{"id":2658634,"url":"https://alion.io/job/palo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform","title":"Distinguished Engineer Software (Cortex Platform)","company":{"id":13263,"name":"Palo Alto Networks","domain":"paloaltonetworks.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/paloaltontwks","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":248700,"max":341250,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":341250},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Cortex","optional":false},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-15T23:48:45Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T11:57:36Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Our Mission\nAt 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.\nWho We Are\nIn 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!\nWe 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\nThe Team\nCortex Platform - Cortex is the industry's only open and integrated, AI-based, continuous security platform. Cortex is a significant evolution of the Application Framework designed to simplify security operations and considerably improve outcomes. Deployed on a global, scalable public cloud platform, Cortex allows security operations teams to speed the analysis of massive data sets.\nJob Summary\nWe are seeking a Distinguished Engineer to join the Cortex Cloud team as a senior technical leader and hands-on expert, driving innovation across high-stakes, AI-native projects. In this pivotal role, you will embed within critical initiatives, accelerating delivery and elevating the engineering standards of our entire organization. By combining deep technical expertise with strategic vision, you will architect scalable solutions, resolve complex challenges, and optimize system performance. If you thrive in fast-paced environments and excel at mentoring teams to build robust, cloud-based software, this is your opportunity to make a massive impact.\nKey Responsibilities\nEmbed in high-profile projects to set technical direction, run rapid experiments, and deliver critical-path code.\nDrive cross-team alignment by coordinating dependencies and clearing blockers to ensure focused, timely delivery.\nLead high-leverage technical initiatives, such as AI-native workflows, to multiply the productivity of the engineering group.\nDesign and build innovative AI-driven systems and processes that transform how software is built, tested, and shipped.\nContinuously identify, research, and drive strategic initiatives to significantly improve engineering velocity across the organization.\nAct as a trusted technical advisor to leadership and conduct senior technical interviews to raise the hiring bar.\nMentor engineers through hands-on collaboration, elevating technical standards and performance across every team you engage with.\nQualifications\nRequired Qualifications\nExceptional communication and interpersonal skills to influence engineers, managers, and executives without formal authority.\nDeep, practical AI expertise, including a proven track record of building AI systems and designing AI-driven engineering processes.\nBroad technical depth across architecture, distributed systems, cloud, and data, with the ability to make rapid, sound technology choices.\nDeep expertise in OS internals, networking, concurrency, storage, database internals, low-level debugging, and performance profiling.\nExtensive experience interviewing senior engineers and a strong understanding of high-quality engineering standards.\nExceptional drive and ownership, demonstrating a strong bias for action and consistent delivery under pressure.\nEagerness to embed within product teams as a hands-on engineer, delivering roadmaps while mastering internal systems.\nExtensive experience as a senior hands-on engineer, with a track record as the go-to technical expert on complex, high-stakes systems.\nPreferred Qualifications\nStrong background in cybersecurity is highly advantageous.\nProven DevOps experience or equivalent hands-on infrastructure knowledge.\nDemonstrated hacker mindset with a deep curiosity about how systems function and how they can be broken.\nCompensation Disclosure\nThe 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.\n$248,700.00 - $341,250.00/yrOur Commitment\nWe’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.\nWe 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 .\nPalo 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.\nAll your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.\nIs role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes","description_format":"text","description_chars":6072,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Restricted stock units"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Cybersecurity","Endpoint Security","Information Security"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T23:48:45Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 530 · green card filings: 229","filings_12m":530,"filings_prev_12m":605,"green_card_filings_12m":229,"median_offered_wage_usd":173449,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":312}],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":341250,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/palo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/palo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T13:05:02Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":19472,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":13263},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=13263"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpalo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpalo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpalo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/palo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpalo-alto-networks-distinguished-engineer-software-cortex-platform"}]}