Principal Engineer Software - Storage (Chronosphere)

Palo Alto Networks; Bridgeport (CT); On-site; USD 147,000 - 237,500; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a product-driven engineer to enhance their observability platform based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The role involves designing and building scalable systems for processing large volumes of telemetry data. Ideal candidates will have strong backend programming skills, experience with cloud infrastructure, and a collaborative work style. The compensation ranges from $147,000 to $237,500 annually, offering a dynamic environment with the opportunity for mentorship.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in one or more backend languages such as Go, Java, Python, or Rust.
• Experience using AI coding assistants as part of day-to-day software development.
• Experience building and operating highly available systems in production.
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure including AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Experience designing APIs, including REST, gRPC, or GraphQL.

Responsibilities

• Work on technically challenging problems with large distributed systems.
• Help shape the architecture of a rapidly scaling platform.
• Collaborate with technical teammates and customers.
• Design and build scalable backend services that process telemetry data.
• Participate in architecture reviews and technical design discussions.

Skills

Backend languages (e.g., Go, Java, Python, Rust)

AI coding assistants (e.g., Cursor, Claude)

Building and operating highly available systems

Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure)

API design skills (REST, gRPC, GraphQL)

Collaborative working style

Job description

About us

Chronosphere, a Palo Alto Networks company, is the observability platform built for control in the modern, containerized world. Chronosphere empowers customers to focus on the data and insights that matter by reducing complexity, optimizing costs, and remediating issues faster. The platform reduces data volumes and associated costs by 84% on average while saving developers thousands of hours. Recognized as a leader by major analyst firms, Chronosphere is trusted by the world's most innovative brands, including DoorDash, affirm, and Zillow.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced product-driven engineer to help our customers monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize their systems at scale. Our platform ingests and analyzes high-volume telemetry data—metrics, logs, traces, and events—enabling our customers to understand system behavior, improve reliability, and reduce MTTR across modern cloud-native environments. We’re looking for a senior engineer who can help design and build the core systems that power our observability platform. You’ll work on highly scalable distributed systems that ingest, store, query, and process massive volumes of telemetry data in near real time. This role requires strong systems thinking, API design skills, and experience building reliable systems.

Responsibilities

• Work on technically challenging problems with some of the largest distributed systems in the world
• Directly impact how engineering teams debug production systems
• Help shape the architecture of a rapidly scaling platform
• Collaborate with deeply technical teammates and customers
• Operate systems that process large-scale real-world production traffic

What You Will Achieve

• Design and build scalable backend services that process high-volume telemetry data
• Develop systems for ingestion, storage, indexing, and querying of time-series and event data
• Improve performance, reliability, and cost efficiency of distributed systems
• Collaborate with frontend teams to design clean, efficient APIs
• Contribute to data modeling strategies for high-cardinality observability workloads
• Participate in architecture reviews and technical design discussions
• Improve system observability and reliability
• Mentor engineers and help raise engineering standards

Qualifications

• Strong experience in one or more backend languages (e.g., Go, Java, Python, Rust)
• Experience using AI coding assistants (e.g., Cursor, Claude) as part of day-to-day software development
• Experience building and operating highly available systems in production
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Experience designing APIs (REST, gRPC, GraphQL)
• A strong sense of ownership and can independently own projects from inception to delivery
• An effective collaborative working style. We’re a small team working in a rapidly evolving space, and we’re looking for people that will help build a positive, supportive environment

Compensation

$147,000.00 - $237,500.00 / yr

EEO Statement

We’re 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

Yes