Sr Principal AI-Data Scientist (ADEM)

Job Summary

The ADEM engineering team is the engine of innovation at Palo Alto Networks. We don’t just follow industry trends; we create them. As a Sr Principal Engineer focused on the Agent, you will be at the center of this mission, tackling “impossible” problems in scale, security, and performance at the most critical point: the user’s endpoint. We look for leaders who are comfortable in deep ambiguity, possess an insatiable curiosity, and are driven to build technology that protects the digital way of life for the world’s largest enterprises.

Your Career

We are seeking a visionary Senior Principal AI / Data Scientist to join our Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM) team. In this role, you will be at the forefront of transforming ADEM from a reactive data visualization tool into a proactive AIOps platform. You will act as an architectural and product‑strategy leader, leveraging Machine Learning and Generative AI to solve complex customer networking problems, drive zero‑touch troubleshooting, and shape our future AI roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive Gen AI Innovation: Design, architect, and implement production-ready “Agentic” Root Cause Analysis (RCA) systems to automate complex network troubleshooting, reducing IT admin diagnosis time from 30+ minutes to under a minute.
• End‑to‑End ML Development: Own the full ML lifecycle from Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and rapid Proof‑of‑Concepts (PoCs) to deploying scalable ML baselines and intelligent alerting systems for diverse network segments.
• System Design & Microservices: Develop high‑performance, independent AI‑powered microservices (e.g., domain‑based application classification) from initial PM requirements to fully scalable production services.

• Data Pipeline Mastery: Build, optimize, and maintain complex data pipelines utilizing Google Cloud Dataflow and BigQuery.
• Query Optimization: Audit and optimize heavy BigQuery queries to eliminate latency, drastically improving UI responsiveness and underlying data processing costs.
• Cross‑Tenant Analytics: Architect secure, privacy‑compliant solutions to detect widespread network or ISP issues by correlating cross‑tenant ML baseline scores.

• Roadmap Definition: Partner closely with Product Management (PM) to define and champion the 6‑12 month AI roadmap, co‑developing business cases with clear ROI (e.g., faster MTTR, support deflection).
• Code Quality & Infrastructure: Act as the technical anchor for the team. Review code, establish best practices, improve infrastructure documentation, and “shift‑left” on regression testing to improve velocity.
• Customer‑Centric Engineering: Proactively engage with Sales Engineers, Support, and UX teams to understand customer pain points deeply and translate them into highly accurate technical requirements.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Advanced AI/ML Expertise: Proven track record of putting ML models and Generative AI (LLMs, RAG architectures, Agentic workflows) into production.
• Software Engineering & Coding: Strong, hands‑on programming experience. Proficiency in Python and familiarity with Java are required; additional experience with Go is a strong plus.
• Big Data & Cloud Infrastructure: Deep expertise in BigQuery and Dataflow. Experience negotiating and implementing secure cloud infrastructure (e.g., workload identity, SRE best practices).
• Systems Thinking: Ability to design platform‑level services with a holistic view, enabling integrations across a wider ecosystem (e.g., Cortex, Prisma Access).
• Business Acumen: Demonstrated ability to bridge the gap between deep technical implementation and tangible business value/sales growth.
• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent high‑level professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Domain knowledge in networking (ISPs, Firewalls, Application Identification, Gateways, Telemetry).
• An interest in or prior exposure to filing patents or publishing novel AI/ML research is a bonus.
• Familiarity with leveraging AI coding assistants (like Claude Code) to accelerate technical decision‑making, benchmark languages, and generate complex architectural documentation.

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.

$185,200.00 - $299,475.00/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. 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?: Yes