Principal Software 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

As a Principal Software Engineer to join our CPQ (Configure Price and Quote) team, you will serve as the recognized subject matter expert, bringing industry best practices to our architectural design. You will act as a technical leader, using first‑principles thinking to dissect complex challenges and drive the development of company objectives. This role requires working autonomously to lead cross‑functional teams in creating AI‑Led, Secure, Scalable CPQ Platform that transform our business processes.

This is an in office role in our HQ, Santa Clara, CA three days/week

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and design scalable, highly reliable business systems across multiple services and teams
• Lead the technical design and architecture of AI‑Led, Secure, Scalable CPQ Platform, owning the process from prototype through deployment
• Build and integrate foundational and agentic AI/ML workflows, ensuring the secure and effective use of GenAI technologies in our products
• Expert at operating in an agile development environment; establish engineering standards and best practices
• Balance security debt, product stability, and features against a backdrop of go‑to‑market pressures and timelines
• Mentor software engineers and challenge engineers at all levels to continue to grow in their discipline
• Establish evaluation and observability frameworks to measure AI quality (accuracy, hallucination rates, query correctness) and system reliability
• Understanding of prompt engineering best practices and LLM security considerations (input validation, prompt injection prevention)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 10 years of related experience; or a Master's degree with 8 years of experience; or a PhD with 5 years of experience.
• Proven ability to design and develop scalable web applications, and integrations using microservices architecture
• Server‑side software development experience using Spring/Spring Boot, Java, Go, and/or other comparable technologies
• In‑depth knowledge about object‑oriented programming, data structures, algorithms, and design patterns
• Expert in Java concepts like threading, generics, annotations, etc.
• Knowledge in CI/CD platforms including Kubernetes, Jenkins, Git, Spinnaker, Docker, or related tools
• Experience building production applications with LLM APIs (Google Vertex AI /Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar)
• Familiarity with Large Language Models (LLMs) and their practical application in business insights
• Familiarity with vector embeddings, semantic search, and similarity‑based retrieval patterns
• Understanding of prompt engineering best practices and LLM security considerations (input validation, prompt injection prevention)

• Familiarity with Large Language Models (LLMs) and practical experience implementing LLM‑based insights
• Experience architecting conversational AI platforms, chatbots, or Text‑to‑SQL systems
• Knowledge of multi‑turn dialogue management and conversation history patterns
• Background in TypeScript/Node.js for AI agent development

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. $167,000.00 - $270,500.00/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 View email address on click.appcast.io.

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.