Principal Software Engineer (Backend Engineering)

About the position

We are looking for a Principal Backend Engineer to join our Cortex backend engineering group. Be at the forefront of cloud security innovation as a backend engineer on our team. You will design, develop, and maintain the core backend infrastructure for Palo Alto Networks' Cortex Cloud Platform and its Cloud Security Posture features, directly impacting the security of our customers' cloud environments. We are looking for candidates with a can-do attitude, who are passionate about complex problems and thrive on bringing value to thousands of customers.

Responsibilities

• Work across team boundaries
• Drive projects from requirements to design and implementation as project lead
• Align key stakeholders including product management, UX design, and fellow engineering stakeholders
• Proactively review design, identify risks and mitigate risks in ongoing and planned projects to ensure smooth execution
• Mentor engineers across the department
• Regularly provide cross-team technical collaboration and consultation
• Design, build, and optimize data models and queries for speed and scale, using data storage technologies like MySQL and BigQuery

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on cloud-native application development, at large organizations or innovative startups
• Strong programming skills in one of Python, Go, or Java
• Experience with distributed systems architecture and design
• Experience in cloud technologies like ElasticSearch, Pubsub, etc.
• Excellent troubleshooting abilities. Isolate issues found during testing and verify bug fixes once they are resolved
• Experience with cloud development (REST APIs, Databases, Serverless computing) of distributed cloud applications
• Experience with building and delivering services and workflows at scale, leveraging microservices architectures
• Good understanding of public cloud design considerations and limitations in areas of microservice architectures, security, global network infrastructure, distributed systems, and load balancing
• Experience with the agile process and working with software development teams involved with building out full stack products, deployed on the cloud at scale
• Experience as a hands-on tech lead / architect
• Can-do attitude and ability to make trade-off judgements with data driven decision making
• High energy and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Enjoys working with many different teams with strong collaboration and communications skills
• Experience building UI with React or Angular is a plus (not required)
• BS/MS in Computer Science or Computer Engineering or related technical degree

Benefits

• FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees
• Mental and financial health resources
• Personalized learning opportunities