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

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

We are seeking a highly motivated Principal Backend Engineer to lead development for Palo Alto Networks’ leading platforms, Prisma Cloud and Cortex Cloud. In this role, you will leverage your expertise to solve complex problems and deliver significant value to thousands of customers. You will be a technical leader, driving the design and implementation of scalable, resilient backend services in a fast-paced, production-oriented environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end backend development of features and components through their entire life cycle, including design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Proactively collaborate and exchange information with peers across different geo-teams and disciplines to shape solutions and ensure alignment on product integrations.
• Contribute to team-wide efforts by participating in and leading code reviews, design reviews, and making critical technical and architectural decisions.
• Apply a production-oriented approach to provide real-time mitigation and solutions to production issues, ensuring high availability and system stability.
• Challenge curiously and positively to drive technical innovation and mentor other engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Design and develop highly scalable server-side applications, focusing on distributed computing principles and microservices architecture.
• Simplify complex systems and processes to improve efficiency and maintainability, ensuring solutions are robust and well-documented.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including development of scalable server-side applications.
• Extensive hands-on programming skills in Go and/or Python.
• Proven experience with major cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure.
• Strong experience with microservices architecture, including Kubernetes (GKE, EKS, AKS), Docker, or Serverless technologies.
• Deep understanding of distributed computing concepts (e.g., CAP theorem, master election) and experience with distributed databases/KVP stores (e.g., BigQuery, Elasticsearch, Kafka).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience with big-data architectures using technologies like Kafka, Splunk, or Flink.
• Hands-on experience with both SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure automation, and GitOps principles.
• Experience in Cyber Technologies, Information Security, or Software Security domains.

The Team

Cortex - Cortex is the industry’s most comprehensive security operations platform, with the best-in-class threat detection, and response capabilities. It provides a suite of products that help security teams protect endpoints, detect and respond to threats, and automate security operations. You will be part of a team that is responsible for building and maintaining the core infrastructure and services that power the Cortex platform.

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.