Principal Engineer Software (Prisma AIRS Backend - Runtime Security)

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 on the Prisma AIRS Runtime Security team, you will serve as a technical visionary and strategic leader shaping the future of AI security. You will partner with executive leadership, product management, UX designers, ML engineers, and cross-functional engineering teams to conceptualize, architect, and deliver enterprise-grade, cutting-edge solutions for the Prisma AIRS Runtime Security product. You will be at the vanguard of innovation for an industry-defining product in the rapidly evolving space of AI Runtime Security. Your responsibilities will transcend feature development to lead continuous performance and efficiency optimizations, enabling high-throughput integrations across AI detection infrastructure and partner engineering teams. You will drive technical excellence across the organization, set architectural standards, and act as a force multiplier by mentoring other engineers in the team.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional collaboration with Product Management, SRE, ML, and Quality Engineering teams to deliver new, enterprise-grade security as a service offerings in a timely fashion.

• Tackle complex, ambiguous technical challenges across system boundaries, translating high-level product and security vision into resilient, production-ready backend architectures.

• Proactively identify technical bottlenecks and scaling opportunities, driving continuous performance and efficiency optimizations to maximize throughput, lower latency, and streamline resource utilization at scale.

• Evangelize and implement modern engineering best practices, including agentic coding workflows and spec-driven development within the team.