Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Palo Alto Networks
Internet Security
$205-235k
Office located in Santa Clara, CA
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
Be an early applicant
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$205-235k
Office located in Santa Clara, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Role
Who you are
- Strong problem solver with collaborative team player with clear communication skills, able to work effectively across engineering, product, and SRE teams
- Solid foundation in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and NLP, with hands-on experience using modern architectures such as transformer-based models and representation learning techniques
- Practical experience applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to real-world problems, including text understanding, classification, extraction, summarization, or reasoning over large-scale and noisy data
- Experience designing, implementing, and operating LLM-powered components in production, including prompt design, model adaptation or fine-tuning, evaluation, and cost/performance optimization
- Familiarity with AI agent–based approaches, such as multi-step inference pipelines, tool-augmented LLM workflows, or systems that combine models, heuristics, and external signals to drive reliable decisions
- Experience with MLOps / AIOps practices for operating ML and LLM systems in production, including model lifecycle management, monitoring, logging, alerting, retraining workflows, and debugging production issues
- Understanding of model quality, robustness, and safety considerations, including evaluation methodologies, failure modes, and guardrails required for production ML systems in security-sensitive environments
- Strong experience with ML frameworks, libraries, and tooling (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow, Keras, Scikit-learn, Kubeflow), and solid software engineering fundamentals
- Ability to independently own ML features end-to-end, from problem formulation and system design to implementation, deployment, and iterative improvement in production
- Experience with website content understanding, website classifications, security, or large-scale internet data is a strong plus
- Proficient in Python, working knowledge of Java, Linux, and shell scripting
- Experience building and operating services on cloud platforms (GCP and/or AWS) and in containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Familiarity with relational and NoSQL data stores such as MySQL, MongoDB, or similar systems
- Experience applying LLMs and agentic systems in security-sensitive or high-precision domains is a strong plus
- MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field, with a focus on Machine Learning, and 2+ years of industry experience delivering ML systems in production environments
What the job involves
- You will build machine learning models and develop big data and distributed systems that use the models to analyze and categorize an enormous amount of URLs
- You will be a key person in transforming ideas into products which are part of the next generation security platform
- The Internet Security Research Team is responsible for innovating new security techniques
- Design, build, and operate production machine learning systems that balance model quality, cost, latency, and reliability in a security-sensitive environment
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle of ML and LLM components, from problem formulation and model development to production deployment, monitoring, and iterative improvement
- Integrate ML and LLM-based services with backend systems and data pipelines, ensuring scalability, observability, and safe operation in production
- Develop and maintain automated training, evaluation, and retraining pipelines, and build data analysis tools to continuously improve model performance as data and threats evolve
- Partner closely with Product Managers and domain experts to translate product and security requirements into robust ML solutions with clear success metrics
- Collaborate with software engineers and SREs on release planning, deployment strategies, monitoring, and incident response to ensure reliable and predictable production behavior
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.
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