Senior Principal Backend Architect, Scalable Systems

Palo Alto Networks; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 277,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer for the Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Management team. You will architect robust, scalable backend systems and lead end-to-end delivery of high-impact initiatives.

You will mentor engineers, shape the long-term technical vision, and collaborate with leadership to align product strategy with security outcomes. This role offers hybrid work with strong collaboration in a mission-driven environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Led architectural decisions for large-scale systems.
• Proficiency in Java or Go; other backend languages accepted.
• Experience with data pipelines for real-time or batch processing.
• Experience with distributed systems and API design.
• Experience with at least one cloud platform (GCP/AWS/Azure).

Responsibilities

• Build, optimize, and scale distributed backend scanning systems in Go.
• Design data pipelines using Apache Beam and Java multithreading frameworks.
• Investigate new data sources and estimate customer impact.
• Own projects end-to-end and production support.
• Partner with leadership to define product strategy and enable new features.
• Mentor engineers and raise technical standards across teams.

Skills

Backend architecture

Go/Java

Distributed systems

Data pipelines

Cloud platforms

Tools

Apache Beam

Kubernetes

BigQuery

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Job description

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer for the Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Management team. You will architect robust, scalable backend systems and lead end-to-end delivery of high-impact initiatives.

You will mentor engineers, shape the long-term technical vision, and collaborate with leadership to align product strategy with security outcomes. This role offers hybrid work with strong collaboration in a mission-driven environment.