Senior Data Plane Engineer (Low-Latency)

Palo Alto Networks; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 184,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Data Plane Engineer to build the core infrastructure powering our next-generation security platform. You will design and develop detection and prevention engines with ultra-low latency and high throughput at line speed.

You will work on sidecar architectures, trace stores for telemetry, and high-performance algorithms for real-time enforcement, collaborating with threat research and ML teams to integrate advanced models into the data plane.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of software engineering focusing on systems programming, HPC, or networking infra.
• Strong memory management, concurrency, and multi-threading expertise.
• Rust programming knowledge is highly desired.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize the core inline detection/prevention engine for maximum throughput and low latency.
• Develop robust sidecar architectures to securely intercept, inspect, and route traffic in distributed and cloud-native environments.
• Engineer and maintain efficient trace stores for deep network telemetry and forensics.
• Architect high-performance algorithms for sub-ms policy evaluation and real-time enforcement.
• Implement memory management optimizations, local caching, and high-speed data streaming pipelines.
• Collaborate with threat research and ML teams to integrate detection models into the data plane.

Skills

Memory management

Concurrency / multi-threading

Low-latency systems

Distributed systems

Caching strategies

Data streaming

Networking protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP/2,g

Rust programming

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or Computer Engineering

Job description

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Data Plane Engineer to build the core infrastructure powering our next-generation security platform. You will design and develop detection and prevention engines with ultra-low latency and high throughput at line speed.

You will work on sidecar architectures, trace stores for telemetry, and high-performance algorithms for real-time enforcement, collaborating with threat research and ML teams to integrate advanced models into the data plane.