Senior Staff Engineer Software

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 Senior Staff Engineer to drive the development, scalability, and evolution of our Next Generation Trust Security (NGTS) CodeSign and Protocols modules. In this role, you will take ownership of complex engineering initiatives, delivering end-to-end features while building highly scalable distributed systems that support mission-critical security workflows at enterprise scale.

You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, navigating ambiguity while contributing across the stack from API design through user interface implementation. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, Design, Production Engineering, and Test Enablement to deliver secure, reliable, and high-quality software. You will also mentor peers, contribute to engineering best practices, and help improve the scalability, reliability, and maintainability of the platform.

This role is available for engineers who are open to working from our Salt Lake City, Utah office in a hybrid capacity three days per week.

Core Responsibilities:

End-to-End Feature Delivery

Take ownership of complex engineering initiatives from design through production deployment, delivering scalable, high-quality software while minimizing rework and accelerating delivery.

Backend Engineering

Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services using Go, Java, or similar modern programming languages.

Leverage workflow orchestration frameworks such as Temporal or comparable distributed workflow technologies to implement resilient business logic, distributed workflows, and microservices integrations.

Frontend Development

Develop modern web applications using TypeScript, React, and contemporary component libraries to deliver intuitive, high-performance user experiences for complex security workflows.

API & Platform Integration

Design and implement scalable GraphQL schemas, REST APIs, and service integrations that support the broader NGTS platform while promoting reusable, maintainable engineering patterns.

Code Quality & Maintainability

Design clean interfaces, refactor legacy components, reduce technical debt, and improve long-term maintainability through engineering best practices and defensive coding techniques.

Scalability, Reliability & Production Engineering

Distributed Systems

Design and implement distributed systems with a focus on scalability, resiliency, fault tolerance, and operational excellence.

Performance & Scale

Design features with scalability, reliability, and performance tradeoffs in mind while supporting horizontal scaling and large-scale SaaS workloads.

Production Engineering

Partner closely with Test Enablement and Production Engineering teams to prepare infrastructure for performance, resiliency, and reliability testing.

Diagnose and resolve production issues across distributed services, perform root cause analysis, and participate in the team's paid on-call rotation to maintain platform availability.

Observability

Improve monitoring, logging, alerting, and operational tooling to proactively identify and resolve production issues.

Collaboration & Engineering Excellence

Partner closely with Product Management, Design, and Engineering to refine requirements and deliver customer-focused solutions.

Mentor engineering peers through code reviews, design discussions, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing.

Create clear technical documentation, design proposals, and engineering standards that improve long-term maintainability and support AI-assisted knowledge retrieval.

Evaluate and adopt modern engineering tools, AI-assisted development practices, and scalable software patterns that improve developer productivity while maintaining high quality standards.

#LI-HA1 #LI-Hybrid

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience (or equivalent demonstrated expertise), with a proven track record of owning complex engineering initiatives, designing and delivering scalable distributed systems, mentoring engineers, and exercising strong technical judgment across backend and web applications.

• Experience building modern web applications using JavaScript/TypeScript and contemporary frontend frameworks such as React (preferred), Angular, or similar technologies, with the ability to quickly learn and adopt new frameworks and libraries.

• Strong experience designing and developing scalable distributed backend services using Go, Java, or similar modern programming languages, including experience building microservices and cloud-native applications.

• Experience building, deploying, and operating cloud-native applications using Kubernetes, containers, or comparable cloud platforms is preferred.

• Demonstrated experience designing distributed systems, solving horizontal scaling challenges, implementing microservices architectures, and supporting large-scale performance testing.

• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity is a plus.

• Excellent communication skills, a collaborative mindset, and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. Equivalent professional experience may be considered for candidates with demonstrated expertise in distributed systems, scalable software engineering, and technical ownership of complex engineering initiatives.

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.

$126,000.00 - $204,500.00/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  [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.