Sr Principal Engineer Software (AI Enablement & Strategy)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 237,500; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer in Seattle to lead AI enablement and developer productivity initiatives. The role involves architecting APIs and SDKs, prototyping AI utilities, and navigating complex regulatory environments while driving a culture of AI application.

The ideal candidate will have over a decade of software engineering experience, fluency in AI concepts, and strong communication skills to influence executive stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing large distributed systems.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement APIs and SDKs for AI.
• Rapidly prototype lightweight AI utilities.
• Drive consensus on AI architectures.

Skills

Software engineering experience

AI fluency

Programming languages (Python, Go, Java, C#, C++)

Experience with foundational LLMs

Cloud environment security

Communication and change management

Education

BS or MS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

AutoGen

Job description

Job Summary

As we rapidly accelerate our adoption of AI across the organization, we are looking for a highly skilled Senior Principal Engineer to lead our internal AI enablement and developer productivity strategy. In this high‑visibility role you will treat AI enablement as a core Developer Experience and platform challenge. You are a "0-to‑1" builder who translates complex ML research and broad business requirements into secure, scalable, self‑service software. By treating our internal engineers as your primary customers, you will build the strategy, infrastructure, and agentic workflows that democratize AI across the company. You will champion a culture of practical application, ensuring our AI tools perform reliably in a demanding, real‑world enterprise environment.

This role can be located at our dynamic downtown Seattle office 3 days a week.

Key Responsibilities

• Developer Experience & Self‑Service Tooling: Democratize AI across the organization. Architect and implement the APIs, SDKs, and platform services that turn complex LLM capabilities and evaluation metrics into simple, self‑service building blocks for forward‑deployed software engineers.
• Hands‑on Prototyping: Rapidly prototype lightweight AI‑enabled utilities and assess whether roadblocks are software‑related or infrastructure‑related before scaling them for production.
• Pragmatic Strategy & Technical Arbitration: Act as a trusted, neutral arbiter to drive consensus on AI architectures across cross‑functional work streams. Drive a "leverage first, build second" roadmap—evaluating existing ecosystem capabilities while designing custom microservices only when necessary.
• Agentic DevOps & Operational Automation: Push the boundaries of operational automation by designing frontier agents that utilize generative AI, RAG pipelines, and knowledge graphs to transform incident response, DevOps, and daily engineering tasks.
• Removing Friction & Infrastructure Paved Roads: Lower the barrier to entry for teams looking to leverage AI. Package development environments, simplify initial setups, and eliminate the infrastructure friction that traditionally blocks rapid AI adoption.
• Governance, Security & Compliance: Solve the complex IT and access challenges required to deploy AI in a highly regulated cybersecurity environment. Partner with InfoSec and Legal to establish robust authentication flows, strict data access patterns, and ethical AI guardrails.
• Operational Excellence: Set the gold standard for AI‑assisted development internally. Own technical decisions end‑to‑end, rigorously balancing cutting‑edge AI capabilities with cloud infrastructure costs, latency requirements, and system reliability.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience designing large distributed systems, platform architecture, or enterprise‑grade internal developer portals.
• Seasoned distributed systems/software engineer fluent in AI. While not building foundational models from scratch, able to interpret ML research code and assess whether a challenge is a software problem or an infrastructure limitation.
• Expertise in at least one modern programming language such as Python, Go, Java, C#, or C++.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with foundational LLMs, vector databases, and AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen), focused on taking prototypes into stable production.
• 0‑to‑1 Builder: Comfortable navigating ambiguous environments, defining technical strategy, and writing initial code before scaling it across a large engineering organization.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex security, compliance, and access‑control challenges in cloud environments (GCP, AWS, Azure).
• Exceptional communication and change‑management skills; can influence executive leadership on ROI while serving as the approachable "go‑to" AI expert for engineering teams.
• BS or MS in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent professional/military experience.

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/commissioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. The salary range is £147,000.00 - £237,500.00/yr.

Accommodations

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].

Equal Opportunity Employer

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