Principal Engineer - Platform Engineer

Palo Alto Networks; California (MO); On-site; USD 184,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Platform Engineer to design, build, and maintain the secure, scalable infrastructure powering our next-generation threat prevention platforms. You will manage the orchestration plane and automate deployment pipelines for inline engines, data pipelines, and AI models globally.

You'll contribute to reliability, drive SRE practices, build observability dashboards, and partner with Data Plane and Data Pipeline teams to optimize performance across multi-region

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field with 5+ years in DevOps, SRE, or Cloud Platform Engineering.
• Deep, hands-on kubernetes (GKE) and container runtime expertise.
• Extensive production experience with ArgoCD and GitLab CI/CD.
• Proficiency with Terraform or similar IaC tools.
• Direct experience with GCP Bigtable and BigQuery in high-throughput environments.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Go, or Bash for automation.
• Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, or GCP Monitoring.
• Familiarity with cloud security, IAM controls, and securing container workloads.

Responsibilities

• Architect, configure, and maintain high-scale Kubernetes clusters on GCP.
• Deploy, scale, and optimize core GCP data services like Bigtable and BigQuery.
• Design and implement IaC solutions for multi-region environments.
• Build and support CI/CD pipelines with automated validation and versioning.
• Collaborate with Data Plane/ Pipeline teams to optimize performance and reliability.
• Establish SRE practices, observability dashboards, and proactive alerting.

Skills

Kubernetes (GKE)

CI/CD pipelines

GitOps

Python

Go

Bash

Monitoring

Cloud security

Education

BS/MS in CS/CE or related field

Tools

ArgoCD

GitLab CI/CD

Terraform

GCP Bigtable

GCP BigQuery

IaC tooling

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 Platform Engineer on our newly forming team, you will design, build, and maintain the secure, highly available, and scalable infrastructure that powers our next-generation threat prevention platforms. You will manage our orchestration plane and automate the deployment pipelines that keep our inline engines, data pipelines, and AI models running at peak performance globally. Your work is the bedrock of our system's reliability, enabling engineering teams to deliver cutting-edge security products at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect, configure, and maintain high-scale Kubernetes clusters on Google Cloud Platform, optimizing for performance, resource utilization, and secure network isolation.
• Deploy, scale, and optimize core GCP managed data services, specifically Bigtable (for low-latency streaming telemetry) and BigQuery (for large-scale data analytics).
• Design and implement robust Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions to manage global multi-region environments deterministically.
• Build and support robust CI/CD deployment pipelines, automated validation gates, and version pinning configurations for our platform microservices.
• Partner with Data Plane and Data Pipeline engineers to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize resource bounds, ensuring sub-millisecond data processing stability.
• Drive site reliability engineering (SRE) practices, establishing observability dashboards, metrics collection, and proactive alerting frameworks.

Qualifications Required

• Education & Experience: BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience) with 5+ years of professional experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Cloud Platform Engineering.
• Orchestration & Containers: Deep, hands-on expertise with Kubernetes (GKE), container runtime environments, and service mesh architectures.
• GitOps & CI/CD Pipelines: Extensive production experience with ArgoCD for continuous delivery and GitLab CI/CD for automating complex software delivery pipelines.
• Infrastructure-as-Code: Proven proficiency in managing production cloud infrastructure using Terraform or similar IaC tools.
• Additional Experience: GCP Data Infrastructure: Direct experience administering and performance-tuning GCP Bigtable (BT) and GCP BigQuery (BQ) in high-throughput environments.
• Systems Programming & Scripting: Strong programming skills in Python, Go, or Bash to automate infrastructure tasks and develop platform tooling.
• Monitoring & Observability: Experience with cloud-native monitoring systems (such as Prometheus, Grafana, or GCP Cloud Monitoring).
• Enterprise Security: Familiarity with cloud security compliance, IAM controls, and securing container workloads.

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. $183,600.00 - $297,000.00/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.

Immigration Sponsorship

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes Please use this form to provide us with information that will help direct your request and find your data in all of our systems