Principal Software Automation / Test Engineer

About the role

The Team Engineering - Our engineering team is at the core of our products and 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.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement autonomous QA workflows using AI agents and LLM-based frameworks to achieve continuous, intelligent test execution across multiple services.
• Develop AI-augmented test infrastructure enabling scalable, context-aware testing that reflects real-world deployment scenarios.
• Build AI-powered test generation systems that automatically create comprehensive test suites from requirements, specifications, and production telemetry.
• Participate in system design to ensure quality, observability, and testability are built-in throughout the feature development lifecycle.
• Provide technical leadership in browser security, cloud orchestration, distributed systems, and AI-assisted quality engineering across multi-team quality initiatives.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers on AI/ML testing techniques, prompt engineering, and modern quality practices; lead adoption of new testing methodologies and measure impact.
• Collaborate with Development, SRE, Product Management, and Technical Marketing to align quality strategy with business outcomes and establish quality standards.
• Enhance test strategies, automation, and build infrastructure with feedback and analysis from real-world customer deployments.
• Stay current with AI/ML advancements and translate them into practical testing innovations like agentic workflows, multimodal testing, and AI-powered observability.

Requirements

• M.S./B.S. degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent military experience required.
• 10+ years of experience in QA/Test Automation Engineering with demonstrated impact on product quality and team practices.
• Proven track record of building autonomous testing systems or AI-powered quality engineering tools.
• Intermediate to Expert level experience with REST API driven automation using Python or Go.
• Deep expertise in cybersecurity, cloud networking, or distributed systems test, including expert knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, and SSL/TLS.
• Experience with Identity Technologies such as Azure AD, Okta, or Ping Identity.
• Experience with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud networking architectures (VPCs, subnets, security groups, NAT).
• Expertise in REST API testing, web UI automation (Selenium, Playwright, Puppeteer), and cloud-native application testing.

Qualifications

• Experience with designing or building automation frameworks from scratch for Endpoint products.
• Experience with Network or Application Load Balancers.
• Experience building RAG pipelines, vector databases, and knowledge graphs for test intelligence.
• Experience with browser security solutions such as enterprise browsers, remote browser isolation, or browser extensions.
• Knowledge of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) architecture and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) principles.

Benefits

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.

Schedule

This role is based full-time in our Palo Alto, CA office.

Pay

$147,000.00 - $237,500.00/yr

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?

Yes