Distinguished Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Security

Palo Alto Networks; Santa Clara (CA); Remote; USD 249,000 - 341,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Distinguished Forward Deployed Engineer for Prisma AIRS to lead secure, scalable AI workloads in production. You will architect, build, and deploy enterprise-grade AI systems, bridging security, AI, and core product engineering.

This role emphasizes high-performance code, deployment standards, and cutting-edge AI safety practices. You will collaborate with executive leadership to shape product roadmap, author reference architectures, and drive adoption across

Qualifications

• Master-level proficiency in Python, Go, or C++.
• Experience with API gateways (Envoy, Kong) and enterprise protocols (gRPC, REST).
• Expert-level knowledge of LLM orchestration, vector databases, and prompt injection mitigation.

Responsibilities

• Lead Architectural Design Reviews for zero-trust AI safety topologies.
• Write production-grade code integrating Prisma AIRS into enterprise microservices.
• Build middleware and proxies for real-time prompt security and access controls.
• Architect IaC deployment modules and SDK wrappers for rapid adoption.
• Optimize low-latency traffic paths for streaming LLM payloads and global load balancing.
• Serve as tier-4 escalation point for outages and complex distributed systems.
• Analyze telemetry to resolve edge-case failures across LangChain/LlamaIndex.

Skills

Python

Go

C++

LLM orchestration

APIs (gRPC/REST)

Kubernetes

Security protocols

Education

Master’s degree or Ph.D. in CS/AI/Cybersecurity

Tools

Envoy

Kong

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Datadog

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!

This role is remote, but distance is no barrier to impact. Our hybrid teams collaborate across geographies to solve big problems, stay close to our customers, and grow together. You will be part of a culture that values trust, accountability, and shared success where your work truly matters.

Job Summary As a Distinguished Forward Deployed Engineer for Prisma AIRS, you will serve as the principal technical authority embedded within strategic enterprise engineering teams. Operating at the intersection of AI safety, zero-trust architecture, and distributed systems, you will architect, build, and deploy secure enterprise-grade AI workloads to production. You will write highly performant code, define industry-leading deployment standards, and bridge high-impact enterprise environments with core product engineering. Your technical leadership will drive direct contributions back to the core Prisma AIRS engine, shaping the future of our product roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Architectural Design Reviews to build zero-trust, high-availability AI safety topologies across enterprise environments.
• Write production-grade code (Python, Go, C++) integrating Prisma AIRS into enterprise microservices and AI infrastructure.
• Build high-throughput middleware and proxy extensions for real-time prompt security and identity-aware access controls.
• Architect automated IaC deployment modules and SDK wrappers to accelerate rapid enterprise product adoption.
• Optimize low-latency traffic paths for streaming LLM payloads, intelligent caching, and global load balancing.
• Serve as the ultimate tier-4 escalation point for mission-critical production outages and complex distributed systems.
• Analyze telemetry pipelines to resolve edge-case failures across agentic frameworks like LangChain and LlamaIndex.
• Upstream custom plugins, platform optimizations, and core engine enhancements to primary Prisma AIRS repositories.
• Partner with cross-functional leadership to convert recurring enterprise architectural patterns into native product capabilities.
• Author enterprise reference architectures and whitepapers to establish industry standards for AI security and compliance.

Qualifications Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software development and distributed systems architecture experience in production environments.
• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, or equivalent practical experience.
• Master-level proficiency in Python, Go, or C++, with expertise in asynchronous programming and high-concurrency systems.
• Extensive background designing and operating API gateways (Envoy, Kong) and enterprise protocols (gRPC, REST).
• Expert-level knowledge of LLM orchestration, vector databases, runtime guardrails, and prompt injection mitigation.
• Advanced mastery of containerization, custom Kubernetes operators, service meshes, and infrastructure-as-code across major cloud providers.
• Comprehensive knowledge of enterprise security protocols, data loss prevention, and network segmentation frameworks.
• Proven ability to build consensus and partner with executive leadership to translate mandates into engineering designs.
• Hands-on builder mindset, comfortable presenting to executives and debugging live production incidents.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep experience building, evaluating, and securing autonomous AI agent architectures and tool-use execution environments.
• Prior contribution to open-source AI security tools, red-teaming research, or LLM vulnerability benchmark suites.
• Expertise in architecting large-scale observability and logging infrastructure using Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, or Datadog.
• Hands-on experience with automated synthetic data generation, ML-driven data sanitization pipelines, and offline evaluation sandboxes.

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.

$248,700.00 – $341,250.00/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