Architect Engineer SQA

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Newton (MA); On-site; USD 150,400 - 243,100; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is seeking a senior QA Architect to lead quality across our product suite. You will define QA strategy, orchestrate autonomous testing workflows, and mentor teams to raise the bar on software quality in a complex SaaS environment.

You will work with AI-driven testing approaches, CI/CD pipelines, and modern E2E frameworks to ensure robust, scalable releases. This role emphasizes leadership, deep automation, and cross-team collaboration.

Qualifications

• This is a senior-level role. Successful candidates will have significant previous experience, 7+ years defining a quality vision and leading a teams towards implementing that vision
• Experience in directing autonomous agent fleets (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) rather than manual coding as the primary delivery mechanism.
• Expertise in architecting quality guardrails for agentic systems.
• Experience in optimizing SaaS-specific testing, such as multi-tenancy validation, scalability, and load testing in a cloud environment
• Wide perspective of complex on-premises and cloud-based product solutions (business, technical, architecture)
• Experience in test design and execution for complex systems (manual and automated), including measuring code coverage
• Expertise in architecting autonomous testing for RESTful APIs and asynchronous data flows.
• Experience with end-to-end (E2E) testing frameworks for modern web applications (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, or Protractor)
• Proficiency in testing full-stack web applications, specifically within the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js) ecosystem
• Soft skills: Excellent time management; Proactive by nature; Team player; Ability to work alone

Responsibilities

• Actively track the teams’ tasks, analyze the testing needs and define QA activities and ownership
• Plan, define and execute tests as part of the teams’ QA-related activities
• Design and orchestrate autonomous test agent fleets to execute comprehensive QA validation.
• Analyze testing coverage using AI-powered insights, implementing agentic loops to close gaps and ensure high-confidence releases.
• Mentor developers and QA staff to raise quality mindset and skills, advise, influence and review test plans and reinforce all relevant best practices into the day-to-day life
• Develop and maintain custom AI skills and frameworks to standardize quality benchmarks (e.g., automated API contract testing, AI-driven code review orchestration).
• Monitor and optimize test performance in CI/CD pipelines for web-based SaaS deployments
• Contribute to the teams’ automation coverage – both in terms of code coverage and more nebulous concepts (such as stability, maintenance, quality etc.)
• Define and implement agentic automation strategies for full-stack web applications, ensuring end-to-end coverage, moving beyond manual script maintenance to directing agent-based testing workflows.
• Be familiar with every step of the SDLC and the QA responsibility in each step, and take an active role in process inspection and improvement
• Analyze field trends and data and continually improve our testing frameworks and efforts to remain consistent with our customers’ expectations for a quality product

Skills

AI-First mindset

Agent fleets

Quality guardrails

SaaS testing

Multi-tenant testing

Cloud architectures

Test design & execution

RESTful APIs testing

End-to-end testing

MEAN stack testing

Time management

Proactive

Team player

Independent work

Tools

Cypress

Playwright

Selenium

Protractor

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

As a senior QA professional on the product team, the QA Architect is committed to the quality of the release content and coordinates our ongoing push towards better quality and higher confidence in what we release. This person will operate in a very rich environment of technologically and logically complex systems and products and will report to the Director R&D.

Duties include:

• Actively track the teams’ tasks, analyze the testing needs and define QA activities and ownership

• Plan, define and execute tests as part of the teams’ QA-related activities

• Design and orchestrate autonomous test agent fleets to execute comprehensive QA validation.

• Analyze testing coverage using AI-powered insights, implementing agentic loops to close gaps and ensure high-confidence releases.

• Mentor developers and QA staff to raise quality mindset and skills, advise, influence and review test plans and reinforce all relevant best practices into the day-to-day life

• Develop and maintain custom AI skills and frameworks to standardize quality benchmarks (e.g., automated API contract testing, AI-driven code review orchestration).

• Monitor and optimize test performance in CI/CD pipelines for web-based SaaS deployments

• Contribute to the teams’ automation coverage – both in terms of code coverage and more nebulous concepts (such as stability, maintenance, quality etc.)

• Define and implement agentic automation strategies for full-stack web applications, ensuring end-to-end coverage, moving beyond manual script maintenance to directing agent-based testing workflows.

• Be familiar with every step of the SDLC and the QA responsibility in each step, and take an active role in process inspection and improvement

• Analyze field trends and data and continually improve our testing frameworks and efforts to remain consistent with our customers’ expectations for a quality product

Qualifications

• This is a senior-level role. Successful candidates will have significant previous experience, 7+ years defining a quality vision and leading a teams towards implementing that vision

• Demonstrable 'AI-First' mindset: Experience in directing autonomous agent fleets (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) rather than manual coding as the primary delivery mechanism.

• Expertise in architecting quality guardrails for agentic systems.

• Experience in optimizing SaaS-specific testing, such as multi-tenancy validation, scalability, and load testing in a cloud environment

• Wide perspective of complex on-premises and cloud-based product solutions (business, technical, architecture)

• Experience in test design and execution for complex systems (manual and automated), including measuring code coverage

• Expertise in architecting autonomous testing for RESTful APIs and asynchronous data flows.

• Experience with end-to-end (E2E) testing frameworks for modern web applications (e.g., Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, or Protractor)

• Proficiency in testing full-stack web applications, specifically within the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js) ecosystem

• Soft skills:

  • Excellent time management

  • Proactive by nature; internal drive for excellence and improvement

  • Team player

  • Ability to work alone

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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

$150,400.00 - $243,100.00/yr

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?: Yes