Senior Staff Software Engineer — Layer 7 Security

Palo Alto Networks • San Francisco, CA

6d • Onsite

About The Position

The Layer 7 security team is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to help the design and development of next-generation Layer 7 security capabilities. You will define architecture, influence product direction, and lead the development of security technologies that address sophisticated and evolving threats. This role requires deep expertise in systems programming, networking, and distributed systems, along with a strong track record of delivering high-performance, production-grade software.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent practical/military experience
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time in senior technical leadership roles
• Expert-level proficiency in C and strong proficiency in Go
• Extensive experience developing in Unix/Linux environments
• Proven experience designing and building large-scale, high-performance distributed systems
• Deep expertise in networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP internals and network security technologies
• Advanced experience with multi-threaded, multi-process, and multi-core system design
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and systems-level performance optimization
• Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and deliver complex, cross-functional initiatives
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice To Haves

• Experience with cloud platforms, orchestration systems, and containerized deployments
• Expertise in TLS/SSL internals, cryptography, and libraries such as OpenSSL
• Experience with HTTP protocols and backend service development
• Proficiency in Python for tooling, automation, or system integration

Responsibilities

• Drive the development of highly scalable, real-time, distributed cloud security systems
• Define and implement robust, high-performance, and maintainable system architectures
• Set technical direction for critical components, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security
• Partner with product management, security research, and platform teams to translate complex requirements into executable designs
• Lead end-to-end execution across the software development lifecycle, from concept through deployment and sustainment
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, including code quality, performance optimization, and secure development
• Mentor senior and junior engineers, and elevate the technical capabilities of the organization
• Identify architectural, tooling, and process gaps and drive improvements at an organizational level
• Serve as a technical authority for debugging, performance tuning, and complex system challenges

Benefits

• Restricted stock units
• Bonus
• A description of our employee benefits may be found here

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Associate degree