Principal Engineer Software (Prisma AIRS Core Services Backend)

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

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a highly skilled Principal Software Engineer for the Prisma AIRS platform in Santa Clara, CA. You will design, develop, and optimize backend services powering AI security, shaping technical direction and ensuring production-grade solutions.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive architecture decisions while maintaining a strong focus on reliability and performance in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, building and designing large distributed systems and web services in the cloud.
• Expertise in at least one strongly typed programming language (Go, Java, C#, C++) or modern Python (type hints, Pydantic).
• Experience with a major cloud provider like GCP (preferred), AWS, or Azure.
• Hands-on experience with SQL/NoSQL databases such as Postgres, MySQL, Spanner, BigQuery, MongoDB.
• Experience with graph databases such as Neo4j is highly desired.
• Experience with a queuing system such as RabbitMQ or Kafka or Pub/Sub.
• Experience with microservices architecture (Kubernetes, GKE, EKS, AKS, Docker, Serverless).
• Experience writing comprehensive unit and end-to-end tests.
• On-call troubleshooting capabilities and bug isolation/verification.
• Experience partnering with product managers and frontend engineers.
• Experience leading large projects end-to-end.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction for shared platform services and drive architecture decisions across the Prisma AIRS organization.
• Collaborate with product managers, frontend software engineers, product designers, and infrastructure software engineers to ensure success.
• Design and build innovative and solid products to ensure customers can use AI securely.
• Own new features from start to finish across the product development cycle, ensuring production-readiness, scalability, and reliability.
• Design, build, and operate production security services with high reliability and performance.
• Develop expertise in new technologies and keep up with evolving AI security landscape.
• Mentor engineers and raise the engineering bar across teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Go

Java

Python

Cloud platforms

SQL/NoSQL

Kafka/RabbitMQ

Kubernetes/Docker

Unit & E2E testing

On-call troubleshooting

Product collaboration

Big projects leadership

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science

Equivalent professional experience

Tools

Neo4j

Grafana

Terraform

GitLab

GitHub

Docker

Kubernetes

PostgreSQL

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

Your Career

With Prisma AIRS, Palo Alto Networks is building the world's most comprehensive AI security platform. Organizations are increasingly building complex ecosystems of AI models, applications, and agents, creating dynamic new attack surfaces with risks that traditional security approaches cannot address. In response, Prisma AIRS delivers model security, posture management, AI red teaming, and runtime protection. Our customers can confidently deploy AI-driven innovation while ensuring a formidable security posture from development through runtime.

We are looking for a highly skilled and experienced Principal Software Engineer to join the Prisma AIRS shared services team, specifically focused on platform applications. In this role, you will play a crucial part in designing, developing, and optimizing robust, scalable, and high-performance backend systems that power our cutting‑edge AI security platform, and you will set the technical direction that other engineers build on.

This role is located at our dynamic Santa Clara, CA HQ Campus and in office 3 days a week. This is not a remote role.

Your Impact

• Set the technical direction for shared platform services and drive architecture decisions across the Prisma AIRS organization.
• Collaborate with product managers, frontend software engineers, product designers, and infrastructure software engineers to ensure the success of the Prisma AIRS organization.
• Design and build innovative and solid products to ensure our customers can use AI securely.
• Own new features/functionality from start to finish. Participate in all phases of the product development cycle, from definition, design, through implementation and test. Ensure that applications are production‑ready, scalable, and reliable.
• Design, build, and operate production security services as a true owner, ensuring top‑note reliability, availability, and performance.
• Develop expertise in new technologies and keep up with the rapidly evolving AI security landscape.
• Mentor engineers, raise the engineering bar, and champion high standards of development and innovation across teams.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, building and designing large distributed systems and web services in the cloud.
• Expertise in at least one strongly typed programming language (Go (preferred!), or Java, C#, C++) or modern Python (type hints, Pydantic, etc).
• Experience with a major cloud provider like GCP (preferred), AWS, or Azure.
• Hands‑on experience with SQL/NoSQL based databases such as Postgres, MySQL, Spanner, BigTable, BigQuery, MongoDB, etc.
• Experience with graph databases such as Neo4j is highly desired.
• Experience with a queuing system such as RabbitMQ or Kafka or PubSub.
• Experience with microservices architecture (Kubernetes, GKE, EKS, AKS, Docker, Serverless, etc).
• Experience writing comprehensive unit and end‑to‑end tests.
• Prior on‑call troubleshooting abilities. Isolate issues found during testing and verify bug fixes once they are resolved.
• Experience partnering with product managers and front end engineers.
• Experience in leading and doing big projects end to end.
• Self‑disciplined, self‑managed, self‑motivated, and strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge in at least one public cloud (GCP, AWS, or OCI).
• Experience with infra tools (docker, kubernetes, terraform), CI/CD pipelines (GitLab or GitHub), and observability tools such as Grafana.
• Experience using AI tools to aid design and development.
• Experience with the agile process and working with software development teams involved with building out full stack products, deployed on the cloud at scale.
• Ready to understand and dissect new technology stacks quickly.
• High energy and the ability to work in a fast‑paced environment with a can‑do attitude.
• Familiarity with Cyber Technologies, Information Security, and Software Security is a plus.
• BS or MS in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent professional experience or equivalent military experience.

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.

$156,400.00 - $253,000.00/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