Sr Principal DevOps Engineer (AIOps)

Palo Alto Networks; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 178,000 - 287,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Sr Principal DevOps Engineer to support a large hybrid infrastructure as it runs on AWS and GCP. You will focus on automation, architecture, performance, metrics, troubleshooting, security, and reliability across services using Kubernetes, Terraform, GitLab, and GitOps tooling.

The role emphasizes leadership, platform-level engineering, and mentoring while maintaining a customer-focused, scalable, and secure environment.

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years in Infrastructure, SRE, DevOps, or Systems Engineering.
• 8–10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems on AWS/GCP.
• Proven experience driving cross-team or org-level technical initiatives.
• Strong expertise in Terraform, Helm, or similar IaC frameworks.
• Deep experience in automation (Python, Go, shell scripting).
• Strong hands-on expertise in Kubernetes at scale.
• Advanced knowledge of Linux, networking, and distributed systems debugging.
• Experience with CI/CD (GitLab) and GitOps (ArgoCD).
• Strong background in observability (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, tracing).
• Ability to lead incident management and complex production troubleshooting.
• Excellent communication skills; ability to influence directors and VPs.
• Demonstrated leadership in mentoring and setting engineering standards.
• Strong ownership, with focus on scalability, reliability, and long-term architecture.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive org-level SRE and platform engineering strategy
• Architect multi-region, multi-cloud (GCP & AWS) highly available systems
• Establish SLO/SLI standards, error budgets, and reliability governance across teams
• Lead design of platform abstractions (Terraform modules, Kubernetes platforms, GitOps)
• Drive end-to-end observability architecture and reduce MTTR at scale
• Ensure services are production-ready, scalable, secure, and cost-optimized
• Lead SEV-1 incidents, RCA, and executive-level communication
• Influence product and engineering teams on architecture and reliability decisions
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a technical authority across orgs
• Drive automation, self-service platforms, and operational excellence

Skills

Cross-team leadership

Incident management

Engineering standards

Effective communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Helm

GitLab

GitOps

ArgoCD

Python

Go

Prometheus

Grafana

Loki

Spinnaker

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.

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

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks runs a large hybrid infrastructure and is one of the largest GCP customers. As a Sr Principal DevOps Engineer, you will be part of a team supporting the services running on this infrastructure. This includes automation, architecture, performance, metrics, troubleshooting, security, and reliability. Our stack includes Kubernetes, Docker, GCP, AWS, Ansible, Terraform, Vault, Gitlab, Spinnaker, Tensorflow, Datadog, Elasticsearch, Kafka, Hadoop, MySQL, Percona, MongoDB, Python, and Go. We don’t expect you to know all these, but we do expect you to learn the ones needed for this role.

Your Impact

• Define and drive org-level SRE and platform engineering strategy
• Architect multi-region, multi-cloud (GCP & AWS) highly available systems
• Establish SLO/SLI standards, error budgets, and reliability governance across teams
• Lead design of platform abstractions (Terraform modules, Kubernetes platforms, GitOps)
• Drive end-to-end observability architecture and reduce MTTR at scale
• Ensure services are production-ready, scalable, secure, and cost-optimized
• Lead SEV-1 incidents, RCA, and executive-level communication
• Influence product and engineering teams on architecture and reliability decisions
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a technical authority across orgs
• Drive automation, self-service platforms, and operational excellence

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 12–15+ years in Infrastructure, SRE, DevOps, or Systems Engineering
• 8–10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems on AWS/GCP
• Proven experience driving cross-team or org-level technical initiatives
• Strong expertise in Terraform, Helm, or similar IaC frameworks
• Deep experience in automation (Python, Go, shell scripting)
• Strong hands‑on expertise in Kubernetes at scale
• Advanced knowledge of Linux, networking, and distributed systems debugging
• Experience with CI/CD (GitLab) and GitOps (ArgoCD)
• Strong background in observability (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, tracing)
• Ability to lead incident management and complex production troubleshooting
• Excellent communication skills; ability to influence directors and VPs
• Demonstrated leadership in mentoring and setting engineering standards
• Strong ownership, with focus on scalability, reliability, and long‑term architecture

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

$177,500.00 - $287,100.00/yr

Our Commitment

We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at [e-mail].

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes