Principal Security Platforms Engineer

Role Summary

• The Principal Security Platforms Engineer serves as a subject matter expert for the MSSP's Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM platform but is not limited to and associated security operations technologies. The role is responsible for the strategic evolution, architecture, engineering, automation, onboarding, Agentic AI and operational excellence of the security platforms ecosystem incl. XSIAM.
• The successful candidate will provide technical leadership across platform architecture, log onboarding and normalization, detection engineering, automation, content development, integrations, and advanced troubleshooting while acting as a technical mentor and escalation point for engineering and SOC teams.
• This role combines Security Architecture, Security Engineering, Detection Engineering and Automation Engineering responsibilities to ensure the security platform continuously evolves to support managed security services, threat detection, incident response and customer onboarding requirements.

Key Responsibilities

XSIAM and Other Security Platforms:

• Support the overall architecture, roadmap, and strategic evolution of the MSSP Cortex XSIAM platform and other security platforms.
• Design and maintain multi-tenant service architecture supporting managed security services customers alongside capability teams.
• Lead platform architecture reviews and recommend improvements to scalability, performance, resilience and cost optimization.
• Act as trusted advisor for onboarding, architecture, use-case development and platform optimization initiatives.
• Lead and build new service platform and automation for the SOC/security services
• Support platform upgrades, new integrations design, build and enhance, and feature adoption within XSIAM and other associated security platforms
• Act as L4 escalation support for complex platform issues such platform disruptions, ingestion failures, automation failures and detection gaps.
• Act as an advisor for the development and optimization of:
• Correlation and Suppression Rules
• Alert tuning strategies and Threat intelligence integrations
• Support to develop and maintain XQL-based use cases and detection logic.
• Support in improving the detection coverage by aligning content against MITRE ATT&CK techniques.
• Support in continuous reduction of false positives and alert fatigue.
• Review detection performance and recommend improvements based on threat trends and SOC feedback.
• Engage directly with vendor TAC and engineering teams on critical incidents.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to SOC, Engineering, and Customer Success teams.
• Review customer requirements and recommend security monitoring strategies.
• Develop and maintain:
• Platform standards
• Engineering procedures
• Integration guides
• Document and share operational and engineering knowledge across teams. Mentor Platform, Detection, and SOC Engineers and Analysts.
• Drive technical best practices across the MSSP security engineering function.

Knowledge and Attributes

• Strong knowledge of Cortex XSIAM architecture and operations, SIEM, SOAR, XDR, detection engineering, and modern SOC practices.
• Working knowledge of Python, PowerShell, Rest APIs, KQL, and XQL.
• Deep expertise in security telemetry normalization, correlation, MITRE ATT&CK, threat detection, automation, and orchestration.
• Strong cloud security experience across Azure, AWS, and GCP. Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, consulting, stakeholder engagement, communication, mentoring, and technical leadership skills, with the ability to independently drive complex platform initiatives.

Academic Qualifications and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Cyber Security, Computer Science or related field.
• Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM Engineer certification (advantageous).
• Relevant cloud security certifications across Azure, AWS or GCP.
• CISSP, CISM, CCSP or equivalent security certifications preferred.

Required Experience

• 10+ years in Cyber Security Engineering, Security Operations, or Security Architecture.
• 2+ years hands-on experience with Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM/XDR.
• Experience onboarding and normalizing SIEM/XDR telemetry and developing XQL queries, correlation rules, and detection content.
• Experience with automation, orchestration, APIs, Broker-VMs, and cloud-native integrations.
• Experience supporting MSSP or enterprise SOC environments and troubleshooting large-scale platform and ingestion issues.
• Strong knowledge of EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR, Threat Intelligence, Vulnerability Management, and Cloud Security.
• Experience with Python or PowerShell, REST APIs, and automation frameworks.
• Experience working with security vendors and technical support teams.
• Strong knowledge of network protocols, Linux, Windows, and cloud infrastructure.