Sr Staff Engineer Software (AI/ML)

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 Description

Your Career

Prisma Access™ 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.

• Collaboration & Cross-Functional Leadership: Work alongside a team of Data Plane, Control Plane, Kubernetes, Cloud Infrastructure, Security, and Networking experts. Collaborate with product teams, platform teams, the PanOS team, QA, PMs, DevOps, and Security to streamline deployments and optimize system reliability.
• Technical Strategy & Implementation: Design, develop, and implement highly scalable software features and infrastructure focused on AI/ML applications to transform our next-generation platform.
• AI-Driven Innovation: Drive the application of AI/ML techniques to reinvent the SDLC and drastically improve product outcomes in areas such as quality, observability, monitoring, and automated troubleshooting.
• Performance Optimization: Profile, optimize, and tune the control plane and data plane for efficient cloud operation. Enhance performance, cost-efficiency, and availability in cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP, OCI).
• Process & Tools: Be hands-on in creating tools, processes, and systems that drive transparency, alignment, and direction, specifically aimed at enhancing developer productivity.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Lead data-driven analysis efforts to identify opportunities for AI to improve product outcomes and work with development teams to ensure successful AI integration across the ecosystem.
• Industry Leadership: Contribute to ongoing learning and innovation, striving to define industry standards rather than waiting for direction.

• Experience: 5+ years of experience in software engineering (Backend, Full Stack, Data Engineering, or Applied Science).
• Programming: Hands-on programming mastery in Python and Go is required.
• AI/ML Expertise: Required hands-on experience with LLMs and GenAI applications, or Machine Learning/Data Science experience including ETL, dataset curation, and running large evals. Note: Production-level experience is required; demos, PoCs, and side projects do not qualify.
• Cloud Native: Strong background in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or OCI) and cloud-native technologies.
• Networking Fundamentals: Strong background in networking concepts, proxies, the TCP/IP stack, and TLS. Solid foundational knowledge in Networking and Cloud is crucial for applying AI/ML effectively in this team.
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills with a "go-getter" mindset and the ability to drive ambiguous projects to completion.

• Experience building your own MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers.
• Strong passion for eliminating inefficiencies and improving developer productivity.
• Experience with multi-cluster Kubernetes deployments and edge computing.
• Exposure to serverless computing (Knative, AWS Lambda).
• Experience working with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).