Principal Engineer Software (AI Tools - Developer Platform)

Principal Engineer Software (AI Tools - Developer Platform)

At Palo Alto Networks, Secure Cloud and AI Infrastructure is the foundation of our mission to protect the digital future. We're seeking a world-class Principal Engineer (Sr Manager -equivalent) to lead the evolution of AI-driven tools within our Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Engineering (CIPE) organization.

You will be the key architect of our strategy to embed intelligence into every stage of the developer lifecycle-from ideation and documentation to coding, testing, deployment, and observability. Your work will directly accelerate developer velocity, elevate our standards for software quality, and unlock new business opportunities by enabling the rapid integration of agentic AI into our products.

This role carries executive-level visibility and the autonomy to solve our most complex engineering challenges. If you are a recognized expert in developer platforms and are passionate about leveraging AI to redefine engineering efficiency at a global scale, we want to hear from you.

This role is located at our dynamic Santa Clara California headquarters campus, and in office 3 days a week.

Your Impact:

• Define the Vision: Architect and own the technical roadmap for AI-enhanced developer tools and infrastructure in CIPE at Palo Alto Networks
• Evaluate and Execute Solutions: Lead the design and implementation of novel systems that leverage Large Language Models (LLMs), static/dynamic analysis, and machine learning to create a world-class, intelligent developer experience
• Drive Organization-Wide Impact: You are a builder, so you won't just stop at ideation. Beyond concepts, ensure your builds show step-change improvements in key engineering metrics like including code velocity, review cycle time, test effectiveness, incident reduction, and overall feature launches.
• Lead Cross-Functional Initiatives: Spearhead complex, cross-functional projects that require influencing and aligning multiple engineering organizations and their leadership.
• Enable Secure Innovation: Develop foundational AI platforms that empower teams to prototype, deploy, and scale threat-intelligent cloud features, embedding Palo Alto Networks' security natively.
• Serve as Technical Authority: Act as the go-to expert on AI-augmented cloud platforms, mentoring senior engineers and infusing industry-leading practices into our high-stakes ecosystem.
• Innovate at Enterprise Scale: Address intricate challenges in multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI) supporting thousands of microservices, secure workloads, and global threat detection pipelines.

Your Experience:

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 9+ years of relevant software engineering experience, with a proven track record of technical leadership and innovation.
• Demonstrated experience defining and leading large-scale, cross-organizational technical initiatives from concept to completion.
• Recognized expertise in developer platforms, infrastructure, CI/CD, and software development lifecycle tooling.
• Hands-on experience applying AI/ML/GenAI to solve complex software engineering problems.
• Experience influencing and aligning senior leadership (Director, VP level) on technical strategy and roadmaps.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep expertise in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative AI techniques to build intelligent developer tools.
• A strong background in compilers, code analysis (static/dynamic), or building large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience building and scaling platforms that serve thousands of engineers in a complex, polyglot environment (Go, Java, Python, C/C++).
• A history of significant contributions to the open-source community, publications in top-tier conferences, or patents in relevant fields.
• Expertise with modern build systems (e.g., Bazel, Buck) and container orchestration technologies (e.g., Kubernetes).