Principal Engineer Software

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 hiring a Principal Engineer who can build scalable platform capabilities and shape engineering strategy. This role blends full stack development with platform engineering. You will design and deliver internal platforms, developer tools, and services that improve engineering velocity across the company. This is a hands-on technical leadership role with broad impact.

Your Impact

• Lead architecture and development of platform services and Infrastructure tooling
• Build and extend internal developer portals (Backstage or similar) to improve discoverability, service onboarding, and operational visibility
• Design and deliver backend services and APIs that are secure, reliable, and easy to maintain
• Improve developer workflows across CI/CD, environment provisioning, and cloud automation
• Work across teams to define platform standards and enforce best practices
• Debug deep issues across distributed systems, networking, Kubernetes, and application layers
• Mentor engineers, influence architecture direction, and improve engineering quality
• Drive simplification and automation across the platform stack

Qualifications
Your Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in senior/staff/principal roles
• Strong experience as a full stack engineer (TypeScript/React on frontend + Go/Python backend)
• Hands-on experience building or customizing Backstage or similar internal developer portals
• Expertise in platform engineering, internal platforms, APIs, developer experience systems
• Strong foundation in distributed systems and microservice architecture
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and modern cloud infrastructure (GCP/AWS)
• Proven track record building CI/CD systems and improving engineering delivery
• Familiarity with observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, etc.)
• Experience influencing cross-team engineering decisions and driving technical strategy

Nice to Have

• Experience building developer platforms as a product
• Plugin development experience for Backstage
• Experience with Terraform and infrastructure automation
• Service mesh experience (Istio/ASM etc.)
• Experience at a platform-focused startup or large-scale cloud environment

Additional Information
The Team
You will be part of a growing, passionate, and dynamic team with an opportunity to work on challenging and exciting projects — centered on what we believe is one of the most significant mission statements in the world. We also strive to be the most people-centric company ever That means we're constantly working to make your experience amazing, and you are part of the team breaking boundaries of what the workplace can be

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 $173,000 - $237,500/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? No.
Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.