Palo Alto Networks

Staff Engineer Software

Palo Alto Networks$104K — $169K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 2+ years of software engineering experience in production environments.
  • Proficient in full-stack development using the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js).
  • Experience deploying and managing solutions on AWS.
  • Skilled in using AI development tools for code verification.
  • Strong background in designing clean APIs and refactoring components.
  • Effective debugging skills with experience in writing unit and integration tests.
  • Ability to navigate ambiguity and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

  • Take ownership of complex feature sets and ensure high-quality end-to-end delivery.
  • Utilize AI tools to streamline development and validate AI-generated code.
  • Design modular systems with clean APIs and maintainable code.
  • Anticipate and address edge cases during the development cycle.
  • Collaborate with Product and Design to build intuitive workflows.
  • Maintain production service reliability through active incident analysis and resolution.
  • Document technical knowledge and write clear technical notes to share with the team.

Benefits

  • Opportunity for flexible hybrid work (in office 3 days per week).
  • Access to comprehensive training and professional development.
  • Potential for involvement in innovative AI-driven projects.
  • Encouragement of knowledge sharing within the engineering team.
Full Job Description
Job Summary

*This role requires the employee to be in the Needham office 3x per week.*

We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to drive technical execution and contribute to the ongoing evolution of our platform. In this role, you will take technical ownership of core platform components, translate ambiguous feature requirements into clean, scalable software, and leverage AI-first development workflows to accelerate delivery and elevate code quality. You will serve as a key technical anchor-designing modular systems, optimizing workflows, and ensuring production reliability.

What You'll Do
  • Drive End-to-End Feature Delivery: Take ownership of complex feature sets and components. Break down ambiguous requirements into execution-ready tasks, estimate work accurately, and reliably deliver high-quality solutions end-to-end.
  • Implement AI-First Engineering Practices: Apply high AI tool fluency and prompt engineering to streamline daily development. Rigorously review and validate AI-generated code to prevent security gaps, logic defects, and hallucinations before committing.
  • Design for Extensibility & Modularity: Propose clean feature designs and API interfaces using standard architectural patterns. Write modular, testable code that gracefully balances performance, reliability, and maintainability.
  • Practice Defensive & Secure Engineering: Anticipate edge cases (limits, nulls, complex authorization paths) early in the development cycle. Write integration tests and defensive logic to lower defect escape rates.
  • Translate Requirements into Intuitive Workflows: Partner closely with Product and Design to understand user scenarios, clarify acceptance criteria early, and build seamless frontend and backend implementations that reduce friction.
  • Maintain Production Service Excellence: Act as a champion for component health. Actively participate in root cause analysis (RCA) on production incidents, implement durable fixes, and reduce MTTR.
  • Foster Team Capability & Knowledge Sharing: Share technical learnings, document tribal knowledge, and author "RAG-ready" technical notes. Write clear RFCs and tickets to keep partners informed and help uplevel peer engineers.


#LI-KR

Qualifications

  • Relevant Experience: 2+ years of professional software engineering experience building, shipping, and maintaining production-grade applications.
  • Full-Stack Proficiency: Hands-on experience building enterprise-grade applications using the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js).
  • Cloud Infrastructure Experience: Practical experience building, deploying, and operating scalable solutions within the AWS ecosystem.
  • AI Tooling & Code Verification: Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools and prompt engineering, paired with peer-review rigor to verify AI outputs for correctness, safety, and security.
  • Feature Design & System Refactoring: Solid foundation in designing clean APIs, refactoring component code bases, and applying standard design patterns for long-term maintainability.
  • Operational Ownership & Testing: Strong debugging skills with experience in writing robust tests (unit/integration), participating in RCA processes, and resolving production issues.
  • Navigating Ambiguity & Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to clarify requirements, adapt technical tactics as priorities shift, raise blockers early, and collaborate effectively with PM, Design, and engineering peers.


Nice to Have
  • Identity & Access Security Domain: Experience with IAM, PAM, IGA, or Secrets Management platforms.
  • Modern Frontend & Quality Tooling: Fluency in TypeScript along with automated testing frameworks such as Jest, Playwright, or JMeter for load/stress testing.
  • DevOps & Observability Ecosystems: Practical experience with CI/CD pipelines, feature flagging tools, and modern monitoring/logging frameworks.
  • Context Engineering & Retrieval: Experience structuring codebase documentation and architecture for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and reusable prompt templating.


Impact
As a Staff Software Engineer, you will be a vital technical anchor for your team. By combining hands-on technical execution, modular design, and AI-first workflows, you will turn product goals into secure, scalable, and maintainable capabilities. Your success will be measured by the reliability of the software you deliver, the operational health of your services, and your ability to elevate the velocity and engineering standards of your immediate team.

Compensation Disclosure

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. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

$104,000.00 - $169,500.00/yr

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Its core products are a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security. The company serves over 70,000 organizations in over 150 countries, including 85 of the Fortune 100. It is home to the Unit 42 threat research team and hosts the Ignite cybersecurity conference.
Learn more about Palo Alto Networks
Size
11,870 employees
Market Cap
$42.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$368.2 million
Founded
2005
5 Year Trend
+25.7%
Revenue
$3.7 billion
NASDAQ

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