Principal AI Platform Engineer
Company websitepaloaltonetworks.com (Palo Alto Networks, opens in new tab)
Base salary $183,600 to $297,000
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in California
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationCalifornia
- WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (just now) · observed since
About this job
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
Palo Alto Networks runs a large hybrid infrastructure and is one of the largest GCP customers.
As a Principal AI Platform Engineer, you will be part of a team building tooling to help manage this infrastructure and improve overall efficiency and performance.
This includes automation, architecture design, monitoring, troubleshooting, security, and reliability. Most importantly, we leverage AI and devops ontology to empower our platform.
Our stack includes Kubernetes, Docker, GCP, AWS, Terraform, Kafka, Vault, Gitlab, Pub/sub, Bigtable, Memorystore, Bigquery, RabbitMq, MongoDB, Python, and Go.
We don’t expect you to know all these, but we do expect you to learn the ones needed for this role.
Your Impact
- Adopter of AI-SDLC
- Contribute to the success of the DevOps organization
- Develop expertise in new technologies
- Work with developers, researchers, data scientists, and security experts
- Design, build, and operate reliable, secure Cloud infrastructure
- Ensure that applications are production-ready, scalable, and reliable
- Develop tools and automation frameworks
- Automate robust deployment of robust services
- Orchestrate end-to-end monitoring and alerting
- Participate with Dev and DevOps teams in the on-call rotation
- Lead root cause analysis of critical business and production issues
- Mentor and champion DevOps culture
- Participate in design reviews
Qualifications
- BS or MS in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent professional experience or equivalent military experience
- Expertise in configuration management with a framework such as Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, or Kustomize
- Expertise in managing distributed and autoscaled applications in Kubernetes clusters
- Experience in Production Engineering, DevOps, or Site Reliability
- Expertise in the public cloud (GCP, AWS, or OCI)
- Strong Linux administration, internals, and network troubleshooting
- Proficiency with programming languages like Python, Golang, or Rust to develop applications and tooling to manage advanced data systems and automate complex tasks
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitLab and GitHub preferred
- Ability to diagnose and troubleshoot complex distributed systems handling high-volume transactions
- Excellent written and verbal communication, able to collaborate and rally support
- Self-disciplined, self-managed, self-motivated, and strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive
- Passion for infrastructure and monitoring as code
- Ready to understand and dissect new technology stacks quickly
The Team
Our engineering team is at the core of our products – connected directly to the mission of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating – challenging how we and the industry think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don’t shy away from building products to solve problems no one has pursued before.
We define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment.
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.
$183,600.00 - $297,000.00/yrOur 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?: YesSource: Palo Alto Networks on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($183,600) is above 55% of the 4,208 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 6 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,365 to $204,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 5, 2026.
This listingPrincipal AI Platform Engineer$183,600 to $297,000
Senior Principal Software Engineer (Cortex Platform)$183,600 to $297,000
Senior Principal Software Engineer (Prisma Access)$183,600 to $297,000
Sr Principal Software Engineer$183,600 to $297,000
Senior Principal Software Engineer, Tools & Platforms (Cortex)$183,600 to $297,000
Sr Principal Engineer Software$183,600 to $297,000
Senior Principal Software Engineer – GlobalProtect (Windows & macOS Internals)$183,600 to $297,000
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Principal AI Platform Engineer (this listing) | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Senior Principal Software Engineer (Cortex Platform) | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Senior Principal Software Engineer (Prisma Access) | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Sr Principal Software Engineer | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Senior Principal Software Engineer, Tools & Platforms (Cortex) | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Sr Principal Engineer Software | $183,600 - $297,000 |
| Senior Principal Software Engineer – GlobalProtect (Windows & macOS Internals) | $183,600 - $297,000 |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- fields changed
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-10-22
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: Office - USA - CA - Headquarters
$183,600.00 - $297,000.00/yr
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.
