Sr Principal Software Architect

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.

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.

The Team Engineering - Our Engineering team builds the technologies that enable our products to scale and deliver value to our customers. We are a team of passionate engineers dedicated to technical excellence and innovation.

As the Sr Principal Software Architect , you will drive the technical vision and evolutionary roadmap for the Idira Secure Infrastructure Access (SIA) RDP platform. You will architect secure, brokered Remote Desktop access solutions that enable zero-trust security without exposing credentials. Acting as the strategic authority across cross-functional engineering teams, you will establish benchmarks for enterprise security architecture in a fast-paced environment. We seek a visionary leader who combines deep system design mastery with a collaborative approach to deliver highly scalable and resilient distributed systems.

Define the architectural vision and long-term technical strategy for the highly scalable SIA RDP platform. Establish core architectural patterns, design principles, and engineering standards for distributed security components. Partner with Product Management and executives to translate business goals into cutting-edge technical roadmaps. Guide engineering teams through complex design decisions and conduct comprehensive high-level design reviews. Foster a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and innovation across cross-functional teams.

Required Qualifications 10+ years of software engineering experience across modern, enterprise-grade technology stacks. 5+ years of hands-on experience architecting and implementing highly available, fault-tolerant solutions on AWS. Deep expertise in security principles and best practices, including OWASP guidelines, encryption standards, and enterprise authentication protocols (LDAP, RADIUS, SAML, OIDC). Exceptional executive-level communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to translate complex technical decisions into clear, strategic narratives for senior stakeholders. 5+ years of C++ development experience, with a strong track record of designing and delivering high-performance, high-availability systems. Comprehensive understanding of networking fundamentals and remote communication protocols, including RDP, WinRM, and SSH. 5+ years of experience with modern CI/CD pipelines and cloud deployment automation, including tooling such as Jenkins and related infrastructure-as-code practices.

Proven experience in agentic development, including the design and integration of AI-driven autonomous systems. Proficiency in Python, with practical experience leveraging Python libraries in production environments. Our Commitment We’re