Sr Staff Software Engineer (NGFW System Infrastructure and Platform Security)

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!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Your Career

We're seeking innovators - software engineers who seek to design new products, designing state-of-the-art products that do not exist today. These engineers love to code with a drive to build global products and bring new ideas to develop security disciplines to solve real-world problems. We are looking for leaders who take ownership of their areas of focus and who are driven to pursue problems at every level. Collaboration is at the heart of our culture and we need engineers who can communicate at a high level and work well with multi-functional teams towards achieving a common goal.

As a key member of the Next-Gen Firewall (NGFW) System Infrastructure and Platform Security team, you will be responsible for designing and developing high performance and scalable core systems and building industry leading platform security for NGFW, which powers all next-gen firewall products at Palo Alto Networks. You will be part of a world-class multi-functional software engineering team that works on various ground-breaking technologies.

Your Impact

• Innovate, design, and develop core system infrastructure (e.g. IPC infrastructure, clustering, HA, software upgrade, OS/Kernel) and security infrastructure/services. 

• Contribute in all phases of the software development cycle, from definition, design, through implementation and test

• Develop functional specifications, assess task requirements and scheduling, and contribute to development, debugging and support

• Identify and drive improvements in existing software and development process

Your Experience 

• B.S. or M.S. degree in Computer Science, similar technical discipline or equivalent practical experience or equivalent military experience required

• 5+ years experience in embedded programming, infrastructure, security, Linux kernel/OS, and platform software

• Experience developing, integrating and delivering product features or system components on Linux-based systems

• Expertise in security such as OS/application security, secure boot, software/file/data integrity,  access control (e.g.SeLinux), PQC,, IMA, Intrusion Detection/reporting/auditing/remediation, VM/container security, etc, 

• Strong C/C++ coding/debugging skills

• Strong scripting skills with bash and python

• Experience with improving performance/scale,  memory usage and boot-time s is a plus

• Experience with OS, Clustering, HA is a plus

• Strong verbal and written communication skills to work with multi-functional groups

• Team player with a collaborative mindset, a quality-driven focus and a can-do attitude

The Team

Our team designs and builds hardware devices, networking technologies, software, and services for delivering on customer needs and wants, innovating with opinion to anticipate customer requirements. Our designs are beautiful, customer appropriate, and functional.

The products you work on are new to Palo Alto Networks, so you are entrepreneurial and hands-on in your engineering approach while helping to craft a vision and being a key member to execute on that vision. 

We contribute to Palo Alto Networks being the fastest growing cybersecurity company in the world by understanding the evolution of cyberattacks and designing products to keep users safer and more secure.  

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/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $126,000 - $180,000/YR The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

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.