Principal Escalations Engineer

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is seeking a Customer Engineering escalation-focused SRE to act as the technical bridge translating field signals into actionable insights.

You will drive complex escalations, coordinate with Engineering on hotfixes, and help improve product serviceability. You will design AI-assisted troubleshooting workflows and playbooks, enabling rapid resolution while maintaining strong customer empathy in high-severity environments.

Qualifications

• BS/MS or equivalent technical degree (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field).
• 7+ years of experience in SRE, systems engineering, or top-tier technical escalation roles at a cybersecurity or network security vendor.
• Mindset: fast learner, curious, initiative, end-to-end ownership, deep empathy for customers during high-severity outages or crises.

Responsibilities

• Escalation Excellence & Customer Engagement: Drive top-tier technical escalations through deep technical analysis and defect diagnosis, acting as a calm technical lead with customers.
• Product Quality & Serviceability: Identify serviceability fixes and embed them into early product design with QA teams.
• Agentic AI & Automation: Define autonomous AI troubleshooting workflows, function-calling schemas, and guardrails for AI-enabled support.
• Enablement: Create structured playbooks, guides, and tooling for first-level support engineers and AI agents.

Skills

Networking & Security Fundamentals

Debugging & Infrastructure Troubles

Workflow Logic & Tooling

Education

BS/MS or equivalent technical degree

Tools

Wireshark

tcpdump

Python scripting

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

Customer Engineering (CE) is an elite technical response team that sits at the high‑stakes intersection of Product Engineering, Systems Reliability, and Technical Support. In this role, you are the technical pivot point of the organization, serving as a "strategic bridge" that translates complex field signals into learning for a self‑improving AI support system and actionable engineering insights.

You serve as the expert escalation point for an AI‑driven support ecosystem. When complex, novel, or systemic issues arise, you step in to diagnose defects and drive resolution alongside AI tools. With every interaction, you translate complex troubleshooting logic into structured playbooks, guardrails, and deterministic tool calls that agents can execute, ensuring that every resolved issue elevates our automation and drives permanent product improvements.

You operate as a code‑aware escalation point for novel and systemic issues, driving root‑cause isolation, product serviceability fixes, and the agentic AI capabilities that empower our wider support organization. We target curious, high‑ownership Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and top‑tier escalation engineers with deep customer empathy who thrive when supporting high‑stakes customer environments in crisis.

On any given day, members of the team may work with cutting‑edge hardware and software projects early in the product lifecycle, develop technical guidance, assist with challenging customer escalations, replicate complex issues in our lab, evaluate customer network designs, or shape features for supportability that define the future of our products.

Key Responsibilities

• Escalation Excellence & Customer Engagement: Drive top‑tier technical escalations through deep technical analysis and defect diagnosis. Act as a calm, authoritative technical lead when supporting customers in crisis, collaborating with Engineering on hotfixes and representing engineering during critical executive communications.

• Product Quality & Serviceability: Identify product serviceability fixes and embed serviceability into early product design phases, working with QA teams to address test gaps.

• Agentic AI & Automation: Accelerate customer issue resolution by defining autonomous AI troubleshooting workflows, function‑calling schemas, and guardrails integrated directly into customer co‑pilots.

• Enablement: Author structured playbooks, guides, and tool definitions to empower first‑level human support engineers and AI agents to resolve complex issues faster.

Qualifications

Qualifications & Mindset

• BS/MS or equivalent technical degree (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field).

• 7+ years of experience in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), systems engineering, or top‑tier technical escalation roles at a cybersecurity or network security vendor.

• Mindset & Core Attributes: Fast learner, highly curious, strong initiative, end‑to‑end ownership, and deep empathy for customers during high‑severity outages or technical crises.

Core Technical Skills

• Networking & Security Fundamentals: Solid hands‑on understanding of L1-L7 networking, routing, switching, IPSEC, PKI, and SSL technologies.

• Debugging & Infrastructure Troubleshooting: Hardware, software, and cloud‑based troubleshooting for network security equipment; packet capture (PCAP) analysis via Wireshark, tcpdump, or similar tools.

• Workflow Logic & Tooling: Ability to translate complex troubleshooting steps into structured markdown guides, guardrails, and deterministic tool definitions for AI execution.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Multi‑Cloud & Advanced Security: Hands‑on proficiency across multi‑cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), SASE, CASB, SWG technologies, as well as advanced packet crafting/replay tools.

• AI Infrastructure & Agentic Concepts: Practical exposure to AI concepts including skill insertion, RAG knowledge base curation, function‑calling schemas, evaluation benchmarks, and basic Python scripting for tool integrations.

Preferred Certifications

• CCNA / CCNP or equivalent vendor certifications.

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate or equivalent cloud certification (GCP / Azure).