Principal Engineer Software (Platform & Infrastructure)

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we're looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

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 Description

Your Career

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Platform & Infrastructure Engineer to join our core infrastructure development team. In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in designing, building, and maintaining the shared infrastructure services and platforms that our product and application teams will depend on. You will focus on creating reusable, reliable, and scalable solutions that abstract away complexity, enabling other teams to focus on their core business logic and deliver features faster in a multi-cloud environment.

Your Impact

• Design and build core platform components and shared infrastructure services that other development teams will integrate with and leverage to deploy and operate their applications.
• Architect, implement, and manage highly available and scalable Kubernetes platforms as a service for internal consumers
• Develop robust, internal-facing tools and automation for infrastructure provisioning and management primarily using Go (Golang)
• Architect and optimize foundational solutions within Cloud environments (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, etc.), focusing on creating reusable patterns and modules for other teams
• Design and implement shared Event-Driven Architecture components and messaging platforms using technologies like Kafka or Google Pub/Sub that product teams can easily utilize
• Develop and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI) as a service, providing standardized and automated deployment workflows for various development teams
• Design and build resilient Distributed Systems components that serve as building blocks for other applications, focusing on reliability, fault tolerance, and performance
• Manage and optimize our shared infrastructure across Multi-Region Cloud Environments, ensuring that platform services are globally available and performant for all consumers
• Establish and enhance centralized Observability and Monitoring platforms and tools that provide self-service insights for consuming teams
• Define and implement clear, well-documented RESTful API designs for the infrastructure services you build, ensuring ease of integration for internal clients
• Implement and manage Service Mesh (e.g., Istio) capabilities, providing traffic management, security, and policy enforcement as a shared platform for services
• Design, implement, and optimize highly available Relational Database services or shared data platforms for broad organizational use
• Collaborate closely with product development teams to understand their infrastructure needs and pain points, providing technical guidance and support
• Participate in on-call rotations to support the critical shared infrastructure you build

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 10+ years of experience in an Infrastructure Development, Platform Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering role, with a strong focus on building tools and services for other engineers
• Deep expertise with Kubernetes in production environments, particularly in providing it as a platform.
• Strong programming skills in Go (Golang) and Python, with experience building robust, maintainable backend services and automation
• Extensive hands-on experience with at least one major Cloud Provider (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure); multi-cloud experience is a strong plus, especially in building abstractions over them
• Proven experience designing and implementing Event-Driven Architecture and message queuing systems (e.g., Kafka, Google Pub/Sub) as shared services
• Solid understanding and practical experience with CI/CD pipeline tools (especially GitLab CI) and experience establishing automated delivery processes for other teams
• Demonstrable experience designing and operating Distributed Systems, with an understanding of patterns for creating reliable, shared components
• Familiarity with Multi-Region Cloud Environments and strategies for building globally distributed and highly available platform
• Proficiency in establishing and utilizing comprehensive Observability and Monitoring platforms (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog) for shared infrastructure
• Strong experience with RESTful API design principles and building well-documented, consumable APIs
• Knowledge of Service Mesh concepts and practical experience with solutions like Istio in a platform context
• Hands-on experience with Relational Databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL), ideally in managing them as a service
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• A strong customer-centric mindset, treating internal development teams as your primary customers.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience or equivalent military experience required
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi) for managing shared resources is a plus
• Experience with developer portals or internal documentation systems is a plus
• Contributions to open-source projects, especially in the infrastructure space is a plus
• Experience leading design sessions and driving technical consensus among diverse team is a plus

Additional Information

The Team

To stay ahead of the curve, it's critical to know where the curve is, and how to anticipate the changes we're facing. For the fastest growing cybersecurity company, the curve is the evolution of cyberattacks, and the products and services that proactively address them. Our engineering team is at the core of our products - connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. They are constantly innovating - challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. These engineers aren't shy about creating products to solve problems no one has tackled before. They define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment.

Our engineering team is provided with an unrivaled opportunity to build the products and practices that will support our company growth over the next decade, defining the cybersecurity industry as we know it. If you see the potential of how incredible people products can transform a business, this is the team for you. If you don't wait for directions, instead, identifying new features and opportunities we have to just get better, this is your new career.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $200,000 - $225,000/YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

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

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.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes