Principal Site Reliability Engineer, Compute Infrastructure
Cortex by Palo Alto Networks
Santa Clara, CA · $175k–$284k a year · Posted September 30, 2026
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Where Santa Clara, CA ranks
Where Santa Clara, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for sales pay after cost of living$175k · of 45
- #1Best cities for product pay after cost of living$224k · of 14
- #2Best cities for operations pay after cost of living$173k · of 41
- #2Best cities for marketing pay after cost of living$192k · of 16
- #2Best all-round cities for remote workers in the West Coast85 / 100 · of 39
- #3Best cities for finance pay after cost of living$156k · of 35
Rankings about engineering jobs
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- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
How AI is used in this kind of work
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Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
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About the job
Principal Site Reliability Engineer, Compute Infrastructure Santa Clara, California, United States of America IT Ref ID: JR-022674 Apply Current Employees, apply here
Our Mission
At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to 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 you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re 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. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.
Job Summary
The Team
Information Technology
Job Summary
As an AI-Native Reliability Software Engineer, you will build software engines, intelligent pipelines, and autonomous systems to power our cloud presence. You will design and optimize highly available cloud applications across AWS, and GCP, treating the cloud as a programmable, AI-orchestrated entity.
Key Responsibilities
Lead enterprise architectural strategy across AWS, Azure, and GCP, integrating AI workflows and LLM agents for automated infrastructure refactoring.
Architect next-gen telemetry and secure-by-design pipelines, utilizing LLMs for dynamic IAM auditing and automated vulnerability patching at scale.
Spearhead the engineering of autonomous agents using Go, Python, or TypeScript to establish standards for predictive auto-scaling and self-healing systems.
Act as the authority for complex anomalies, leading the design of internal AI agents for autonomous root-cause analysis and defect resolution.
Define the technical vision for globally distributed Kubernetes fleets, championing AI-driven traffic routing and predictive capacity planning.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
8+ years of experience in Cloud Software Engineering, SRE, or Distributed Systems Infrastructure (BS or equivalent).
Strong track record with large-scale distributed systems, multi-cloud platforms (GCP, AWS), and container orchestration.
Strong software engineering fundamentals in TypeScript (Node.js), Go, or Python.
Preferred Qualifications
At least 2+ years of hands-on experience integrating AI tools, LLMs, or predictive analytics into deployment workflows.
Experience interfacing with LLM APIs, vector databases, and prompt engineering for systems-level orchestration.
Experience designing agentic SRE workflows for autonomous incident response, automated root-cause analysis (RCA), and self-healing of distributed infrastructure.
Experience building intelligent delivery pipelines using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, featuring integrated automated testing, security gates, and AI-assisted code reviews.
Ability to partner with Core AI/ML teams to bridge the gap between model deployment and high-availability cloud infrastructure.
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 (opens in new window) (opens in new window) .
$175,400.00 - $283,800.00/yr
Our Commitment
We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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 (opens in new window) (opens in new window) .
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? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.
Apply Current Employees, apply here