Six Figure Work

Staff Engineer Software (Cortex Platform) - US Citizen

Palo Alto Networks

Company websitepaloaltonetworks.com (Palo Alto Networks, opens in new tab)

Base salary $111,500  to $180,400

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in California

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  • LocationCalifornia
  • WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (3 min ago) · 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

The Team

Cortex Platform - The Cortex Platform team is responsible for developing and maintaining the backend of Cortex products, including Cortex XSOAR, Cortex XDR, and Cortex XSIAM. The team focuses on developing, innovating, and scaling the Cortex Platform, along with contributing to shared Cortex infrastructures and components, to bring value to thousands of customers.


Job Summary

We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join our Cortex backend engineering group. In this role, you will be pivotal in developing, innovating, and scaling the Cortex Platform, contributing to shared infrastructures and components. This position is for a passionate engineer with a can-do attitude, who thrives on solving complex problems and delivering significant value to our global customer base by enhancing our Cortex product suite.


Key Responsibilities

  • Lead the end-to-end backend development of features and core components through the entire lifecycle, from design and development to testing, deployment, and maintenance.
  • Proactively collaborate and exchange information with peers across different teams and disciplines to design and integrate effective solutions.
  • Engage with customers to understand their challenges and provide robust technical solutions that address their day-to-day operational needs.
  • Contribute to team-wide technical and architectural decisions, participating actively in code and design reviews to ensure quality and alignment.
  • Design, build, and maintain high-scale, distributed server-side applications, ensuring reliability and performance.
  • Focus on the details of implementation to ensure the simplicity and maintainability of code for shared Cortex infrastructures and components.
  • Apply learning from new technical challenges to continuously improve system architecture and development processes.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including designing and building scalable server-side applications.
  • Proven experience with a variety of database technologies, including both RDBMS and NoSQL systems.
  • Demonstrated experience in designing and working with distributed cloud products and microservices architecture.
  • Proficiency in Python or Go programming languages.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
  • Hands-on experience with major cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure.
  • Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
  • Familiarity with modern CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code.

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.

$111,500.00 - $180,400.00/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.

Source: Palo Alto Networks on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)

Pay in context

This role's base floor ($111,500) is above 3% of the 4,199 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 2 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,200 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 6, 2026.

This range next to 6 other live Palo Alto Networks roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 6 other live Palo Alto Networks roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Staff Engineer Software (Cortex Platform) - US Citizen (this listing)$111,500 - $180,400
Staff Engineer Software — SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)$111,500 - $180,400
Staff Security Researcher$113,000 - $182,700
Sr NPI Reliability Engineer$108,200 - $174,900
Staff IT Software Engineer (Fedramp)$106,000 - $170,500
Sr. Software Engineer$106,000 - $170,500
M&A Accounting and Integration Manager$117,700 - $190,300

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All Palo Alto Networks roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. First observed on the employer's board
  2. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-11-03
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: Office - USA - CA - Headquarters

$111,500.00 - $180,400.00/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.