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
Job Summary
As a Principal Software Engineer for Prisma Access, you will lead the architecture, systems design, and performance optimization of cloud infrastructure underpinning Palo Alto Networks' flagship solution.
In this role, you will bridge low-level Linux systems programming, packet processing, and routing protocols with hyper-scale multi-cloud infrastructure.
You will be responsible for building, hardening, and scaling resilient, multi-cloud network data paths and control plane connectivity running globally across AWS, GCP, and OCI. We are looking for a hands-on systems leader who excels at diagnosing complex networking bottlenecks, designing carrier-grade distributed systems, and adopting modern, AI-augmented engineering workflows to drive engineering velocity.
Key Responsibilities & Impact
Drive deep kernel-level profiling, TCP/IP stack tuning, socket optimization, memory/CPU cache efficiency, and interrupt handling to achieve deterministic, low-latency packet forwarding.
Architect, optimize, and maintain high-throughput networking pipelines, kernel/user-space data paths, and control plane routing engines across distributed multi-cloud footprints.
Design resilient, hyper-scale cloud connectivity topologies across AWS, GCP, and OCI—integrating cloud-native primitives (Transit Gateways, Cloud Routers, Interconnect/Direct Connect) with software-defined overlays and containerized workloads.
Establish systems-level telemetry, distributed tracing, and deep packet inspection diagnostics to ensure adherence to strict SLAs and SLOs.
Build scalable automation for fleet provisioning, configuration deployment, and validation using Terraform, Kubernetes, and Python-based toolchains.
Champion engineering efficiency by integrating agentic coding environments, automated diagnostic harnesses, and AI-assisted workflows (e.g., Cursor, Claude, autonomous testing agents) into day-to-day systems development.
Partner with Product Management, Cloud Architecture, SecOps, and Support to resolve complex customer escalations, establish architectural standards, conduct rigorous design reviews, and mentor senior systems engineers.
Qualifications
10+ years of progressive systems engineering and software development experience in cloud networking infrastructure, high-throughput systems, or distributed security platforms.
Strong programming proficiency in C/C++, Go, or Rust, combined with extensive scripting and automation experience in Python.
Hands-on expertise in the Linux networking subsystem (netfilter, iptables/nftables, network namespaces, routing tables, socket programming) and high-performance packet acceleration frameworks (eBPF, DPDK, or SR-IOV).
Knowledge of dynamic routing protocols (BGP, OSPF), routing daemons (e.g., FRR, BIRD),…