Principal Performance Engineer, Palo Alto Networks
Cortex Cloud
$147-237.5k
Office located in Santa Clara, CA
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
Open for applications
Leading cybersecurity protections and software platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$147-237.5k
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
- 10+ years of experience in software engineering or performance engineering, with a strong focus on testing and optimizing distributed cloud-native systems
- Proven track record in building and executing performance testing strategies in complex, large-scale environments
- Strong programming and scripting skills in Python (preferred), along with experience using performance tools like JMeter, Locust, or similar
- Expertise in performance profiling, diagnostics, and tuning across microservices architectures
- Deep understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes orchestration, and cloud-native service architectures
- Hands-on experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry etc
- Strong knowledge of CI/CD systems and infrastructure automation, including Gitlab, Jenkins or similar
- Experience with Java JVM tuning, Golang profiling is a plus
- Excellent analytical, debugging, and troubleshooting skills at the system and application levels
- Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence architecture and drive performance culture across engineering
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
- Experience in chaos engineering, fault injection, and resilience testing
- Familiarity with capacity planning, system tuning, and infrastructure sizing for cloud-native applications
- Strong knowledge of database performance, caching strategies, and distributed systems principles
- Prior experience leading performance initiatives in multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environments
What the job involves
- We are seeking a Principal Performance Engineer to lead performance engineering initiatives for Cortex Cloud
- As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity
- In this role, you will define and implement strategies to measure, validate, and optimize the performance, scalability, and reliability of distributed microservices running in dynamic cloud environments
- Your focus will be on developing robust performance testing frameworks, building automation for continuous performance validation, and identifying bottlenecks across the stack
- As a hands-on technical leader, you will work closely with Engineering, DevOps, SRE, Product, and QA teams to ensure our platform consistently delivers low-latency, high-throughput, and resilient services at scale
- You’ll also influence architectural decisions with a performance-first mindset and shape best practices for performance testing, observability, and tuning
- Design and implement end-to-end performance testing strategies for distributed cloud-native systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and responsiveness
- Build and maintain robust, reusable performance test frameworks and pipelines using tools like JMeter, Locust, or custom Python-based solutions
- Develop and execute load, stress, soak, and failover tests to simulate real-world usage patterns, edge cases, and peak load scenarios
- Identify system bottlenecks, resource contention, and inefficiencies across services, infrastructure, and code; work cross-functionally to drive resolution
- Collaborate with Product and Customer Success teams to understand key customer workflows and usage patterns, translating them into performance test scenarios
- Integrate performance tests into CI/CD pipelines and staging environments to enable continuous performance validation and pre-release gatekeeping
- Define and track key performance metrics (e.g., latency, throughput, system resource usage) and build dashboards using Prometheus, Grafana, or other observability platforms
- Perform deep-dive analysis of performance test results, system telemetry, and application profiling data (e.g., Flamegraphs, heap dumps)
- Advocate for performance-first design principles across engineering teams; influence architectural decisions to improve system efficiency and testability
- Contribute to chaos engineering and fault injection efforts to validate system resilience under adverse conditions
- Lead incident retrospectives related to performance degradation and provide guidance for proactive tuning and improvements
- Thrive in a fast-paced environment, owning performance initiatives from inception through implementation and continuous iteration
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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