Palo Alto Networks
Principal Software Engineer (Cloud Platform and AI Engineering)
Santa Clara, United States of America · Principal · Full-time
Stay score
odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$30,675 more — $187,075 — moves this role to Level II and 2 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $187,075 would place this position at wage Level II. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Software Developers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Software Developers (15-1252) · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
Employer immigration record
from this employer's Department of Labor filings
Green-card filing pattern in this occupation
Green-card follow-through: 93%
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- This is a high-impact role where your decisions will directly influence product direction and team growth.
Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and technical roadmap for AI agentic workflows that automate complex operational and engineering challenges
- Design and scale backend systems on GCP that seamlessly integrate AI capabilities into production services
- Drive the adoption of GCP-native AI tools (Vertex AI Agent Builder, Google ADK) and define how our team builds and ships AI agents
- Partner with product managers, cybersecurity researchers, and AI application teams to translate business problems into AI-driven solutions
- Set the engineering bar for the team - establish best practices for building, testing, and operating AI-augmented services in production
- Hands-on experience building AI agents or agentic workflows (e.g., using Google ADK, Vertex AI Agent Builder, or custom agent frameworks)
- Experience building semantic layers, KV caching, or similar techniques to optimize LLM performance and reduce inference cost
Requirements
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent military experience required
- 8+ years of experience working on large cloud infrastructure platforms
- Strong proficiency in Python and/or GoLang
- Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar agent-tool integration patterns
- Practical experience working with LLMs, prompt engineering, and integrating AI models into backend services
- Solid skills in multi-threaded and multi-process programming and experience in distributed systems
- Strong microservice development experience
- Rich GCP experience and its suite of managed services (Vertex AI, Pub/Sub, GKE, Cloud Run, Secret Manager)
- Solid knowledge of web servers/proxies such as NGINX, Envoy
- Comprehensive experience with SQL and NoSQL technologies such as MySQL, Redis, BigQuery
Compensation
- 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.
- $156,400.00 - $253,000.00/yr
Benefits
- A description of our employee benefits may be found here.
- We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability.
Company info
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Equal opportunity
- Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer.
- All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
- If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes
This listing is sourced directly from Palo Alto Networks's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.