Principal Software Engineer (CDSS Advanced URL Filtering)

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

As a member of the Advanced URL Filtering (Internet Security) Infrastructure and Data Science Team, you will work closely with data scientists, security researchers, and other engineers on implementing different projects to detect and defend against various emerging threats in the areas of Web Security. You will build big data and distributed systems that use machine learning and deep learning models to analyze and categorize an enormous amount of URLs. You will be a key person in transforming ideas into products which are part of the next generation security platform. The Internet Security Research Team is responsible for innovating new security techniques.

This role is located at our dynamic Santa Clara California headquarters campus. 

Your Impact

• Design, build, and maintain scalable and reliable threat research systems to support both customer-facing products and internal infrastructure
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Product Managers, researchers, and engineers, to gather requirements, create design drafts, and develop detailed functional specifications
• Develop and implement solutions that adhere to software development and security best practices
• Partner with SREs to ensure seamless production releases, deployments, and continuous monitoring for system reliability and performance

Qualifications

Your Experience

Creative thinker and collaborative team player with strong communication skills and a drive to make a meaningful impact

• Programming languages - proficiency in Golang, Python, Java, or Scala
• Cloud and Containers - Strong expertise in cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure), including event-driven architecture with Pub/Sub, and container-based development using Docker and Kubernetes
• Databases: Proficiency in SQL and NoSQL databases, including MySQL, BigQuery, MongoDB, Cloud SQL, Firestore, and Bigtable
• System Design and Development - Strong ability to design and build scalable backend systems, data pipelines, and RESTful APIs or gRPC services
• Testing and Deployment - Skilled in writing unit, integration, and system tests, conducting integration and regression testing, and managing production deployments
• DevOp Practices - Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and proficiency in Linux OS and shell scripting
• Big Data and Distributed Systems - Experience with Big data technologies, distributed systems, and ETL pipelines like Spark
• Machine Learning Knowledge - Basic knowledge of Machine Learning and Web Content Classification
• Front-End Skills - Experience with front-end development and Javascript is a plus
• Professional Attributes - Hands-on and humble attitude with a self-directed mindset and a passion for cybersecurity
• Education and Experience - BS/MS Majored in Computer Science or Computer Engineering with 8+ years of industr