Senior Threat Researcher - AI

About Us: 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. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people.

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: We’re seeking a Senior Threat Researcher with a focus on AI-related threats and security challenges. You will hunt and analyze phishing, BEC, account takeover, and malware campaigns — including threats leveraging or targeting AI systems — turning complex activity into actionable insights for customers and internal teams. This role offers opportunities to present findings in technical briefings with customers and at industry events, and to occasionally contribute blog posts or reports. A critical part of the role is bridging traditional threat research with our Agentic Security initiatives: we are looking for a security professional with hands-on experience in modern AI technologies who can help the team assess emerging AI-driven risks and align research with Proofpoint’s broader AI-centric security strategy.

Your Day to Day:

• Hunt and analyze attack chains including phishing, BEC, account takeover, malware, and other threats, with a focus on campaigns that exploit or target AI systems.
• Track and profile threat actors, campaigns, and infrastructure over time, building high-fidelity models of adversary activity.
• Identify emerging trends, tactics, techniques, and tooling used by adversaries, and articulate their potential impact on customers and verticals.
• Provide actionable findings to detection, product, and engineering teams to improve customer protection and inform AI-driven defense strategies.
• Collaborate with engineering teams developing Proofpoint’s agentic AI solutions, ensuring security considerations are integrated and AI capabilities are leveraged effectively in research workflows.
• Explore and apply modern AI techniques to augment threat research, including clustering, attribution, campaign discovery, and prioritization.
• Occasionally deliver technical briefings to customers, user groups, and internal or external stakeholders.
• Collaborate on research projects with the wider threat research team and cross-functional AI security initiatives.
• Work effectively as part of a global, remote-first team using chat, video, and asynchronous collaboration tools.

Qualifications:

• Proven experience in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, incident response, or related fields.
• Strong foundation in threat research, cybercrime, fraud, or adversary-focused security work, with hands-on experience analyzing real-world attacks.
• Well-rounded understanding of the modern threat landscape, including phishing, BEC, account takeover, malware, and other email-borne threats.
• Practical working knowledge of modern AI technologies, including LLM frameworks, agentic AI systems, and AI-assisted tools.
• Experience building or experimenting with simple agentic AI applications leveraging LLM frameworks, MCP servers; AI engineering experience.
• Ability to translate complex technical findings into actionable insights and risk narratives for customers, internal teams, and executives.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative mindset, capable of working closely with detection, product, and engineering teams.
• Participation in the information security community, such as published papers, blogs, conference presentations, or open-source contributions.
• Proficiency or native-level fluency in German is a strong plus.

Why Proofpoint? At Proofpoint, we believe that an exceptional career experience includes a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few reasons you’ll love working with us:

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive benefits
• Career success on your terms
• Flexible work environment
• Annual wellness and community outreach days
• Always on 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 at proofpoint dot com.

How to Apply: Interested? Submit your application along with any supporting information- we can’t wait to hear from you!