Senior/Principal Backend Engineer - Application (Cortex Platform)

Software Engineering

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 Senior Software Engineer on the Cortex Platform Application team, you will be a hands-on technical leader responsible for designing, building, and operating critical backend platform services used across Cortex. This role is for an engineer who can combine deep platform/backend expertise with strong ownership, practical execution, and cross-team influence. You will help build scalable and reliable services, guide technical decisions, improve engineering methods, mentor engineers, and raise the quality of how the team designs, ships, documents, tests, and operates its systems. The team owns a broad set of platform capabilities, including areas such as application configuration, dashboards and reporting infrastructure, metrics, multi-tenant and MSSP infrastructure, log forwarding, notifications, auditing, access and permission engines, filtering and querying infrastructure, and other shared application platform domains. We are looking for someone who is not only strong technically, but also enjoys joining a high-performing team, taking ownership from within, and helping turn strong execution into repeatable engineering practice. A successful candidate will quickly become a trusted part of the team by shipping meaningful work, learning the team's domains, and helping others move faster. Over time, this person will help the team increase delivery capacity while also improving how work is designed, documented, tested, operated, and shared across the organization. The right person will not act as an external advisor or abstract architect. They will join the team's day-to-day work, earn trust through execution, and help create organized technical influence from inside the team.

Key Responsibilities

Design, build, and operate scalable, reliable, and secure backend services for the Cortex Platform.
Act as a hands-on technical leader, writing and reviewing production code for critical platform services.
Lead technical design for complex backend and platform domains, balancing long-term architecture with practical delivery.
Own and improve core platform capabilities used by internal engineering teams and Cortex customers.
Drive operational excellence, including observability, monitoring, alerting, incident response, reliability, and participation in on-call.
Improve engineering methods around documentation, testing, design reviews, ownership models, and production readiness.
Mentor senior, mid-level, and junior engineers through design guidance, code reviews, production work, and day-to-day collaboration.
Collaborate closely with product managers, architects, security experts, QA, DevOps, and other engineering teams.
Help internal customers use platform capabilities correctly by creating clarity, alignment, and practical technical guidance.
Identify gaps in systems, processes, and ownership, and lead improvements without adding unnecessary process or friction.
Contribute to a calm, practical, low-ego engineering culture focused on ownership, execution, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

5+ years of professional experience in backend/platform software development.
Strong hands-on experience with backend development using languages such as Go, Javascript, C++, C#, Ruby, Python, or similar.
Proven experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
Strong understanding of software architecture, data modeling, APIs, reliability, observability, and production operations.
Experience working in cloud-based environments.
Ability to lead technical decisions while staying close to the code and implementation details.
Strong ownership mindset, including accountability for production behavior, quality, and long-term maintainability.
Experience mentoring engineers and raising technical standards within a team.
Strong communication skills and ability to influence across teams without relying on authority.
Practical, collaborative, low-ego working style.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with public cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure.
Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD systems, and modern production infrastructure.
Experience building internal platforms, shared services, developer platforms, or application infrastructure.
Experience with multi-tenant systems, permissions, access control, configuration systems, notification systems, auditing, metrics, or reporting infrastructure.
Experience leading cross-team technical initiatives.
Experience improving engineering practices such as testing strategy, documentation, design processes, incident reviews, or ownership models.
Experience in cybersecurity, SaaS platforms, or enterprise-scale backend systems.

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.