Principal Engineer Software - NGFW (NetSec) - Bangalore

Palo Alto Networks; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Principal Engineer Software to own the health, reliability, and release engineering of PA-VM, our virtualized next-generation firewall platform. This hands-on role involves debugging across release trains, driving architecture reviews, and mentoring engineers to raise the bar for a platform deployed globally.

You will own the cross-architecture build environment, manage CI/CD pipelines, and collaborate with QA, Release Engineering, and Product Management to

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on systems engineering on Linux-based appliances or virtualized platforms.
• Deep Linux systems expertise including boot/init flow, journald, cgroups, and core dumps.
• Virtualization across private and public cloud hypervisors like KVM, ESXi, AWS Nitro, and GCP KVM.
• Proficiency with x86_64 and ARM64 platforms, including debugging ARM-specific regressions.
• Working knowledge of HA stateful failover and cloud-native HA patterns.
• Working knowledge of IPsec and SSL VPN protocols, including IKEv1/IKEv2 state machines and cryptographic agility.
• Proficiency in Docker-as-build-environment, including multi-arch manifests and hermetic builds.
• CI/CD across Jenkins, GitLab CI, Buildkite, or GitHub Actions.
• Experience with image-format conversion and marketplace publishing automation.
• Expertise in observability for distributed appliances using Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Demonstrated Senior/Staff-level leadership in architecture review, mentorship, and driving code-quality standards.

Responsibilities

• Own PA-VM platform health from UEFI boot path through Linux process supervision into firewall data-plane and HA/VPN control-plane daemons.
• Debug regressions across private and public cloud hypervisors and CPU architectures.
• Design and maintain Docker-based cross-architecture build environments for multi-format PA-VM images.
• Operate and evolve CI/CD pipelines with cherry-pick automation and hardware-in-the-loop regression gates.
• Design HA and VPN subsystem improvements for both on-prem and cloud-native environments.
• Instrument the fleet with telemetry, structured logging, automated crash-dump collection, and quality dashboards.
• Mentor engineers through complex debugging, drive architecture reviews, and run blameless post-mortems for P1 escapes.
• Partner cross-functionally with QA, Release Engineering, and Product Management to ship fixes safely.

Skills

Linux systems

System engineering

CI/CD pipelines

Observability

Mentorship

Architecture reviews

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Docker

KVM

ESXi

AWS Nitro

QEMU

libvirt

systemd

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Buildkite

GitHub Actions

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Job description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us! We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Summary

The Team Engineering - Our engineering team is at the core of our products and 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.

We are hiring a Principal Engineer Software to own the health, reliability, and release engineering of PA-VM, our virtualized next-generation firewall platform. In this hands‑on systems-engineering role, you will debug complex issues across multiple active release trains and drive architecture reviews. You will own the cross‑architecture build environment and CI/CD pipeline, mentoring engineers to raise the bar for a platform deployed in tens of thousands of global customer environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Own PA-VM platform health from UEFI boot path through Linux process supervision into firewall data‑plane and HA/VPN control‑plane daemons.
• Debug regressions across private and public cloud hypervisors and CPU architectures.
• Design and maintain Docker‑based cross‑architecture build environments for multi‑format PA-VM images.
• Operate and evolve CI/CD pipelines with cherry‑pick automation and hardware‑in‑the‑loop regression gates.
• Design HA and VPN subsystem improvements for both on‑prem and cloud‑native environments.
• Instrument the fleet with telemetry, structured logging, automated crash‑dump collection, and quality dashboards.
• Mentor engineers through complex debugging, drive architecture reviews, and run blameless post‑mortems for P1 escapes.
• Partner cross‑functionally with QA, Release Engineering, and Product Management to ship fixes safely.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands‑on systems engineering on Linux‑based appliances or virtualized platforms.
• Deep Linux systems expertise including boot/init flow, process supervisors, journald, cgroups, and core dumps.
• Hands‑on virtualization experience across private and public cloud hypervisors like KVM, ESXi, AWS Nitro, and GCP KVM.
• Proficiency with both x86_64 and ARM64 platforms, including debugging ARM‑specific regressions.
• Working knowledge of HA stateful failover and cloud‑native HA patterns.
• Working knowledge of IPsec and SSL VPN protocols, including IKEv1/IKEv2 state machines and cryptographic agility.
• Proficiency in Docker‑as‑build‑environment, including multi‑arch manifests and hermetic builds.
• CI/CD proficiency across multiple release trains using Jenkins, GitLab CI, Buildkite, or GitHub Actions.
• Experience with image‑format conversion and marketplace publishing automation.
• Expertise in observability for distributed appliances using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Demonstrated Senior/Staff‑level leadership in architecture review, mentorship, and driving code‑quality standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience shipping a commercial network security product such as firewall, VPN, SASE, or SD‑WAN.
• Kernel programming or kernel‑module experience including netfilter, XFRM, or cryptodev.
• Contributions to open‑source infrastructure projects like KVM, QEMU, libvirt, or systemd.
• Experience with FIPS 140‑2 or FIPS 140‑3 certification processes.
• Experience operating multiple active release trains simultaneously with hot‑patch or zero‑downtime upgrade semantics.
• Working knowledge of GRE/VXLAN/Geneve overlays, BGP, OSPF, and modern routing stacks.
• Experience using Rust or Go for systems‑level tooling, alongside C/C++ and Python.

Our Commitment

We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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 [e-mail]. 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.