Staff Engineer Software, Palo Alto Networks
$104-169.5k
More information about location
3 days a week in office (Needham, MA)
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
Be an early applicant
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$104-169.5k
More information about location
3 days a week in office (Needham, MA)
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Role
Who you are
- Relevant Experience: 2+ years of professional software engineering experience building, shipping, and maintaining production-grade applications
- Full-Stack Proficiency: Hands-on experience building enterprise-grade applications using the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js)
- Cloud Infrastructure Experience: Practical experience building, deploying, and operating scalable solutions within the AWS ecosystem
- AI Tooling & Code Verification: Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools and prompt engineering, paired with peer-review rigor to verify AI outputs for correctness, safety, and security
- Feature Design & System Refactoring: Solid foundation in designing clean APIs, refactoring component code bases, and applying standard design patterns for long-term maintainability
- Operational Ownership & Testing: Strong debugging skills with experience in writing robust tests (unit/integration), participating in RCA processes, and resolving production issues
- Navigating Ambiguity & Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to clarify requirements, adapt technical tactics as priorities shift, raise blockers early, and collaborate effectively with PM, Design, and engineering peers
Desirable
- Identity & Access Security Domain: Experience with IAM, PAM, IGA, or Secrets Management platforms
- Modern Frontend & Quality Tooling: Fluency in TypeScript along with automated testing frameworks such as Jest, Playwright, or JMeter for load/stress testing
- DevOps & Observability Ecosystems: Practical experience with CI/CD pipelines, feature flagging tools, and modern monitoring/logging frameworks
- Context Engineering & Retrieval: Experience structuring codebase documentation and architecture for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and reusable prompt templating
What the job involves
- We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to drive technical execution and contribute to the ongoing evolution of our platform
- In this role, you will take technical ownership of core platform components, translate ambiguous feature requirements into clean, scalable software, and leverage AI-first development workflows to accelerate delivery and elevate code quality
- You will serve as a key technical anchor—designing modular systems, optimizing workflows, and ensuring production reliability
- Drive End-to-End Feature Delivery: Take ownership of complex feature sets and components. Break down ambiguous requirements into execution-ready tasks, estimate work accurately, and reliably deliver high-quality solutions end-to-end
- Implement AI-First Engineering Practices: Apply high AI tool fluency and prompt engineering to streamline daily development. Rigorously review and validate AI-generated code to prevent security gaps, logic defects, and hallucinations before committing
- Design for Extensibility & Modularity: Propose clean feature designs and API interfaces using standard architectural patterns. Write modular, testable code that gracefully balances performance, reliability, and maintainability
- Practice Defensive & Secure Engineering: Anticipate edge cases (limits, nulls, complex authorization paths) early in the development cycle. Write integration tests and defensive logic to lower defect escape rates
- Translate Requirements into Intuitive Workflows: Partner closely with Product and Design to understand user scenarios, clarify acceptance criteria early, and build seamless frontend and backend implementations that reduce friction
- Maintain Production Service Excellence: Act as a champion for component health. Actively participate in root cause analysis (RCA) on production incidents, implement durable fixes, and reduce MTTR
- Foster Team Capability & Knowledge Sharing: Share technical learnings, document tribal knowledge, and author "RAG-ready" technical notes. Write clear RFCs and tickets to keep partners informed and help uplevel peer engineers
- As a Staff Software Engineer, you will be a vital technical anchor for your team. By combining hands-on technical execution, modular design, and AI-first workflows, you will turn product goals into secure, scalable, and maintainable capabilities
- Your success will be measured by the reliability of the software you deliver, the operational health of your services, and your ability to elevate the velocity and engineering standards of your immediate team
Our take
With cyber threats evolving at lightening speed, businesses need robust solutions to protect their data and infrastructure. And the global cybersecurity market is projected to grow significantly, driven by increasing cyberattacks and the adoption of digital transformation initiatives. Because of this, companies are seeking security platforms that can address these challenges efficiently.
That's where Palo Alto Networks steps in, a frontrunner in the cybersecurity arena. It offers a suite of AI-powered security solutions designed to safeguard enterprises across various sectors. Its platforms, such as Cortex XSIAM and Prisma AIRS, integrate advanced threat detection, zero trust architecture, and real-time response capabilities so organizations are ready to manage and mitigate risks.
Its leadership is evident too, with impressive growth and strategic partnerships. In 2025, the company surpassed $1.5B in sales through the Google Cloud Marketplace, highlighting the demand for its innovative security solutions. Additionally, a collaboration with AT&T aims to enhance cybersecurity offerings, further solidifying its market position.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
119% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Sep 2022
$34m
SERIES A
May 2022
$11m
SEED
Total funding: $45m
Company benefits
- Healthcare: We value your health and provide options so you can choose what best supports your lifestyle and personal health goals. Various nationwide plans — including Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente, Delta Dental, VSP, and more — are available to you and your family. Our providers offer the flexibility you want and the coverage you need
- Wellness: With a large on-site gym and daily, instructor-led exercise classes at HQ in Santa Clara, Palo Alto Networks actively supports employee fitness. Our juice bar, Gym & Juice, features fresh juice blends, a quick and nutritious option pre- or post-workout. And our ongoing wellness speaker series highlights the latest trends in health and wellness
- Development: Professional development is serious business at Palo Alto Networks, where the Talent Development team offers 25+ courses to help employees boost their careers and develop leadership capability
- Financial: Most roles are eligible for equity grants, and we now offer new hires a quarterly vesting schedule right away. We want you to be fairly compensated and rewarded as soon as you make an impact – on our team, that happens immediately! And because we consider every employee a stakeholder in our long-term success, we offer an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with a 24-month lookback. From life insurance to health savings accounts, we provide ways to help you protect and grow your wealth. Palo Alto Networks offers both traditional and Roth 401(k) options, along with a company match of 50% to a max annual amount of $1,000
- Time Off: In addition to paid corporate holidays, Flexible Time Off programs empower our employees to balance their work schedules with personal time off. We offer 12 weeks of full pay for medical leave and 6 weeks of full pay for parental leave. As a company with strong ties to the military and veterans, we also offer 26 weeks of full pay for military leave
- Perks: Our corporate discount program provides employees with significant discounts on merchandise, travel and entertainment. We offer many on-site perks at headquarters, including cafeterias, fuel service, dry cleaning service, EV charging stations, and a company store. We also provide complimentary drinks, fresh fruit, and snacks in break rooms across our campus to help everyone power through the day. Life at Palo Alto Network
Company HQ
Santa Clara, CA
Leadership
Nikesh Arora
(CEO & Chairman)Previously the President and COO at SoftBank, CBO at Google, and CMO at T-Mobile.
Nir Zuk
(Founder & CTO)Previously CTO at NetScreen Technologies, which was acquired by Juniper Neworks in 2004. They also co-founded OneSecure where they served as CTO and was the Principal Engineer at Check Point Software Technologies.
Lee Klarich
(CPO)Initially joined Palo Alto in 2006 as the EVP of Product Management and became CPO in 2018. Prior to this, they were the Director of Product Management at Juniper Networks and a Product Line Manager at NetScreen Technologies.
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