Senior Forward-Deployed AI Architect (Enterprise)

Palo Alto Networks; California; Remote; USD 249,000 - 341,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Distinguished Forward Deployed Engineer for Prisma AIRS. You’ll be the technical authority embedded with enterprise engineering teams, architecting and deploying secure AI workloads, and shaping the product roadmap.

You’ll write high-performance code (Python/Go/C++), define deployment standards, and supervise complex distributed systems across geographies. This remote role offers exposure to AI safety, zero-trust, and enterprise-scale security initiatives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software development and distributed systems experience.
• Master’s degree or PhD in CS, AI, cybersecurity, or equivalent practical experience.
• Master‑level proficiency in Python, Go, or C++, with expertise in asynchronous programming and high‑concurrency systems.
• Extensive background designing and operating API gateways (Envoy, Kong) and enterprise protocols (gRPC, REST).
• Expert‑level knowledge of LLM orchestration, vector databases, runtime guardrails, and prompt injection mitigation.
• Advanced mastery of containerization, custom Kubernetes operators, service meshes, and infrastructure‑as‑code across major cloud providers.
• Comprehensive knowledge of enterprise security protocols, data loss prevention, and network segmentation frameworks.
• Proven ability to build consensus and translate mandates into engineering designs with executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead Architectural Design Reviews to build zero‑trust, high‑availability AI safety topologies across enterprise environments.
• Write production‑grade code (Python, Go, C++) integrating Prisma AIRS into enterprise microservices and AI infrastructure.
• Build high‑throughput middleware and proxy extensions for real‑time prompt security and identity‑aware access controls.
• Architect automated IaC deployment modules and SDK wrappers to accelerate rapid enterprise product adoption.
• Optimize low‑latency traffic paths for streaming LLM payloads, intelligent caching, and global load balancing.
• Serve as the ultimate tier‑4 escalation point for mission‑critical production outages and complex distributed systems.
• Analyze telemetry pipelines to resolve edge‑case failures across agentic frameworks like LangChain and LlamaIndex.
• Upstream custom plugins, platform optimizations, and core engine enhancements to primary Prisma AIRS repositories.
• Partner with cross‑functional leadership to convert recurring enterprise architectural patterns into native product capabilities.
• Author enterprise reference architectures and whitepapers to establish industry standards for AI security and compliance.

Skills

Distributed systems

Python

Go

C++

LLM orchestration

API gateways

Kubernetes

Education

Master’s degree

PhD

Tools

Envoy

Kong

gRPC

REST

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Datadog

Job description

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Distinguished Forward Deployed Engineer for Prisma AIRS. You’ll be the technical authority embedded with enterprise engineering teams, architecting and deploying secure AI workloads, and shaping the product roadmap.

You’ll write high-performance code (Python/Go/C++), define deployment standards, and supervise complex distributed systems across geographies. This remote role offers exposure to AI safety, zero-trust, and enterprise-scale security initiatives.