# Sr. Threat Researcher

**Company:** [Illumio](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/illumio)
**Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
**Role:** Security Engineering
**Salary:** $170k – $196k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Mitre Att&Ck, Threat Intelligence, Detection Engineering, Security Telemetry, Ttp Mapping, Threat Hunting, Detection Rules, Security Graphs, Network Segmentation, Zero Trust, Adversary Emulation, Threat Research
**Posted:** 2026-05-12

> Senior Threat Researcher analyzes large-scale security datasets to identify attacker TTPs, maps threats to MITRE ATT&CK, and collaborates with product teams to enhance detection, risk insights, and segmentation strategies at a cybersecurity firm. Requires 5+ years in threat research or related fields.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

### Threat Research and Analysis
- Analyze large-scale security datasets to identify attacker behaviors, patterns, TTPs, and emerging risks.
- Map observed behaviors to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and real-world adversary tradecraft.
- Leverage the security graph to model attack paths and uncover opportunities to reduce the risk of lateral movement.
- Identify gaps in detection coverage, data enrichment, and segmentation effectiveness.
- Develop and validate hypotheses about evolving threats using research and intelligence sources.

### Product Impact and Innovation
- Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams to translate research findings into concrete improvements: enhanced detection logic and analytics, improved data tagging, enrichment, and graph quality, more actionable customer-facing risk insights.
- Recommend segmentation strategies and policy improvements to strengthen breach containment and limit lateral movement.
- Contribute to internal threat models and risk frameworks that directly inform product roadmap decisions.

### Strategic Guidance and Thought Leadership
- Provide expert guidance on emerging threats observable in our platform and their implications for customers.
- Support product, sales, and customer-facing teams with research-backed insights and threat context.
- Contribute to internal research, patents, and future external publications as the function matures.
- Track global adversary evolution to help shape long-term detection and risk strategies.

## Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in threat research, incident response, detection engineering, or adversary emulation.
- Strong understanding of attacker tradecraft across enterprise, cloud, and hybrid environments.
- Deep familiarity with the MITRE ATT&CK framework and real-world TTP mapping.
- Hands-on experience working with security telemetry sources.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex findings into clear, actionable insights.
- Comfort working in ambiguous environments and helping define new functions.
- Experience writing detection rules, analytics queries, or conducting threat hunting.

## Preferred Qualifications
- 7–10+ years in threat intelligence or security research roles.
- Experience analyzing security graphs or graph-based analytics for threat detection.
- Background in network segmentation, zero-trust architecture, or micro-segmentation.
- Proven ability to influence product development in a fast-paced environment.

**Bonus Points:**
- Previous experience at a cybersecurity product company.
- Track record of publishing threat research or speaking at industry conferences.
- Experience integrating external threat intelligence feeds.
- Relevant certifications (e.g., GCIH, GCFA, or similar). 

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