Director – IT Platform Engineering

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

Our engineering team is at the core of our products, directly contributing to preventing cyberattacks. We constantly innovate and challenge industry standards to solve complex, novel problems. We seek motivated individuals who thrive in ambiguity, welcome technical challenges, and are driven to secure the digital environments facing everyday lives.

Lead and scale a world-class Platform Engineering organization, driving global technology, security, and infrastructure initiatives. As a highly motivated, hands-on leader who leads by example, you will deliver scalable, secure infrastructure through PaaS architectures, Infrastructure as Code, and predictive monitoring. You will champion a "Customer 0" mindset, ensuring all internal software engineering, security, and infrastructure products are thoroughly validated, secure, and production-ready. Cultivate a results-oriented culture focused on converting visionary engineering concepts into robust production environments while actively mentoring and developing technical talent.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership, driving engineering execution and leading by example across global teams.

• Hire, mentor, and retain a high-performing, diverse team of platform and infrastructure software engineers.

• Build and scale a secure platform across cloud, compute, storage, and networking layers.

• Act as "Customer 0" and the first customer for internal tools, ensuring the team validates, hardens, and directly influences the roadmap for all security and infrastructure products.

• Partner with Product teams to deliver exceptional platform engineering outcomes and seamless software engineering tool integration.

• Implement comprehensive service monitoring across all compute, storage, networking, and application layers to ensure uptime and security compliance.

• Define and manage Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for availability, performance, and automation.

• Identify process, security, and product gaps early, driving rapid resolution and operational excellence.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of hands-on technical software engineering and architecture experience alongside proven team management.

• Experience building and scaling platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise security organizations.

• Deep technical expertise in cloud, compute, storage, and networking technologies.

• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for automation and foundational security.

• Experience building, scaling, and running production operations 24x7 for heterogeneous applications in a cloud environment.

• A motivated, problem-solving mindset focused on customer service and high-quality technical implementation.

• Ability to nurture and support a strong operations culture: customer/service focus excellent technology; high quality implementations; self-motivated innovation and problem-solving.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive experience on architecture design of large scale data platforms, machine learning, analytics, and data-driven applications.

• Advanced architectural design experience with large-scale infrastructure products and enterprise security frameworks.

• Proven success operating as the first customer/Customer 0 to validate software and security solutions before market release.

• Strong background in DevSecOps, CI/CD, and security practices within PaaS environments.

• Experience establishing metrics-based process and platform improvements.

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  [email protected].

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? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.