Sr. Principal Software Engineer - Network Security - PanOS Dev
Palo Alto Networks· enterprise· Cybersecurity· Sep 24, 2026 · 1mo ago
Santa Clara, United States of America
In office
Full-time
Principal
$184K–$297K
10+ years exp
Job description
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
Engineering - Our engineering team is at the core of our products and connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating — challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don’t shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before. We define the industry instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment.
Job Summary
We are seeking innovative engineers to design and develop security features for our next-generation firewalls. As a key member of the Layer-7 Security group, you will take ownership of your focus areas, applying your programming skills to solve real-world security problems. You will collaborate with multi-functional teams including product management, quality assurance, and field support throughout the entire software development cycle. This role requires a drive to build global products and a passion for bringing new ideas to the security discipline.
Responsibilities
Architect & Implement: Design, build, and maintain real-time, high-throughput security services and networking infrastructure.
Technical Leadership: Lead complex engineering projects end-to-end—from initial architecture and design reviews to deployment and production monitoring.
Operational Excellence: Promote engineering best practices, including secure coding standards, comprehensive code reviews, performance tuning, and robust system architecture.
Elevate Systems Ownership: Architect and own critical control-plane and data-plane components for the GlobalProtect server infrastructure, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and scalable performance
Advanced Troubleshooting: Diagnose and resolve complex server-side and network-level issues independently, even when presented with minimal diagnostic information.
Test Automation & Quality: Drive a culture of quality by advocating for aggressive automated testing, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), and high code coverage.
AI-Driven Productivity: Leverage AI-assisted development techniques and tools to maximize coding efficiency, streamline debugging, and accelerate project delivery.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications Experience & Industry Background: 10 years of professional software development experience in the enterprise networking or cybersecurity industry.
Core Engineering Skills: Proven proficiency in C, Go (Golang), Python programming within a Linux/Unix development environment.
Distributed Systems Architecture: Extensive experience with multi-threaded programming, asynchronous I/O, and designing large-scale, high-performance, or distributed server architectures.
Networking Expertise: Hands-on experience developing TCP/IP networking software and understanding lower-level network protocols.
End-to-End Ownership: Demonstrated track record of leading and successfully executing complex technical projects from conception to release.
Strategic / Cross-Functional Impact: Proven ability to mentor senior engineers, collaborate across product management and architecture teams, and influence long-term technical roadmaps.
Education: B.S. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
Preferred Qualifications API & Pipeline Integration: Experience with RESTful API design, implementation, and integration, alongside familiarity with modern CI/CD pipelines.
AI & Automation Mindset: Active experience using AI-assisted tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, LLM coding assistants) to boost engineering velocity and operational efficiency.
Automation First: A strong advocate for test-driven development (TDD), automated integration testing, and performance profiling.
Agile & Collaborative Attitude: A team player with a strong can-do attitude who thrives in a fast-paced environment and rapidly adapts to new technologies and platforms.
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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here .
$183,600.00 - $297,000.00/yr
Our Commitment
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 accommodations paloaltonetworks.com .
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
Application prep
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