Engineering Manager – Backend & Infrastructure (AI Posture)

Jobs Paloaltonetworks; California; On-site; USD 197,000 - 319,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking an Engineering Manager for the AI Posture team in California. You will lead a backend team of 8–10 engineers, focusing on Go microservices, high throughput, and efficient runtime environments, while applying empathetic leadership and AI‑savvy development practices.

The role emphasizes collaboration with Infrastructure, Platform, Product, Security, and SRE teams to align roadmaps, improve code quality, and accelerate delivery in a security‑focused environment.

Qualifications

• 5–7 years of experience in software engineering management leading distributed backend systems.
• 8+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience with a strong systems‑level foundation, with primary expertise in Go (Golang).
• Proven track record of designing, building, and operating high‑concurrency microservices architectures at scale.
• Deep understanding of infrastructure layers, container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker), and cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure).
• Empathetic, people‑first leadership style with mentoring experience.

Responsibilities

• Empathetic team leadership: mentor, build trust, and grow the backend team.
• AI‑savvy engineering culture: drive AI tooling adoption and modern practices across the SDLC.
• Backend & microservices architectures: design, execute, and optimize Go‑based services.
• Infrastructure & platform interaction: ensure services work with cloud infrastructure efficiently.
• Roadmap & cross‑functional alignment: coordinate with PM, Security, and SRE for quarterly roadmaps.
• Operational excellence & observability: enforce deployments, telemetry, tracing, and incident response.
• Technical communication: clearly present trade‑offs and architecture to leadership.

Skills

Go (Golang) mastery

Distributed backend leadership

Microservices architecture

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Kubernetes / Docker

AI tooling integration

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

AWS

GCP

Azure

Kafka

gRPC

BigQuery

Redis

MongoDB

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

About the Role

As an Engineering Manager on the AI Posture team, you will lead a high‑performing backend team of 8‑10 engineers operating in one of our most complex and cross‑functional domains. This role requires a blend of empathetic people leadership, operational excellence, and deep backend systems expertise—specifically around Go microservices, high‑efficiency runtime environments, and lower‑level infrastructure abstraction.

You will lead with empathy to support, empower, and grow your engineers while staying on the cutting edge by being an AI‑savvy leader—embracing AI‑driven development practices, modern engineering tools, and intelligent automation to boost team productivity and runtime performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Empathetic Team Leadership: Build, mentor, and lead a backend engineering team using an empathy‑first approach. Foster an inclusive culture of psychological safety, trust, empowerment, and continuous growth.
• AI‑Savvy Engineering Culture: Drive the adoption of modern AI tooling, modern engineering practice innovations, and intelligent automation across the software development life cycle to accelerate development and improve code quality.
• Backend & Microservices Architectures: Lead the design, execution, and optimization of high‑throughput, low‑latency microservices built predominantly in Go.
• Infrastructure & Platform Interaction: Partner directly with Infrastructure and Platform teams to ensure services interact seamlessly with cloud infrastructure, optimizing runtime efficiency, memory usage, compute density, and hardware/cloud resources.
• Roadmap & Cross‑Functional Alignment: Partner closely with Product Management, Security, and SRE teams to align priorities, translate technical strategy into execution, and deliver on multi‑quarter roadmaps with predictability and speed.
• Operational Excellence & Observability: Drive production readiness by enforcing rigorous standards for deployment pipelines, telemetry, tracing, performance tuning, and incident response across critical backend services.
• Technical Communication: Clearly communicate technical trade‑offs, systems architecture, risks, and strategies to executive leadership and strategic cross‑functional partners.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 5–7 years of experience in software engineering management leading distributed backend systems teams.
• 8+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience with a strong systems‑level foundation, with primary expertise in Go (Golang) and concurrent programming patterns.
• Proven track record of designing, building, and operating high‑concurrency microservices architectures at scale.
• Deep understanding of infrastructure layers, container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker), and cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure), with a focus on optimizing cost, latency, and resource utilization.
• Empathetic, people‑first leadership style with demonstrated success in mentoring engineers and building cohesive, high‑trust team environments.
• Forward‑thinking approach to software engineering, with practical experience leveraging AI tools (e.g., AI coding assistants, automated testing/profiling) to elevate team productivity.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience with network discovery, traffic analysis, packet processing, or network protocol engineering..
• Experience with cloud‑native message brokers, event streams, and databases (e.g., Kafka, gRPC, BigQuery, Redis, MongoDB).
• Experience in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, cloud security posture management (CSPM), or AI risk vectors.

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.

$197,200.00 - $319,000.00/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