Principal Engineer Software - Storage (Chronosphere)

Palo Alto Networks; Denver (CO); Remote; USD 147,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a senior backend engineer to design and build scalable services that process high-volume telemetry data in a remote-friendly, globally distributed environment.

You will work on large-scale distributed systems, APIs (REST, gRPC, GraphQL), and partner with cross-functional teams to improve reliability and observability while mentoring others and shaping platform architecture.

Qualifications

• Strong experience with one or more backend languages (Go/Java/Python/Rust).
• Experience using AI coding assistants as part of daily development.
• Experience building and operating highly available systems in production.
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience designing APIs (REST, gRPC, GraphQL).
• Ability to own projects from inception to delivery with a strong sense of ownership.
• Collaborative working style in a fast-evolving team environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable backend services that process high-volume telemetry data.
• Develop systems for ingestion, storage, indexing, and querying of time-series 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 observability workloads.
• Participate in architecture reviews and technical design discussions.
• Mentor engineers and help raise engineering standards.

Skills

Go

Java

Python

Rust

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

REST APIs

gRPC

GraphQL

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!

This role is remote, but distance is no barrier to impact. Our hybrid teams collaborate across geographies to solve big problems, stay close to our customers, and grow together. You will be part of a culture that values trust, accountability, and shared success where your work truly matters.

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. Chronosphere 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, Affir…

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.

Qualifications

You will

• 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
• Operating 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 (we use our own product heavily) and reliability
• Mentor engineers and help raise engineering standards

You have

• 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 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 (https://benefits.paloaltonetworks.com/) .

$147,000.00 - $237,500.00/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