Principal Backend Engineer - ShiftLeft (Cortex Cloud)

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

Job Description

Your Career

ShiftLeft is building the cloud security platform for developers (CAS). Our platform empowers teams to find, fix, and prevent security risks in application code and infrastructure as code through automation and security-as-code principles. We're looking for a skilled Senior Backend Engineer to join our team and contribute to our Cortex Cloud platform.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you'll have a high-impact role in shaping the future of our code security products. Beyond building robust and scalable backend features, you'll help drive performance, reliability, and innovation across our systems. Our team leads the way in owning both the department’s core infrastructure and Developer Experience (DevEx), empowering the entire engineering organization with powerful internal platforms and tooling. If you're excited by technical challenges, meaningful ownership, and making life easier for developers — this is the place for you.

Your Impact

• Feature Development: Design, build, and maintain robust backend services using TypeScript/Node.js. Take full ownership of complex, cross-system features — from initial requirements through architecture, implementation, and deployment
• Build and Optimize Scalable Systems: Ensure performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency across distributed systems through thoughtful design, deep observability, and continuous optimization
• Platform Engineering & DevEx: Drive platform engineering initiatives by developing the department infrastructure and shared tooling that boost scalability, reliability, and the developer experience across the department
• Own Core Infrastructure: Design, operate, and evolve the department’s infrastructure stack — including BigQuery, MongoDB, Redis, and Argo Workflows — using cloud-native technologies like Terraform, Kubernetes, and Helm
  
  

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 7+ years of experience in backend development, with a strong foundation in designing and maintaining scalable systems
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with TypeScript and Node.js in production environments.
• Proven experience working with cloud platforms such as GCP (or equivalent like AWS/Azure).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes
• Familiarity with operating live production systems at scale, with a focus on reliability and performance
• Strong problem-solving skills and a passion for continuous learning and technical excellence
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent military experience
  
  

Advantage

• Experience developing security-related products, especially in the code analysis or AppSec domain
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation
• Hands-on experience with Argo Workflows or similar orchestration platforms
• Security knowledge
• Orchestrated and managed containerized applications using Kubernetes, including deployment, scaling, and self-healing of microservices
  
  

Additional Information

The Team

Our engineering team is at the core of our products - connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating - challenging the way we, and the industry, think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don't shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before.

We define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment.

Our Commitment

We’re problem solvers that 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 [email protected].

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.