Principal AI Software Engineer

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
Join our dynamic team as a Principal AI Engineer, where you will act as a trailblazer in designing and developing multi-tiered, enterprise-grade full-stack systems with a focus on Generative AI. You will be a hands-on technical leader, architecting the next generation of our business applications. In this role, you will move beyond traditional software engineering to design intelligent, agentic workflows that revolutionize our Go-To-Market (GTM) processes and shape the future of our digital landscape.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and implementation of a Proxy-First "AI Gateway" and a unified API endpoint to abstract LLM complexities and centralize control.

• Design and implement comprehensive GenAI observability pipelines to track trace-level data, prompt inputs/outputs, and model latency for continuous improvement.

• Create and optimize architecture to intelligently route queries to cost-effective models, balancing performance and expense.

• Challenge the status quo by instituting innovative thinking, incorporating Agentic AI, and designing sophisticated Multi-Agent Systems and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) workflows.

• Apply GenAI to complex Go-To-Market (GTM) business logic, collaborating with stakeholders to automate critical workflows like customer support and entitlement platforms.

• Pioneer "LLM as a Judge" testing methodologies to automate quality assurance and ensure the correctness, tone, and helpfulness of system outputs.

• Build and maintain robust security guardrails, including detection mechanisms for PII, offensive content, and prompt injection attacks to protect model integrity.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 10 years of related experience, or Master's degree with 6 years of related experience, or PhD with 3 years of related experience in Computer Science or a related field.

• Proven track record leading technical projects in Agile/Scrum environments for large-scale implementations with aggressive timelines.

• Expert-level proficiency in Python.

• Extensive knowledge in building modern applications using Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Llama 3, GPT-4, and Anthropic.

• Deep experience building and maintaining highly observable GenAI systems, including proficiency with tracing and evaluation tools (e.g., LangSmith, Arize, HoneyHive, or custom OpenTelemetry).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience partnering with business stakeholders to design workflows for Go-To-Market (GTM), sales, or support operations.

• Deep experience with Multi-Agent systems, Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication, and orchestration frameworks.

• Experience establishing "Golden Datasets" for ground truth testing and performing comparative analysis across different models.

• Familiarity with Java or Node.js for enterprise integration.

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.

$167,000.00 - $270,500.00/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. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at  accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

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.