Principal AIOps Engineer, Enterprise AI Platform

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

As a Principal AIOps Engineer for the Enterprise AI Platform, you will be a pivotal technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and implementing AI-driven solutions to enhance the reliability, performance, and efficiency of our critical IT and business systems. You will leverage the core AI platform to build sophisticated AIOps capabilities, transforming how we monitor, manage, and optimize our digital infrastructure and applications. This role requires a deep understanding of IT operations, machine learning, and scalable system design to proactively identify issues, automate remediation, and drive continuous improvement across the enterprise.

Your Impact

• AIOps Platform Development: Design, develop, and implement advanced AIOps solutions, leveraging machine learning algorithms and data analytics to automate and enhance IT operations. This includes developing real-time processing solutions for observational data (e.g., logs, metrics, events, traces).
• Anomaly Detection & Predictive Analytics: Lead the implementation of AI/ML models for proactive anomaly detection, root cause analysis, and predictive insights into system health and performance across applications and infrastructure at enterprise scale.
• Intelligent Automation & Orchestration: Drive the automation of routine operational tasks, incident response, and remediation workflows using AI-driven agents and orchestration tools, minimizing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency.
• Observability & Data Integration: Collaborate with observability teams to ensure the efficient collection, processing, and transformation of high-volume, cross-domain data from diverse sources (events, logs, metrics, tickets, monitoring tools) into actionable intelligence for the AIOps platform.
• Incident Management & Remediation: Integrate AIOps insights with existing incident management systems, providing real-time intelligence to rapidly identify, diagnose, and resolve IT issues, leading to proactive issue resolution and reduced mean time to recovery (MTTR).
• Performance Optimization: Utilize AI insights to continuously monitor, analyze, and fine-tune IT systems for peak operational efficiency, capacity planning, and resource optimization.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers, promoting architectural excellence, innovation, and best practices in AIOps development and operations.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with data scientists, ML engineers, software engineers, SREs, and IT operations teams to integrate AI/ML agents into the platform and ensure AIOps solutions align with business needs and deliver measurable ROI.
• Innovation & Research: Actively research and evaluate emerging AIOps technologies, generative AI, LLM models, ChatOps AI, and advanced RAGs, bringing promising innovations into production through POCs and long-term architectural evolution.

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, reliability engineering, or IT operations, including at least 5 years leading the design and implementation of AIOps solutions at scale.
• Proven expertise in applying machine learning algorithms and data analysis techniques to solve complex IT operational challenges.
• Strong hands-on experience in building and maintaining scalable data pipelines and workflows for efficient data collection, processing, and analysis from diverse IT sources.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Go, Java, or Scala.
• Extensive experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with data processing frameworks (e.g., Apache Kafka, Apache Spark) and IT monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk).
• Deep understanding of distributed systems architecture, microservices, and their operational challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements and operational pain points into technical specifications and deliver robust AIOps solutions.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex platform-related issues.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with a track record of influencing technical and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related technical field.
• Experience with agentic systems and AI agents for automation.
• Experience with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines in an AIOps context.
• Prior experience in cybersecurity operations or building AIOps solutions for security threat detection and response.

The Ideal Candidate: You are a highly analytical and hands-on AIOps leader who is passionate about leveraging AI to drive operational excellence and resilience. You thrive in a fast-paced environment, can bridge the gap between AI development and IT operations, and are committed to building intelligent, self-healing systems that power a world-class digital experience.

Additional Information

The Team

Working at a high-tech cybersecurity company within Information Technology is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You’ll join the brightest minds in technology, creating, building, and supporting tools and enabling our global teams on the front line of defense against cyberattacks.

We’re connected by one mission but driven by the impact of that mission and what it means to protect our way of life in the digital age. Join a dynamic and fast-paced team of people who feel excited by the prospect of a challenge and feel a thrill at resolving technical gaps that inhibit productivity.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/commissioned roles) is expected /YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

Our Commitment

We’re problem solvers that 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.