Principal / Distinguished Engineer, AI & Advanced Security Analytics

About Netskope

Today, there's more data and users outside the enterprise than inside, causing the network perimeter as we know it to dissolve. We realized a new perimeter was needed, one that is built in the cloud and follows and protects data wherever it goes, so we started Netskope to redefine Cloud, Network and Data Security. 

Since 2012, we have built the market-leading cloud security company and an award-winning culture powered by hundreds of employees spread across offices in Santa Clara, St. Louis, Bangalore, London, Paris, Melbourne, Taipei, and Tokyo. Our core values are openness, honesty, and transparency, and we purposely developed our open desk layouts and large meeting spaces to support and promote partnerships, collaboration, and teamwork. From catered lunches and office celebrations to employee recognition events and social professional groups such as the Awesome Women of Netskope (AWON), we strive to keep work fun, supportive and interactive.  Visit us at Netskope Careers. Please follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter@Netskope.

About The Role

We are seeking an exceptional Distinguished Engineer to drive the technical vision and architecture for next-generation security analytics and AI-powered capabilities within Netskope's platform. This is a high-impact individual contributor role for a technologist who thrives at the intersection of artificial intelligence, large-scale data systems, and cybersecurity.

As a Distinguished Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting and prototyping transformative solutions that leverage cutting-edge AI/ML techniques, graph-based analytics, and real-time data processing to solve complex security challenges at massive scale. You will work on problems that span threat detection, risk assessment, behavioral analytics, and intelligent automation—directly influencing the product roadmap and technical strategy for Netskope's security platform.

This role requires both exceptional technical depth and the ability to influence across the organization. You will collaborate with engineering teams, product management, security research, and executive leadership to define technical strategy, make critical architectural decisions, and ensure our solutions meet the demands of the world's most security-conscious organizations.

Required Skills And Experience

Distinguished Technical Expertise

• 15+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated progression to senior technical roles
• Deep expertise in distributed systems architecture at massive scale (billions of events/day, petabyte-scale data)
• Proven track record architecting AI/ML systems in production environments, including experience with:
• Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI applications
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures and vector search systems
• Machine learning model deployment, monitoring, and MLOps practices
• Real-time inference systems and online learning
• Expert knowledge of graph databases and graph algorithms (Neo4j, TigerGraph, or similar) including:
• Graph data modeling and schema design
• Complex graph queries and traversals (Cypher, Gremlin, or similar)
• Graph algorithms for community detection, centrality, path finding
• Large-scale graph processing and analytics
• Master-level proficiency in Python and modern ML/AI frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, LangChain, LangGraph)
• Deep understanding of data engineering including:
• Streaming data architectures (Kafka, Flink, Pulsar)
• Large-scale data storage (ClickHouse, Snowflake, BigQuery, data lakes)
• ETL/ELT pipeline design and optimization
• Real-time and batch processing paradigms

Ai/Ml For Security Specialization

• Hands-on experience building AI-powered security solutions such as:
• Behavioral analytics and user/entity behavior analytics (UEBA)
• Anomaly detection using unsupervised and semi-supervised learning
• Threat classification and automated triage systems
• LLM-based security assistants and conversational interfaces
• Graph neural networks for security relationship modeling
• Expertise in vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma, Milvus, pgvector) and their application to:
• Semantic search over security data
• Threat intelligence matching and similarity analysis
• Security knowledge base construction
• Deep understanding of embedding models and semantic representation of security concepts
• Experience with prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and LLMOps best practices

Technical Leadership Capabilities

• Proven ability to influence without authority across large organizations
• Track record of driving adoption of new technologies and architectural patterns
• Experience setting technical direction for products serving Fortune 500 enterprises
• Strong communication skills for presenting complex technical concepts to diverse audiences (engineers, executives, customers)
• Published thought leadership through conference talks, blog posts, patents, or research papers
• Mentorship experience developing senior engineers and architects
• Strategic thinking ability to connect technical decisions with business outcomes

System Design & Architecture

• Expert in designing for non-functional requirements: scalability, reliability, security, performance, cost optimization
• Deep knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud-native architectures
• Experience with microservices, APIs, and event-driven architectures
• Understanding of infrastructure as code and modern DevOps/SRE practices
• Expertise in performance optimization and capacity planning for large-scale systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Contributions to major open-source security or AI/ML projects
• Experience with advanced graph algorithms: community detection, link prediction, influence propagation
• Background in network security, intrusion detection, or malware analysis
• Familiarity with agent-based AI systems and multi-agent architectures
• Knowledge of adversarial ML and robustness in security contexts

Technical Environment

You will work with cutting-edge technologies including:

Languages: Python, Go

• AI/ML Stack: TensorFlow, PyTorch, LangChain, LangGraph, OpenAI API, Anthropic Claude
• Graph Technologies: Neo4j, TigerGraph, Apache AGE, graph algorithms libraries
• Data Processing: Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, ClickHouse
• Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP (multi-cloud architecture)
• Container Orchestration: Kubernetes, Docker
• Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, distributed tracing

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge problems at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity
• Technical autonomy and influence over critical architectural decisions
• Collaboration with world-class engineers, researchers, and security experts
• Competitive compensation including base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits
• Flexible work arrangements (remote or hybrid options available)
• Professional development budget for conferences, training, and research
• Access to latest technologies and compute resources for innovation
• Patent and publication support for research contributions
• Work-life balance with flexible schedules and unlimited PTO
• Impact at scale solving real-world security challenges for global enterprises

About Working At Netskope

Join a company that's redefining cloud security through innovation and technical excellence. Our distinguished engineers shape the future of security technology while working in a culture that values:

• Technical depth over hierarchy - the best ideas win
• Innovation and experimentation - failure is part of learning
• Open collaboration - working across teams and disciplines
• Customer obsession - building solutions that matter
• Continuous learning - staying at the forefront of technology

We're a Certified Great Place to Work with a transparent culture where technical leaders from diverse backgrounds collaborate to solve hard problems. Our team of ~3,000 employees serves the world's largest enterprises with solutions that protect their most critical assets.

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Netskope is committed to implementing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. Netskope does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on religion, race, color, sex, marital or veteran statues, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetic information, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), or any other characteristic protected by the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction in which we operate.

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