Detection Engineer Intern

About Proofpoint

Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity, dedicated to safeguarding how people, data, and AI agents connect across various digital platforms. With a mission to defend data and protect people, Proofpoint is trusted by over 80% of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience against evolving cyber risks.

Join a global team that redefines cybersecurity through its BRAVE core values: Bold, Responsive, Accountable, Visionary, and Exceptional. Proofpoint fosters a culture rooted in belonging, purpose, and success, encouraging applications from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

The Role: Detection Engineer Intern

Proofpoint is seeking a skilled Detection Engineer Intern to join the Account Takeover Protection team. This 12-month placement internship, starting in June 2026, offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the detection and mitigation of account takeover threats for cloud applications like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. You will be at the forefront of designing and maintaining advanced threat detection logic to identify suspicious activities, risky behaviors, and malicious actions in real-time. This role combines engineering, data analysis, and cybersecurity threat intelligence to shape the future of account takeover prevention.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, test, and deploy threat detection logic to identify suspicious or risky activities.
• Continuously improve detection logic to minimize false positives/negatives and ensure high accuracy.
• Collaborate with peer Threat Researchers to incorporate new attack techniques and indicators of compromise (IOCs) into detection capabilities.
• Work closely with Product Management to align detection capabilities with broader security goals and customer needs.

Key Skills And Qualifications

• Hands-on experience using Python, Pandas, and big data querying (AWS Athena preferred) for analyzing and parsing large data sets.
• Strong investigative skills to troubleshoot and debug issues like false positives/negatives, enhancing detection accuracy.
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams, including threat intelligence, product management, and engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a threat research or detection engineering role.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity fundamentals, especially threat detection, behavioral analysis, and cloud account security.
• Prior experience working with Data Science tools (Spark, PySpark, AWS Sagemaker Notebook, Jupyter Notebook) building supervised and unsupervised Machine Learning models for anomaly detection and data classification.

Why Proofpoint?

Proofpoint offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package, fostering an exceptional career experience. Benefits include competitive compensation, flexible work environments, annual wellness and community outreach days, continuous recognition, and global collaboration opportunities. The company's culture is built on values that inspire belonging, empower purpose, and drive success.

Key skills/competency

• Threat Detection
• Cybersecurity
• Python
• Data Analysis
• AWS Athena
• Machine Learning
• Anomaly Detection
• Cloud Security
• Account Takeover
• Incident Response