Principal Engineer, AI-Driven Identity Platform

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 156,000 - 253,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is hiring a senior engineering leader to own the Identity Platform's technical strategy.

You will architect distributed systems, lead cross-team initiatives, and set engineering standards to ensure security, scalability, and performance across cloud-native microservices. You will mentor engineers, collaborate with product and infrastructure teams, and champion AI-augmented engineering while maintaining strict privacy and data security controls.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience with a Tech Lead or Principal Engineer track record.
• 8+ years architecting and developing large-scale distributed systems and microservices.
• Hands-on proficiency with AI-assisted development tools to accelerate design, implementation, code review, and debugging.
• Deep enterprise backend development with .NET/C# and web services.
• Knowledge of authentication/identity standards (SAML, WS-Fed, OpenID Connect, OAuth).
• Experience with containerized microservices and cloud-native platforms (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS EKS, GKE/AKS).
• Security‑minded, CI/CD automation, and robust observability practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Identity Platform’s technical strategy as an individual contributor, architecting distributed systems and owning cross-team initiatives.
• Make design and architecture decisions in fast-moving, ambiguous conditions and align stakeholders.
• Set and enforce engineering standards through reviews, ensuring security, scalability, and performance.
• Prototype and build new platform components and PoCs with secure, test-driven development and CI/CD practices.
• Leverage AI/ML to automate incident detection, root cause analysis, and remediation.
• Collaborate with Product, Infrastructure, and Support to translate needs into scalable designs.
• Mentor engineers and assist in hiring to attract talent.
• Champion AI-augmented engineering with modern AI tools while ensuring data privacy and security.

Skills

Distributed systems

Microservices

AWS/Azure/GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

C# / .NET

REST/SOAP

OpenID Connect / OAuth

CI/CD

AI-assisted development tools

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS EKS

GKE/AKS

Active Directory

PostgreSQL

Redis

Job description

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is hiring a senior engineering leader to own the Identity Platform's technical strategy.

You will architect distributed systems, lead cross-team initiatives, and set engineering standards to ensure security, scalability, and performance across cloud-native microservices. You will mentor engineers, collaborate with product and infrastructure teams, and champion AI-augmented engineering while maintaining strict privacy and data security controls.