Palo Alto Networks is looking to hire a Principal Engineer to build scalable platform capabilities and shape engineering strategy, aiming to improve engineering velocity across the company by designing and delivering internal platforms, developer tools, and services.
Requirements
- Strong experience as a full stack engineer (TypeScript/React on frontend + Go/Python backend)
- Hands-on experience building or customizing Backstage or similar internal developer portals
- Expertise in platform engineering, internal platforms, APIs, developer experience systems
- Strong foundation in distributed systems and microservice architecture
- Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and modern cloud infrastructure (GCP/AWS)
- Proven track record building CI/CD systems and improving engineering delivery
- Familiarity with observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, etc.)
Responsibilities
- Lead architecture and development of platform services and Infrastructure tooling
- Build and extend internal developer portals (Backstage or similar) to improve discoverability, service onboarding, and operational visibility
- Design and deliver backend services and APIs that are secure, reliable and easy to maintain
- Improve developer workflows across CI/CD, environment provisioning, and cloud automation
- Work across teams to define platform standards and enforce best practices
- Debug deep issues across distributed systems, networking, Kubernetes, and application layers
- Mentor engineers, influence architecture direction, and improve engineering quality
Other
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in senior/staff/principal roles
- Experience influencing cross-team engineering decisions and driving technical strategy
- Nice to Have: Experience building developer platforms as a product
- Nice to Have: Plugin development experience for Backstage
- Nice to Have: Experience with Terraform and infrastructure automation
