Own the Architecture: Lead the design and implementation of large-scale, resilient distributed systems.
Drive Execution: Serve as the project lead, aligning key stakeholders—from Product Management and UX to fellow engineering teams—to ensure seamless, timely delivery.
Cross-Functional Mastery: Act as a technical consultant and collaborator across team boundaries, proactively identifying and mitigating risks in design and execution.
Data at Scale: Design, build, and optimize data models and high-performance queries using cutting-edge technologies like MySQL and BigQuery to handle massive data throughput.

Mentor and Elevate: Actively mentor and guide engineers across the department, raising the bar for engineering excellence and best practices.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

We are looking for a Principal Backend Engineer to join our Cortex backend engineering group. Be at the forefront of cloud security innovation as a backend engineer on our team. You will design, develop, and maintain the core backend infrastructure for Palo Alto Networks' Cortex Cloud Platform and its Cloud Security Posture features, directly impacting the security of our customers' cloud environments. We are looking for candidates with a can-do attitude, who are passionate about complex problems and thrive on bringing value to thousands of customers.

Your Impact

As a Principal Engineer on the team, you will:

Work across team boundaries
Drive projects from requirements to design and implementation as project lead
Align key stakeholders including product management, UX design, and fellow engineering stakeholders
Proactively review design, identify risks and mitigate risks in ongoing and planned projects to ensure smooth execution
Mentor engineers across the department
Regularly provide cross-team technical collaboration and consultation
Design, build, and optimize data models and queries for speed and scale, using data storage technologies like MySQL and BigQuery

Qualifications

Your Experience

7+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with a heavy focus on developing cloud-native applications at scale.
Expert-level programming skills in at least one of: Python, Go, or Java.
Deep practical experience in distributed systems architecture and microservices.
Proven ability to build and deliver high-volume services, leveraging technologies like ElasticSearch, Pub/Sub, REST APIs, and Serverless computing.
Exceptional troubleshooting abilities and a "can-do" attitude when faced with complex, ambiguous problems.
A strong understanding of public cloud design considerations (security, networking, load balancing) and the limitations of building services at a global scale.
Experience acting as a hands-on tech lead or architect, making data-driven trade-off judgments.

Additional Information

The Team

Prisma Cloud provides security for enterprise customers' cloud environments hosted on AWS, Azure, and GCP. This is one of the fastest-growing BU in Palo Alto Networks.

The Platform Team is PANW's most foundational team of shared services and is used by all the applications in Prisma Cloud. This core platform may eventually expand to all PANW Business Units. Our goal is to become a platform to allow seamless and consistent integrations with various teams within PANW and also provide a unified user 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 between $147000/YR - $235000/YR The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

Our Commitment

We’re problem solvers that 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 [email protected].

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.

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