Sr Staff Software Software

Jobs Paloaltonetworks; California; On-site; USD 135,000 - 218,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer in the United States to design and implement scalable cloud-native microservices. You will work across product, SRE, ML, and QA teams to deliver enterprise-grade security services and production-ready backend architectures.

Applicants should have 5+ years of backend experience, strong Python or Golang skills, and expertise with Kubernetes and observability tools. A flexible hybrid-remote approach may apply depending on team needs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field with 5+ years of experience.
• Experience designing scalable microservices and cloud-native architectures.
• Proficiency in Python or Golang and large-scale backend systems.
• Experience with Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, and observability tools.
• Strong problem-solving and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Participate in all aspects of the product lifecycle.
• Collaborate with Product, SRE, ML, and QA to deliver security services.
• Design and implement scalable backend architectures across services.
• Identify bottlenecks and optimize performance at scale.
• Adopt modern engineering practices and agentic workflows.
• Support software product development and deployment.

Skills

Python

Golang

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

GitLab

ArgoCD

Grafana

Prometheus

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.

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

Key Responsibilities

• Participate in all aspects of the product lifecycle.
• Cross-functional collaboration with Product Management, SRE, ML, and Quality Engineering teams to deliver new, enterprise-grade security as a service offerings in a timely fashion.
• Tackle complex, ambiguous technical challenges across system boundaries, translating high-level product and security vision into resilient, production-ready backend architectures.
• Support identification of technical bottlenecks and scaling opportunities, driving continuous performance and efficiency optimizations to maximize throughput, lower latency, and streamline resource utilization at scale.
• Learn and implement modern engineering best practices, including agentic coding workflows and spec-driven development within the team.
• Working with the software engineering, product management, SRE teams during softwareproduct development and deployment.
• Execution of large-scale enterprise systems with model serving infrastructure, ensuring seamless, scalable integration across backend services and partner engineering services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field with 5+ years of relevant industry experience, or a Master's degree with 4+ years of experience
• Developing and automating the upcoming new software features in cloud environment;
• Domain expertise in designing, building, and operating highly scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems, with exceptional programming skills in Python or Golang.
• Execution of designing enterprise-wide Microservices architectures, building, and deploying high-throughput, globally scaled APIs to meet strict SLOs, maximize throughput, and reduce compute costs in production.
• Experience with cloud-native solutions (GCP preferred), relational/NoSQL databases, container management (Kubernetes), enterprise CI/CD (GitLab, ArgoCD), and full-stack observability (Grafana, Prometheus).
• Working with the software engineering, product management, SRE teams during software product development and deployment.
• Experience developing, automating, and executing QA processes including test plans, test cases,software tools, and cloud infrastructure to improve product quality and efficiency of deployment and maintenance of the cloud system is a plus.
• Exposure to building, and deploying complex Agentic workflows, tool-use pipelines, or multi-agent orchestrations.

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.

$134,600.00 - $217,800.00/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