Principal Software Engineer (Prisma Access - Networking)

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, everyone has a voice, and every idea 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.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something 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!

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 Summary

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 building products to solve problems no one has pursued 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.

Job Summary

Prisma Access™ SASE (formally GlobalProtect Cloud Service) provides protection straight from the cloud to make access to the cloud secure. It combines the connectivity and security you need and delivers it everywhere you need it. Using cutting-edge public and private cloud technologies extending the next-generation security protection to all cloud services, customers on-premise remote networks and mobile users.

We are seeking an experienced Software Engineer to design, develop and deliver next-generation technologies within our Prisma Access team. We want passionate engineers who love to code and build great products. Engineers who bring new ideas in all facets of software development. We are looking for leaders who take ownership of their areas of focus and who are driven to solve problems at every level. Collaboration and teamwork are at the foundation of our culture and we need engineers who can communicate at a high level and work well with others towards achieving a common goal.

• Design, develop and implement highly scalable software features on our next-generation security platform as part of Prisma Access
• Work with different development and quality assurance groups to achieve best in quality software
• Suggest and implement improvements to the development process
• Work with DevOps and the Technical Support teams to troubleshoot customer issues

• B.S. with 10+ years or M.S. with 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, specifically focusing on high-performance networking or operating system internals.
• Expertise in L3 Control Plane protocols: Architectural knowledge of BGP (including EVPN/VXLAN), OSPF, and IPv6 stack internals.
• Strong Linux Systems Programming: Proficiency in C/C++ and Python is required, with a focus on multi-threaded applications, IPC, and Linux kernel interfaces (e.g., Netlink).
• Proven experience in refactoring or migrating core system components (like routing stacks) within a live production environment.
• Demonstrated history and/or interest in contributing to open-source networking or systems projects; ability to influence community roadmaps and maintain upstream relations.
• Familiarity with integrating software routing suites with underlying hardware abstraction layers.
• Distributed Systems: Understanding of high availability (HA) in networking, including graceful restart mechanisms and state synchronization across distributed nodes.
• Cloud & Virtualization: Experience with software-defined networking (SDN) in cloud environments (AWS/GCP/Azure) and container networking interfaces (CNI).