Senior Principal Cloud Architect (Office of the CPO: Innovation Team)

Palo Alto Networks • Santa Clara, CA

1d • $170,000 - $270,000 • Remote

About The Position

As a Senior Principal Cloud Architect in the Innovation Team, you will lead the secure software and infrastructure architecture for our most advanced experiments. You will define and govern the secure infrastructure backbone, driving the architectural design and rapid prototyping of cloud-native security solutions. You will be instrumental in fusing rigorous enterprise security standards and expert software architecture design with agile development to accelerate our next-generation product roadmap.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree with 10+ years of experience, Master's degree with 8+ years of experience, or PhD with 5+ years of experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent military/work experience.
• Extensive experience in software engineering, cloud architecture, or SRE, with a focus on designing security-centric software systems and infrastructure.
• Proven expertise in designing complex, highly available, and scalable distributed systems on at least one major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, Azure).
• Strong, hands-on programming proficiency in Python.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing core security controls (e.g., authentication/authorization, secrets management, data encryption) in a cloud-native context.
• Communication: Ability to articulate technical strategy to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Deep expertise and hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Experience with Go, Node.js, or modern frontend frameworks (e.g., React, Vue).
• Proven background in DevSecOps automation and orchestration using tools like Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and CI/CD security scanners.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the principal architect for new solutions, translating complex security requirements into high-level, modular software and system designs.
• Architect and deploy resilient, secure-by-design cloud infrastructure on GCP, while establishing multi-cloud interoperability patterns for AWS and Azure.
• Lead rapid prototyping of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), writing production-grade Python code for custom automation, application logic, and integration layers.
• Champion a 'shift-left' security methodology by building automated CI/CD pipelines and implementing Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/Ansible).
• Proactively collaborate with InfoSec and Sales Architects to integrate governance and translate technical innovations into scalable, market-ready solutions.
• Continuously research and evaluate emerging cloud security tools and architectures to maintain a cutting-edge technology stack.
• Provide technical leadership and architectural mentorship to senior engineers, communicating complex architectural trade-offs to executive stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees