Sr Staff AI Engineer

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us!

We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Summary

The Team

Information Technology - The Information Technology department is responsible for building and maintaining the enterprise systems, infrastructure, and applications that power the company's business workflows and operations.

Job Summary

The IT Engineering team builds AI-first enterprise systems that power critical business workflows across the company. As a Sr Staff AI Engineer, you will set the technical direction across complex initiatives and define architectural standards for scalable systems. You will tackle ambiguous technical problems, remaining hands-on while multiplying your impact through technical leadership and mentorship. Your work will shape the architecture and AI-native engineering practices used across our broader portfolio of enterprise applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Set architectural vision and technical direction for AI-first enterprise applications and platforms spanning multiple business domains.
• Lead the architecture and delivery of complex cross-team systems across full-stack applications, cloud-native services, and applied AI.
• Establish reusable engineering standards, reference architectures, and shared capabilities for AI-first systems, including agentic workflows and RAG.
• Partner with senior leaders to translate ambiguous, high-impact problems into clear technical strategies and influence broader direction.
• Drive AI-native engineering practices and modern development workflows using tools like Cursor and Claude Code to improve velocity.
• Mentor senior engineers, raise engineering standards, and multiply technical impact across the broader organization.

Qualifications

Note-While the Company will consider applicants who have current work authorization and require a transfer of an existing H-1B visa, the Company is not currently considering applicants who require new visa sponsorship (including new H-1B petitions) or individuals currently in OPT/CPT status who will require future sponsorship to maintain work authorization.  

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum of 8 years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership across complex, production-scale systems.
• Deep expertise in full-stack and distributed systems engineering.
• Demonstrated experience setting architecture and technical direction across multiple services, applications, or engineering teams.
• Production experience designing and building AI-integrated systems using LLMs, RAG, tool calling, and agentic workflows.
• Strong understanding of AI evaluation, guardrails, model reliability, security, latency, and production observability.
• Strong understanding of APIs, enterprise data, system integration, cloud-native architecture, and production operations.
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical architectures and execution strategies.
• Track record of establishing technical standards and influencing senior engineers and cross-functional stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in TypeScript, Node.js/NestJS, React, Python, and SQL.
• Experience with RAG architectures, vector databases, semantic search, retrieval, and context engineering.
• Experience with LangChain/LangGraph, MCP, A2A protocols, and production agentic architectures.
• Experience establishing evaluation frameworks, LLM security controls, prompt injection defenses, and input/output validation.
• Experience with applied machine learning, data science, predictive modeling, or statistical analysis techniques.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, event-driven systems, and modern cloud infrastructure.
• Experience using AI-native development environments such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Windsurf in professional workflows.
• Experience building reusable enterprise platforms or shared technical capabilities adopted across multiple teams.

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.

$163,200.00 - $264,000.00/yr

Our Commitment

We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at  accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes