Distinguished Software Engineer (DLP Platform Architecture, Scale, and Advanced DLP Detection)

Your Career

We’re seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead the architecture, scalability, reliability, and advanced detection algorithms of Palo Alto Networks’ Data Loss Prevention (DLP) platform. This role drives the technical vision for low-latency, multi-tenant, and cost-efficient systems that power data protection across all product lines. You’ll connect strategy across orgs, guide design and implementation standards, and mentor senior engineers to deliver world-class platform outcomes.

Your Impact

​​Architecture & Strategic Vision

The Distinguished Engineer will define the long-term direction for the DLP platform architecture.

• Define Platform Foundation: Define and drive the DLP platform’s "north star," including the scalable control/data planes, APIs, and data pipelines.
• System Design: Design and evolve distributed systems specifically optimized for high throughput, low latency, and fault tolerance.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Lead cross-org architectural alignment across product, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), privacy, and Machine Learning (ML) teams.
• Detection Algorithm Enablement: Architect the core data structures and serving layers that enable high-performance DLP classification, like Regex, Exact Data Matching (EDM), Document Fingerprinting, and advanced ML/AI classifiers.

High-Scale Platform Engineering & Performance

Ensure the platform meets the highest standards of performance and reliability through technical execution and optimization.

• Distributed Systems Mastery: Guide the design and implementation of highly resilient systems leveraging expertise in microservices and streaming systems (Kafka/Pulsar/Kinesis).
• Stateful Architecture Implementation: Ensure the platform utilizes stateful architectures necessary for high-performance DLP components, leveraging technologies like RocksDB, Redis, and Cassandra.
• Performance Optimization: Demonstrate proven experience with high-performance, multi-tenant systems and end-to-end performance optimization. Success is measured by achieving step-function improvements in latency, throughput, and reliability.
• Cloud Infrastructure: Ensure a strong grasp of cloud infrastructure (GCP/AWS/Azure), Kubernetes, observability, and SLO management is applied across the platform.

Mentorship & Operational Excellence

The role requires leadership in engineering standards and organizational consistency.

• Technical Mentorship: Mentor Staff and Principal engineers to influence technical direction and standards company-wide.
• Reusable Frameworks: Build paved roads and reusable frameworks for platform consistency and operational excellence.
• Platform Leverage: Ensure platform capabilities are reused across multiple products.
• Efficiency Gains: Elevate developer productivity and operational efficiency through standardized frameworks.

Pioneering Success

• Step-function improvements in latency, throughput, reliability, and detection.
• Platform capabilities reused across multiple products.
• Elevated developer productivity & operational efficiency through standardized frameworks.