Principal DevOps Engineer Job at Palo Alto Networks (Santa Clara)

Principal DevOps Engineer

Palo Alto Networks

Location:
United States , Santa Clara

Category:
IT - Software Development

Contract Type:
Not provided

Salary:

151600.00 - 245300.00 USD / Year

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Job Description:

We are seeking a highly experienced and visionary Principal DevOps Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and scaling of our core infrastructure and deployment pipelines. As a technical leader, you will be instrumental in bridging the gap between software development and IT operations, ensuring high availability, robust security, and seamless continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). You will champion automation, embed security practices into our development lifecycle, and mentor junior engineers while driving our technical strategy forward.

Job Responsibility:

Architect & Scale Infrastructure: Design, deploy, and maintain highly available and resilient containerized infrastructure utilizing Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift
Version Control Leadership: Establish and enforce advanced Git workflows, optimal branching strategies (e.g., GitFlow, trunk-based development), and governance policies across enterprise GitLab or Bitbucket environments
CI/CD Leadership: Own and continuously improve enterprise-scale CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, integrating seamlessly with our source control repositories to ensure fast, reliable, and automated software delivery
DevSecOps Integration: Champion secure coding practices by integrating and managing static analysis (SAST) tools, specifically Coverity, directly into the build pipelines to catch vulnerabilities early
Systems Engineering & Administration: Serve as the subject matter expert for Linux administration, performance tuning, and capacity planning across all environments
Network Operations: Lead advanced network troubleshooting, managing configurations, firewalls, load balancing, and resolving complex connectivity issues across distributed systems
Automation & Tooling: Write robust, scalable automation scripts and internal tooling using Python to eliminate manual toil and optimize system performance
Mentorship & Strategy: Act as a technical mentor to the broader engineering team, establish best practices for DevOps, and guide the architectural direction of our platform

Requirements:

8+ years of proven experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Systems Engineering, with a track record of operating at a senior or principal level
Deep expertise in advanced Git operations (complex merges, interactive rebasing, history management) and enterprise repository administration using GitLab or Bitbucket
Deep expertise in deploying and managing microservices using OpenShift or Kubernetes in production environments
Extensive hands-on experience building complex, automated pipelines using Jenkins
Advanced Linux administration skills (Red Hat, Ubuntu, CentOS, etc.)
Strong network troubleshooting skills, with a deep understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/S, routing, and network security protocols
Hands-on experience integrating static code analysis and security testing into automated workflows, with specific expertise in Coverity (or similar enterprise SAST tools)
Strong proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, and API integrations
Exceptional analytical skills with the ability to troubleshoot complex, inter-dependent platform issues during critical incidents

Nice to have:

Experience migrating repositories or CI/CD pipelines between major platforms (e.g., Bitbucket to GitLab, Jenkins to GitLab CI)
Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or Ansible
Experience with AI-related skills, including Large Language Models (LLM), AI agents, and Claude code
Experience operating within major public cloud providers (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Familiarity with modern observability and monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, ELK)
Proven ability to integrate with existing toolchains to boost developer productivity, coupled with previous involvement in open-source projects

Additional Information:

Job Posted:
April 16, 2026

Employment Type:

Fulltime

Work Type:

On-site work

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