Want to professionalize your AI skills, pivot to an AI role and increase your salary?
Master AI Engineering with the most practical and comprehensive LLM Development certifications at Towards AI Academy.

Palo Alto Networks

Sr Staff Machine Learning Platform Engineer (Prisma AIRS)

Palo Alto Networks

Published 03 Apr 2026
Santa Clara, CA, USA
141K - 228K USD Annual
Full Time

Share this job

Role Highlights

Languages used

Python
GO
Java
C++
CUDA
Triton

Key skills

Machine Learning
Data Infrastructure
ML Ops
CNNS
Computer Science
CICD
Distributed Systems
System Design
Technical Leadership
GNNs
AI
Security
Inference
Optimization
Research
Deployment
Cloud
Architecture
Transformers
LLMs
Kernel
Automation

Tools, Libraries and Frameworks

GitLab CI
GCP
AWS
Azure
Kubernetes
Docker
ONNX
Kafka
Flink
Jenkins
Tensorflow
PyTorch
Tensorrt

Description

\\\\Our Mission\\\\ At Palo Alto Networks®, were united by a shared missionto 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 youre ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, youre 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. Thats why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when its needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes. \\\\Job Summary\\\\ \\\\Your Career\\\\ With Prisma AIRS, Palo Alto Networks is building the world's most comprehensive AI security platform. Organizations are increasingly building complex ecosystems of AI models, applications, and agents, creating dynamic new attack surfaces with risks that traditional security approaches cannot address. In response, Prisma AIRS delivers model security, posture management, AI red teaming, and runtime protection. Our customers can confidently deploy AI-driven innovation while ensuring a formidable security posture from development through runtime. As a Principal Machine Learning Inference Engineer, you will serve as a technical authority and visionary for the Prisma AIRS team. You will be responsible for the architectural design and long-term strategy of our AI platform - ML inference. Beyond individual contribution, you will lead complex technical projects, mentor senior engineers, and set the standard for performance, scalability, and engineering excellence across the organization. Your decisions will have a profound and lasting impact on our ability to deliver cutting-edge AI security solutions at a massive scale. \\\\Your Impact\\\\ Architect and Design: Lead the architectural design of a highly scalable, low-latency, and resilient ML inference platform capable of serving a diverse range of models for real-time security applications. Technical Leadership: Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the team, driving best practices in MLOps, software engineering, and system design. Strategic Optimization: Drive the strategy for model and system performance, guiding research and implementation of advanced optimization techniques like custom kernels, hardware acceleration, and novel serving frameworks. Set The Standard: Establish and enforce engineering standards for automated model deployment, robust monitoring, and operational excellence for all production ML systems. Cross-Functional Vision: Act as a key technical liaison to other principal engineers, architects, and product leaders to shape the future of the Prisma AIRS platform and ensure end-to-end system cohesion. Solve the Hardest Problems: Tackle the most ambiguous and challenging technical problems in large-scale inference, from mitigating novel security threats to achieving unprecedented performance goals. \\\\Qualifications\\\\ \\\\Your Experience\\\\ BS/MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Professional experience in software engineering with a deep focus on MLOps, ML systems, or productionizing machine learning models at scale. Expert-level programming skills in Python are required; experience in a systems language like Go, Java, or C++ is nice to have. Deep, hands-on experience designing and building large-scale distributed systems on a major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, Azure, or OCI). Proven track record of leading the architecture of complex ML systems and MLOps pipelines using technologies like Kubernetes and Docker. Mastery of ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and extensive experience with advanced inference optimization tools (ONNX, TensorRT). A strong understanding of popular model architectures (e.g., Transformers, CNNs, GNNs) is a significant plus. Demonstrated expertise with modern LLM inference engines (e.g., vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM) is required. Open-source contributions in these areas are a significant plus. Experience with low-level performance optimization, such as custom CUDA kernel development or using Triton Language, is a plus. Experience with data infrastructure technologies (e.g., Kafka, Spark, Flink) is great to have. Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Tekton) is a plus. \\\\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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here () . $141,000.00 - $228,075.00/yr \\\\Our Commitment\\\\ Were trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecuritys status quo. Its simple: we cant 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 . 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?: Yes

Required Qualifications and Skills

A Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience, is required. Professional software engineering experience with a strong focus on MLOps, ML systems, or large-scale production machine learning models is necessary. Expert-level Python programming skills are mandatory, with experience in systems languages like Go, Java, or C++ being beneficial. Deep, hands-on experience designing and building large-scale distributed systems on major cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, Azure, or OCI is essential. A proven track record of leading the architecture of complex ML systems and MLOps pipelines using technologies like Kubernetes and Docker is also required. Mastery of ML frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch, along with extensive experience with advanced inference optimization tools such as ONNX and TensorRT, is crucial. Demonstrated expertise with modern LLM inference engines, including vLLM, SGLang, and TensorRT-LLM, is a requirement.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Job and company description information and some of the data fields may have been generated via GPT-4 summarisation and could contain inaccuracies. The full external job listing link should always be relied on for authoritative information.

About the company

Palo Alto Networks

Size

14705

Founded

HQ

SANTA CLARA, US

Public/Private

Public Company

Description

Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader, is shaping the cloud-centric future with technology that is transforming the way people and organizations operate. Our mission is to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life. We help address the world's greatest security challenges with continuous innovation that seizes the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, analytics, automation, and orchestration. By delivering an integrated platform and empowering a growing ecosystem of partners, we are at the forefront of protecting tens of thousands of organizations across clouds, networks, and mobile devices. Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Share

Share this job

Related jobs

Prompt Engineering
Machine Learning
Computer Science
API
Santa Clara, CA, USA
Full Time
Palo Alto Networks

Principal Software Engineer

Palo Alto Networks

Computer Science
API
CICD
Distributed Systems
Santa Clara, CA, USA
Full Time
AI
Prompt Engineering
Machine Learning
Problem Solving
USA
Remote