Illumio

Illumio

Director, Threat Research

Sunnyvale, California - HQ · Director

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 70 days ago
AlgorithmsCloud PlatformsMachine LearningData ScienceCybersecurityNetwork SecurityDetection EngineeringIncident ResponseProduct ManagementProduct StrategyCustomer SuccessZero TrustResearchLeadershipCommunication

About the role

  • Illumio is the leader in ransomware and breach containment, redefining how organizations contain cyberattacks and enable operational resilience.
  • Recognized as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™ for Microsegmentation, Illumio enables Zero Trust, strengthening cyber resilience for the infrastructure, systems, and organizations that keep the world running.

Responsibilities

  • Design processes that transform large-scale security datasets into high-value insights, including structured feedback loops with Product, Engineering, and Security teams.
  • Build and track KPIs that demonstrate tangible improvements in detection efficacy, segmentation posture, and breach containment.
  • Map findings to MITRE ATT&CK and real-world adversary tradecraft; develop and validate hypotheses about evolving threats.
  • Create internal threat models and risk frameworks that directly inform detection logic, data enrichment, graph quality, and policy recommendations.
  • Partner closely with Product Management and Engineering to translate research into concrete enhancements: improved detection algorithms, data tagging, analytics, and customer-facing risk insights.
  • Collaborate with Customer Success, Field teams, and executives to communicate emerging threats observed in aggregate data and their implications for segmentation strategy.
  • Scale and Lead the Team

Requirements

  • 10+ years of experience in threat research, detection engineering, incident response, or threat intelligence, with a proven track record of hands-on technical work.

Nice to have

  • Background in graph-based analytics, security graphs, or network segmentation/zero-trust environments.
  • Hands-on experience with large-scale telemetry analysis and detection engineering.
  • Familiarity with data science or ML techniques applied to threat detection.
  • Track record of publishing threat research or speaking at industry conferences.
  • Previous leadership role at a cybersecurity product company (endpoint, network security, or analytics-focused vendor).
  • Experience integrating external threat intelligence and vulnerability data into product features.
  • Public thought leadership portfolio (blogs, reports, talks, or open-source contributions).
  • A researcher at heart who thrives on diving into raw data to uncover hidden patterns and real-world attacker behaviors.

Skills

  • ONWARDS TOGETHER!
  • 4 ON-SITE DAYS A WEEK IN SUNNYVALE, CA HEADQUARTERS.

Company info

  • Define the team charter, research roadmap, operating model, and success metrics focused on measurable product impact and customer risk reduction.
  • Establish quality standards, documentation practices, and research methodologies tailored to our security graph platform.
  • Personally analyze large-scale security datasets to uncover attacker behaviors, TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures), emerging risks, and misconfigurations.
  • Leverage the security graph to model attack paths, recommend segmentation strategies that reduce the risk of lateral movement, and identify opportunities for stronger breach containment.
  • Partner closely with Product
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This listing is sourced directly from Illumio's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.