Sr Staff Engineer Software - NetSec - Bangalore

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

Our engineering team is at the core of our products – connected directly to the mission
of preventing cyberattacks. We are constantly innovating – challenging the way we, and
the industry, think about cybersecurity. Our engineers don’t shy away from building
products to solve problems no one has pursued before.
We define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel
comfortable in ambiguity, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the
unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital
environment.

Job Summary

We are looking for motivated, smart, hardworking and passionate individuals to join the
Next-gen Firewall team. You will be part of a world-class software
engineering team that works on various cutting-edge technologies for the firewall. As a
member of this group you will be responsible for
designing and developing the next-generation firewall software. You will take ownership for large
software components, work with product management on real life customer
requirements, apply your knowledge to functional design, utilize your programming skills
for efficient and robust implementation, and interact with quality assurance and field
support teams in the whole software development cycle. You will focus on using AI to transform how the solutions will be built. The culture at Palo Alto
Networks is creative, dynamic and inspiring to tackle real work Cyber-attacks.

Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for developing NextGen Network Security Components and Protocols for State-of-the-art firewalls deployed in Enterprise, Data Center, Cloud, and Service Provider environments.

• Build L2-L4 network security features, including stateful TCP/UDP inspection and manageability software, across both on-premises hardware and virtual platforms.

• Support critical customer escalations and provide timely root cause analysis.

•  Effective decision-maker who takes ownership and independently drives and leads tasks and assignments

• Build and deploy LLM-based agents and multi-step evaluation workflows for everything you develop and drive development using AI.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of strong experience in C Programming and large scale software
  development on Unix/Linux.

• Expert in common network protocols such as TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6, multicast.

• Expert in computer architecture, cybersecurity, distributed systems.

• In-depth understanding of linux systems.

• Expert C, Python programming skills.

• Practical experience building LLM-based applications (agents, stateless as well as stateful (multi-turn) systems, evaluators (RAG based or Rule Based).

• Understanding of model fine-tuning, embedding optimization, and prompt engineering

• Hands-on experience working directly with AI models, including training, evaluating, and deploying models, as well as building LLM-based applications (agents, multi-turn systems, evaluators).

• Advanced Agent Development & MCP: Proven experience building autonomous AI agents with hands-on integration of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to securely connect AI models to external tools, data sources, and internal APIs.

• Understanding of model fine-tuning, embedding optimization, and prompt engineering.

• Experience with broader LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI).

• Knowledge of LLM orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pydantic AI, or custom solutions).

• Familiarity with model architecture and demonstrating strong judgment on when to fine-tune versus when to utilize prompt engineering.

• Knowledge of LLM orchestration frameworks ( LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pydantic AI, custom solutions)

Preferred Qualifications

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent experience

• Can-do attitude and ability to take initiative and drive open issues to completion

• Strong communication skills to work effectively with multi-functional groups.

• Strong Experience in C++/JAVA programming and XML/JSON understanding is desirable.

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