting languages, with proficiency in Lua and Python preferred
• Competence in analyzing and interpreting host, network, and memory artifacts from sandbox environments
• Proficiency with PCRE
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work independently

Why Join Proofpoint?

At Proofpoint, protecting people is at the heart of everything we do. Our award-winning lineup of cybersecurity solutions is powered by a diverse, driven, and customer-focused team. We are an inclusive multinational company that values culture-add over culture-fit, encouraging individuals from all walks of life to apply.

We believe that hiring the best and the brightest fosters a culture of collaboration and appreciation. Explore your future with Proofpoint – apply today! #LifeAtProofpoint #LI-PH1

If you're passionate about growth and thrive in a vibrant, enthusiastic environment, you'll enjoy a fulfilling career with us!

Compensation and Benefits

In line with Proofpoint's values and applicable laws, we ensure pay transparency and equity. Our compensation structure reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. markets and varies based on job-specific knowledge, skills, and experience. The final offer will be tailored to the individual candidate. This position may also include variable pay and/or equity options.

We offer a competitive benefits package that features:

• Flexible time off
• A robust wellbeing program, including 4 global wellbeing days per year
• 3-week work-from-anywhere option

Base Pay Ranges

SF Bay Area, New York City Metro Area:
Base Pay Range: 105,420.00 - 165,660.00 USD

California (excluding SF Bay Area), Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington DC Metro, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Washington,