Lead Backend Architect for Cortex Platform

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is seeking a Principal Backend Engineer to join our Cortex backend engineering group. You will work on core backend of Cortex products like XSOAR, XDR, XSIAM, and shared infrastructure, delivering value to thousands of customers.

You will lead end-to-end backend development, collaborate across teams, and drive architectural decisions while mentoring engineers in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 7+ years of hands-on programming in Go and/or Python.
• Proven experience with major cloud platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure).
• Deep understanding of Microservices architecture (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, Serverless).
• Strong CS fundamentals and distributed computing concepts (CAP theorem, master election, distributed databases).
• Experience with big-data architectures using technologies like Kafka, Splunk, or Flink.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end backend development of features and components, from design and development to testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Collaborate with peers across teams to shape solutions and ensure seamless integration with other product components.
• Drive team-wide technical excellence by participating in code reviews, design reviews, and architectural decisions.
• Maintain a production-first mindset, providing real-time mitigation and solutions to production issues.
• Explore and apply new technologies to innovate and scale the Cortex Platform.
• Design and implement scalable and maintainable backend services.
• Mentor junior engineers and foster technical growth.

Skills

Go

Python

Cloud platforms

Microservices

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Serverless

BigQuery

Elasticsearch

Kafka

Job description

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is seeking a Principal Backend Engineer to join our Cortex backend engineering group. You will work on core backend of Cortex products like XSOAR, XDR, XSIAM, and shared infrastructure, delivering value to thousands of customers.

You will lead end-to-end backend development, collaborate across teams, and drive architectural decisions while mentoring engineers in a fast-paced environment.