Director, IT Platform Engineering

About the Role

At Palo Alto Networks, our shared mission is to protect the digital way of life by innovating with cutting-edge technology and bold ideas. We foster an environment where every voice is valued, encouraging collaboration and impactful work. As a leader in cybersecurity, we live by our core principles: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. Embedded with AI across our operations, we aim to augment individual impact. We seek passionate professionals eager to solve real-world problems alongside expert colleagues in an in-office setting, enhancing teamwork and precision.

Job Summary

The engineering team is instrumental in developing solutions that prevent cyber attacks. They consistently challenge norms and confront intricate technical challenges. The Director, IT Platform Engineering role involves leading and expanding an elite Platform Engineering organization responsible for global technology, security, and infrastructure initiatives. As a proactive, hands-on leader, you will oversee the delivery of scalable and secure infrastructure utilizing PaaS architectures, Infrastructure as Code, and predictive monitoring. A "Customer 0" mentality is crucial, ensuring that all internal tools and platforms are validated, reinforced for security, and production-ready. The role also includes fostering a results-driven culture focused on transforming visionary engineering ideas into dependable production systems while mentoring technical talent.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide direct, hands-on technical leadership to guide engineering execution across global teams.
• Recruit, mentor, and maintain a talented, diverse platform and infrastructure engineering team.
• Design and scale a secure platform encompassing cloud, computing, storage, and networking components.
• Serve as the initial end-user ("Customer 0") for internal software tools, ensuring products are validated and security-hardened with a direct influence on their development roadmap.
• Collaborate closely with Product teams to achieve excellent platform engineering results and integrate software engineering tools seamlessly.
• Implement extensive service monitoring across compute, storage, network, and application tiers to uphold uptime and security standards.
• Establish and oversee Service Level Objectives (SLOs) related to availability, performance, and automation.
• Detect and address process, security, and product deficiencies early, driving rapid improvements and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years combining hands-on technical software engineering and architectural roles with demonstrated team leadership.
• Proven experience in constructing and scaling platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise security groups.
• Strong expertise in cloud technologies, compute, storage solutions, and networking.
• Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate processes ensuring foundational security.
• Experience managing 24x7 production operations for diverse cloud-based applications.
• A customer-oriented problem-solving mindset focused on delivering high-quality technical implementations.
• Ability to promote a robust operations culture emphasizing customer care, technology excellence, quality deployments, and proactive innovation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive background in designing architecture for large-scale data platforms, machine learning systems, analytics, and data-driven applications.
• Advanced experience in designing large infrastructure products and enterprise security frameworks.
• Successful track record as "Customer 0," validating software and security solutions prior to public release.
• Strong DevSecOps, CI/CD expertise, and knowledge of security within PaaS environments.
• Proven ability in defining metrics for process and platform enhancements.

Additional Information

Our organization is dedicated to courageous innovation and diversity, recognizing that collective efforts drive cybersecurity advancements. We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and ensure confidentiality following Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines. Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer, welcoming applicants regardless of age, identity, genetics, medical condition, or other protected characteristics.

Note: This position does not offer immigration visa sponsorship.