Principal Backend Engineer

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

Your Career:

The Cortex Content team powers Palo Alto Networks’ security operations platforms by building the essential integrations, data connectors, and intelligence layers that protect our customers.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer who is a true AI and automation builder to help scale our content ecosystem. In this role, your focus will be to bring your expertise in leverage AI to accelerate the delivery, quality, and quantity of our security integrations and content infrastructure. You will design and develop intelligent tools and workflows that enable engineering peers and Technical Program Managers (TPMs) to scale their output solutions into our development lifecycle.

Your Impact:

• Scale Content Delivery: Design and implement AI-driven systems that empower the team to significantly increase both the quantity and the rigorous quality of our security integrations.
• Develop Cross-Functional Tooling : Build internal developer tools and agentic workflows that enable other engineers and TPMs to streamline content creation, validation, and management.
• Optimize Workflows : Create reliable CI/CD pipelines incorporating AI agents to automate code generation and testing processes.
• Support Team Adoption: Collaborate with engineering peers and cross-functional partners as they test and integrate your tools into their daily workflows, using their feedback to drive continuous improvements.
• Contribute to AI Integration: Help lead the practical integration of LLMs and automation frameworks into our day-to-day engineering processes.

Qualifications

Your Experience

The ideal candidate will bring proven excellence in at least two of the following core areas:

• Strong Core Engineering: Extensive background in software development and system design, with a proven track record of architecting scalable, high-performance systems from the ground up.
• Hands-On AI in Production: 2+ years building real-world AI systems—focusing on LLM pipelines, autonomous agents, and core infrastructure, well beyond basic prompting or productivity tools like Claude and ChatGPT.
• Agentic Transformation: Proven ability to lead engineering teams through the shift from traditional software development to agentic workflows, driving measurable business and architectural impact.

Leadership & Mindset:

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-team technical initiatives, building strong collaborative partnerships and fostering positive working relationships across engineering, product, and leadership.
• Fast Learner & Innovation-Driven: Exceptional ability to rapidly master emerging technologies, paired with a relentless drive to explore, experiment, and turn cutting-edge AI innovations into practical engineering solutions.

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? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.