Principal Software Engineer, Palo Alto Networks
Automation/Test
$147-237.5k
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
Be an early applicant
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$147-237.5k
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Role
Who you are
- Professional Background: 9+ years in software tooling or infrastructure engineering within large-scale enterprises or high-growth startups
- Technical Proficiency: Strong programming skills in Python
- AI/ML Expertise: Proven experience leveraging AI/ML technologies (LLMs, agentic frameworks, prompt engineering) to build intelligent engineering tools
- Cloud Mastery: Deep understanding of public cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and building tools that leverage cloud-native services
- Architecture & Tooling: Demonstrated experience designing complex tooling frameworks from scratch with a focus on scalability and extensibility
- Modern Toolchain: Proficiency in integrating technologies such as Pytest, Selenium, Playwright, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes
- Systems Thinking: Strong troubleshooting skills and experience supporting tooling for distributed systems and SaaS-based products
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
- Industry Knowledge: Experience in cloud security or an equivalent relevant domain is advantageous
What the job involves
- At Palo Alto Networks, we're not just building products — we're redefining what's possible in cybersecurity. As a Principal Software Automation/Test Engineer, you'll play a critical role in our mission to secure the world’s digital transformation. Your work will directly impact the quality and reliability of the solutions that protect global enterprises every day. If you're passionate about driving quality at scale and want to be part of a team that's leading the charge in cloud security innovation, we want to hear from you
- Why Cortex Cloud?
- Market Leader – Be part of the fastest-growing cloud security platform, trusted by leading organizations around the globe — and help ensure its quality scales with its success
- Innovative Culture – Collaborate with top minds in cybersecurity and automation, where your ideas for smarter, faster, and more secure testing will be valued and implemented
- Massive Impact – Your work will directly contribute to protecting the world’s most critical digital assets — by ensuring our solutions are secure, stable, and production-ready
- Rapid Growth – Join a high-velocity team where career growth and impact go hand in hand. As we scale, you'll have opportunities to take ownership, lead initiatives, and grow your technical expertise
- Your Impact:
- 1. Integrated Tools Strategy & AI Innovation
- Architect Next-Gen Platforms: Lead the design of tooling platforms and comprehensive strategies for complex, large-scale systems
- Drive AI-Powered Automation: Leverage AI to design intelligent tools that enhance testing efficiency, code quality, and productivity across the organization
- Build Agentic Workflows: Integrate LLM-powered assistants and agentic workflows to automate repetitive tasks like test case creation, log analysis, and code review triage
- Operationalize Emerging Tech: Evaluate and adopt technologies such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and fine-tuned models to push the boundaries of engineering automation
- Establish AI Guardrails: Define best practices for responsible AI usage, including hallucination mitigation and human-in-the-loop review processes
- 2. Engineering Productivity & Infrastructure
- Enhance Developer Experience: Design and implement internal tools, SDKs, and frameworks to boost engineering velocity and productivity
- Advanced Framework Development: Build robust automation frameworks equipped with detailed reporting, observability, and seamless CI/CD integration
- Cloud-Native Environments: Manage complex testbeds and infrastructure-as-code solutions to support varied development and testing scenarios
- Predictive Analytics: Develop AI-driven defect prediction and root cause analysis tools to accelerate the QA lifecycle
- 3. Technical Leadership & Mentorship
- Influence Strategy: Provide insights into engineering efficiency and tooling gaps to influence the development of cutting-edge solutions
- Systemic Problem Solving: Guide root cause analysis of complex tooling failures and infrastructure incidents during and after releases
- Lead by Example: Mentor junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of ownership and engineering excellence
- Build the Team: Actively participate in the hiring process and technical interviews to help build a world-class tools engineering organization
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. Recently the company surpassed $1.5M 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 position in the market.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
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.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 259 more jobs at Palo Alto Networks