Principal Engineer Software (Infrastructure Platform)

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

At Palo Alto Networks, Secure Cloud and AI infrastructure is the foundation of our mission to protect the digital future. We're seeking a world-class Principal Engineer (Sr Manager -equivalent) to lead the evolution of AI-driven tools within our Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Engineering (CIPE) organization.

You will be the key architect of our strategy to embed intelligence into every stage of the developer lifecycle-from ideation and documentation to coding, testing, deployment, and observability. Your work will directly accelerate developer velocity, elevate our standards for software quality, and unlock new business opportunities by enabling the rapid integration of agentic AI into our products.

This role carries executive-level visibility and the autonomy to solve our most complex engineering challenges. If you are a recognized expert in developer platforms and are passionate about leveraging AI to redefine engineering efficiency at a global scale, we want to hear from you. 

This role is located at our dynamic Santa Clara California headquarters campus, and in office 3 days a week.

Your Impact

• Define the Vision: Architect and own the technical roadmap for AI-enhanced developer tools and infrastructure in CIPE at Palo Alto Networks
• Evaluate and Execute Solutions: Lead the design and implementation of novel systems that leverage Large Language Models (LLMs), static/dynamic analysis, and machine learning to create a world-class, intelligent developer experience
• Drive Organization-Wide Impact: You are a builder, so you won't just stop at ideation. Beyond concepts, ensure your builds show step-change improvements in key engineering metrics like including code velocity, review cycle time, test effectiveness, incident reduction, and overall feature launches. 
• Lead Cross-Functional Initiatives: Spearhead complex, cross-functional projects that require influencing and aligning multiple engineering organizations and their leadership. 
• Enable Secure Innovation: Develop foundational AI platforms that empower teams to prototype, deploy, and scale threat-intelligent cloud features, embedding Palo Alto Networks' security natively.
• Serve as Technical Authority: Act as the go-to expert on AI-augmented cloud platforms, mentoring senior engineers and infusing industry-leading practices into our high-stakes ecosystem.
• Innovate at Enterprise Scale: Address intricate challenges in multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI) supporting thousands of microservices, secure workloads, and global threat detection pipelines.

Qualifications

Your Experience

•  BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience. 
•  9+ years of relevant software engineering experience, with a proven track record of technical leadership and innovation. 
•  Demonstrated experience defining and leading large-scale, cross-organizational technical initiatives from concept to completion. 
•  Recognized expertise in developer platforms, infrastructure, CI/CD, and software development lifecycle tooling. 
•  Hands-on experience applying AI/ML/GenAI to solve complex software engineering problems. 
•  Experience influencing and aligning senior leadership (Director, VP level) on technical strategy and roadmaps. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative AI techniques to build intelligent developer tools. 
•  A strong background in compilers, code analysis (static/dynamic), or building large-scale distributed systems. 
• Experience building and scaling platforms that serve thousands of engineers in a complex, polyglot environment (Go, Java, Python, C/C++). 
•  A history of significant contributions to the open-source community, publications in top-tier conferences, or patents in relevant fields. 
• Expertise with modern build systems (e.g., Bazel, Buck) and container orchestration technologies (e.g., Kubernetes). 

Additional Information

The Team

Our engineering team is at the core of our products – connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating – challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don’t shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before. We define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment. 

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) or base salary + commission target (for sales/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $147000/ YR - $210000/ YR . The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

• 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? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.