Senior Principal Software Engineer Chief Architect Office - (Idira)

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

We are seeking a highly versatile Senior Principal Software Engineer to join the Chief Architect Office (Idira). This is a unique and dynamic Individual Contributor (IC) role focused heavily on the frontier of AI and agentic development. In this position, you will operate as an independent, highly flexible technical powerhouse, seamlessly switching contexts to work across various domains, engineering teams, and technology stacks.

You will be tasked with embedding directly into different R&D teams to accomplish two primary goals: rolling up your sleeves to significantly advance our most strategic agentic AI projects, and serving as an evangelist who upskills the teams on incorporating AI into their day-to-day development workflows. To succeed, you must be exceptionally fast at building relationships, possess natural mentoring capabilities, and have the leadership skills to influence without formal authority.

Key Responsibilities

• Spearhead Hands-on Agentic Development: Lead the design and implementation of agentic AI solutions, acting as a core technical contributor to aggressively push forward strategic, high-priority projects.
• Embed and Accelerate: Fluidly join different development teams across the organization, learning their domains quickly and working side-by-side with them to accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge features.
• Upskill and Enable: Act as a catalyst for AI-driven engineering by mentoring development teams on the practical, day-to-day usage of AI tools, transforming how they write, test, and ship code.
• Master Context Switching: Work with a high degree of independence and flexibility, rapidly adapting to new technology stacks, architectural challenges, and business contexts as you move between teams.
• Influence Without Authority: Build rapid trust and deep connections with engineers and leadership alike, leveraging your technical excellence and interpersonal skills to shape best practices and architectural decisions globally.
  
  

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record operating as a highly independent Senior Principal Engineer, Architect, or Senior Individual Contributor (IC).
• Demonstrated real-world experience in Agentic development and the practical application of AI (LLMs, agent frameworks, GenAI tools) to solve complex software engineering challenges.
• Exceptional versatility and adaptability; you possess the ability to rapidly learn new systems, transition fluidly between different projects, and operate comfortably across a wide array of domains and modern technology stacks (e.g., Go, Python, Java, AWS/GCP, Kubernetes).
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with a "fast-to-connect" attitude. You can build rapport almost instantly with new teams and stakeholders.
• Strong mentoring and coaching capabilities; demonstrable experience upskilling peers and guiding cross-functional teams to adopt new methodologies.
• A proactive, self-directed mindset. You are comfortable taking high-level strategic objectives from the Chief Architect Office and executing them seamlessly alongside dynamic engineering squads.
  
  

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 [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.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.