Principal Software Engineer

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real‑world problems with cutting‑edge technology and bold thinking. Here, every voice counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place.

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is what our employees work at each day and is defined by our values:
Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real‑world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us!

You will join our Engineering team that will give you the opportunity to make a global impact—protecting our way of life in the digital age by preventing successful cyber attacks. The projects our engineers are assigned give real, hands‑on experience working on products from our Strata, Prisma and Cortex organizations.

• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to design, develop, and deploy software solutions with agility and rapid iteration.
• Use and experiment with AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, internal agents) to boost productivity and improve code quality.
• Help define and evolve new engineering practices that leverage AI for code generation, testing, documentation, refactoring, and operations.
• Write clean, maintainable code and participate in peer reviews and team design discussions.
• Contribute to the automation of development, deployment, and monitoring processes as part of a Dev Ops culture.
• Continuously learn and apply new AI technologies, frameworks, and techniques that can enhance developer workflows.
• Participate in team retrospectives and help drive improvements in team velocity and product quality.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 2+ years of experience or a Master's degree earned recently or anticipated to be earned within the next 12 months in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering or a related field.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Java or C/C++.
• Familiarity with networking fundamentals (for Embedded & Distributed Systems positions).
• Understanding of the fundamentals of Computer Science.
• Exemplify strong initiative and ability to work independently with limited direction.
• Ability to work cross‑functionally with other engineers, researchers and Product Managers.
• Excellent communication skills and an interest in Cybersecurity.

• Exposure to large language models (LLMs) or AI/ML APIs, even through personal projects.
• Familiarity with cloud environments (GCP, AWS or Azure) and containerized development (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience with modern developer tools such as CI/CD pipelines, observability platforms, and infrastructure‑as‑code.

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/com‑missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus.

$ - $/yr

$ - $/yr

We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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 accomm

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