Principal Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Engineer, (InfoSec)

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

The Principal Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Engineer will report directly to the Director of GRC. In this pivotal role, you will serve as a senior individual contributor and subject matter expert within the InfoSec domain. Your primary focus will be on engineering and executing strategic and operational initiatives—particularly advancing third-party risk management, strengthening customer trust programs, and developing technical policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines that reinforce the organization’s security posture. You will influence technology-selection decisions, contribute to long-term strategic roadmaps, and collaborate cross-functionally to ensure measurable and scalable security outcomes.

Your Impact

• Engineer and implement the organization’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) framework, with a focus on third-party risk management, customer trust, and the development of technical policies and standards across application, endpoint, and infrastructure security domains.
• Scale vendor risk and technical integration assessments using automation and AI to execute the full third-party risk management lifecycle: perform vendor onboarding assessments, validate technical controls, analyze evidence, prioritize remediation efforts, and confirm mitigation prior to operational deployment.
• Automate control evidence collection using automation and AI to lead the technical execution of customer trust initiatives, including supporting customer audits, completing complex security questionnaires, maintaining standardized Information Security documentation, and recommending remediation strategies for audit findings.
• Define, operationalize, and monitor key risk and compliance indicators (KRIs/KPIs) to measure vendor security posture, customer assurance effectiveness, and policy adherence, leveraging automation and data insights to drive accountability.
• Provide actionable security intelligence on vendor and customer-facing risks to ensure remediation SLAs are met, control deficiencies are reduced, and enterprise trust commitments are demonstrably fulfilled.
• Collaborate with Legal, Procurement, Product, and Security stakeholders to embed TPRM and Customer Trust requirements into contracts, SLAs, and strategic initiatives such as new partnerships and product integrations.
• Act as a trusted technical thought leader, developing standards, publishing guidance, and presenting third-party risk and customer trust metrics to senior management and technical peers.
• Advise executive leadership with deep technical insights into vendor security risks, audit outcomes, and policy treatment options, enabling defensible, scalable, and business-aligned decisions.
• Contribute engineering expertise to broader GRC and InfoSec programs as needed

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 15+ years of progressive experience in engineering technical solutions for solving security problems 
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or a related field.
• Curiosity and technical agility with AI tools and generative AI trends, with the ability to creatively apply emerging technologies to real-world GRC challenges.
• Proven track record engineering and scaling enterprise GRC frameworks (ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, FedRAMP) end to end, with hands-on contributions across policy, standards, control testing, and audit readiness.
• Experience working in Agile environments, driving iterative improvements in GRC tooling, workflows, and reporting.
• Extensive expertise with GRC and automation platforms (OneTrust, RSA Archer, MetricStream, SOAR, etc.), with the ability to design automated workflows and transform risk data into executive-ready dashboards and actionable KRIs/KPIs.
• Exposure to emerging AI regulations and guidelines (EU AI Act, FTC AI principles, NYDFS AI guidance) and experience embedding those requirements into vendor risk assessments, questionnaires, and policies.
• Hands-on experience with third-party risk management programs including vendor assessments, technical control reviews, contract language, remediation tracking, and customer-trust obligations.
• Deep expertise evaluating cloud service providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) against shared-responsibility models, CSPM findings, and secure configuration frameworks (CIS, NIST).
• Experience assessing AI-related risks from third parties, including data security, model governance, and ethical use.
• Strong technical foundation across application, endpoint, and infrastructure security controls to validate control design and drive remediation of identified gaps.
• Excellent communication and influence skills, able to translate complex risk and compliance requirements into clear guidance for both technical teams and senior executives.
• Professional certifications a plus: CISSP, CISM, CRISC, or relevant cloud security credentials (AWS, Azure, GCP).

Additional Information

The Team

Think about it, security for the largest Cyber Security company in the world. We’re not your ordinary Information Security team. We’re a diverse group of security professionals who challenge the status quo in order to protect Palo Alto Networks and our customers. Working at a high-tech cybersecurity company within the Information Security team is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You’ll be joined with the brightest minds in technology, our global teams on the front line of defense against cyberattacks. We’re joined by one mission – but driven by the impact of that mission and what it means to protect our way of life in the digital age. Join a dynamic and fast-paced team that feels excitement at the prospect of a challenge and feels a thrill at resolving security gaps that inhibit our privacy.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) is expected to be between $180,000/YR - $230,500/YR The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

#Np1

• Our Commitment
• We’re problem solvers that take risks and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at  accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes