Distinguished Engineer Software (Cortex Platform)

Palo Alto Networks • Office - USA - CA - Headquarters, CA

1d • $248,700 - $341,250 • Hybrid

About The Position

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to join the Cortex Cloud team as a senior technical leader and hands-on expert. The role drives innovation across high-stakes, AI-native projects by embedding in critical initiatives, accelerating delivery, and elevating engineering standards across the organization. The engineer will combine deep technical expertise with strategic vision to architect scalable solutions, resolve complex challenges, and optimize system performance.

Cortex is an open, integrated, AI-based continuous security platform deployed on a global, scalable public cloud platform. It helps security operations teams analyze massive data sets more quickly. This position focuses on building robust cloud-based software, mentoring engineers, and improving engineering productivity and delivery.

Requirements

• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence engineers, managers, and executives without formal authority.
• Deep practical AI expertise, including a proven record of building AI systems and designing AI-driven engineering processes.
• Broad technical depth across architecture, distributed systems, cloud, and data, with the ability to make sound technology choices quickly.
• Deep expertise in OS internals, networking, concurrency, storage, database internals, low-level debugging, and performance profiling.
• Extensive experience interviewing senior engineers and a strong understanding of high-quality engineering standards.
• Strong ownership and bias for action, with consistent delivery under pressure.
• Willingness to embed within product teams as a hands-on engineer, deliver roadmaps, and master internal systems.
• Extensive experience as a senior hands-on engineer and a track record as the go-to technical expert on complex, high-stakes systems.

Nice To Haves

• Strong background in cybersecurity.
• Proven DevOps experience or equivalent hands-on infrastructure knowledge.
• A hacker mindset and deep curiosity about how systems function and how they can be broken.

Responsibilities

• Embed in high-profile projects to set technical direction, run rapid experiments, and deliver critical-path code.
• Coordinate dependencies across teams and clear blockers to support focused, timely delivery.
• Lead high-leverage technical initiatives, including AI-native workflows, to increase engineering productivity.
• Design and build AI-driven systems and processes that transform how software is built, tested, and shipped.
• Identify, research, and drive strategic initiatives to improve engineering velocity across the organization.
• Advise leadership on technical matters and conduct senior technical interviews.
• Mentor engineers through hands-on collaboration and raise technical standards and performance across teams.

Benefits

• Compensation may include restricted stock units and a bonus.
• Employee benefits are referenced by the employer, but specific benefits are not listed in the posting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed