Senior AI Architect - Enterprise AI & Technical Leadership

Palo Alto Networks; California; On-site; USD 163,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Sr Staff AI Engineer to set the technical direction for AI-first enterprise applications and to remain hands-on while mentoring others. You will drive architecture across cloud-native services and lead cross-functional delivery, establishing standards and reusable capabilities for AI-first systems.

This role shapes AI-native practices across our portfolio and offers the opportunity to influence senior engineers and partners in translating strategy into scalable

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum of 8 years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership across complex, production-scale systems.
• Deep expertise in full-stack and distributed systems engineering.
• Demonstrated experience setting architecture and technical direction across multiple services, applications, or engineering teams.
• Production experience designing and building AI-integrated systems using LLMs, RAG, tool calling, and agentic workflows.
• Strong understanding of AI evaluation, guardrails, model reliability, security, latency, and production observability.
• Strong understanding of APIs, enterprise data, system integration, cloud-native architecture, and production operations.
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical architectures and execution strategies.
• Track record of establishing technical standards and influencing senior engineers and cross-functional stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Set architectural vision and technical direction for AI-first enterprise applications and platforms spanning multiple business domains.
• Lead the architecture and delivery of complex cross-team systems across full-stack applications, cloud-native services, and applied AI.
• Establish reusable engineering standards, reference architectures, and shared capabilities for AI-first systems, including agentic workflows and RAG.
• Partner with senior leaders to translate ambiguous, high-impact problems into clear technical strategies and influence broader direction.
• Drive AI-native engineering practices and modern development workflows using tools like Cursor and Claude Code to improve velocity.
• Mentor senior engineers, raise engineering standards, and multiply technical impact across the broader organization.

Skills

Full-stack systems

Distributed systems

AI integration

Architecture leadership

Production observability

APIs & integration

Cloud-native

Education

Bachelor/Master in CS or related

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

LangChain/LangGraph

Cursor

Claude Code

Windsurf

Job description

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Sr Staff AI Engineer to set the technical direction for AI-first enterprise applications and to remain hands-on while mentoring others. You will drive architecture across cloud-native services and lead cross-functional delivery, establishing standards and reusable capabilities for AI-first systems.

This role shapes AI-native practices across our portfolio and offers the opportunity to influence senior engineers and partners in translating strategy into scalable