Sr NPI Reliability Engineer

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.

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.

Palo Alto Networks is seeking an experiencedNPI Hardware Reliability Engineer to join the Technical Operations Hardware Quality Engineering organization. This role will be responsible for establishing and drivinghardware reliability and quality processes throughout the New Product Introduction (NPI) lifecyclefor next-generation network security and firewall platforms.

The NPI Hardware Reliability Engineer will work at the intersection of Product Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supplier Quality, Test Engineering, and Operations to ensure new hardware products are designed, validated, manufactured, and launched with a high level of quality and reliability.

The ideal candidate has strong experience in hardware reliability, product qualification, failure analysis, NPI, and manufacturing processes, with the ability to translate reliability requirements into practical validation and production controls.

• Own and execute the NPI hardware reliability strategy, milestones, and phase-gate qualification plans from early development through production ramp.
• Partner with Hardware Engineering to assess architecture, design changes, and BOMs to identify electrical, mechanical, thermal, and environmental risks early in the product lifecycle.
• Define and execute accelerated life, stress, and environmental test plans (including thermal cycling, drop/vibe, and HALT/ALT), setting sample sizes, conditions, and pass/fail criteria.
• Analyze test data and trends to validate product readiness against defined reliability targets prior to commercial release.

• Lead root-cause failure investigations across NPI testing, pilot builds, and early production using structured methods (8D, FMEA, FTA, DOE, Weibull).
• Collaborate with Design, Manufacturing, Supplier Quality, and CMs to implement, validate, and track closed-loop corrective actions.
• Feed field and post-mortem learnings back into early NPI cycles to prevent recurring failure modes.

• Assess supplier and manufacturing reliability risks during EVT, DVT, and PVT builds, auditing critical processes, materials, and component qualifications.
• Establish quality controls, test coverage, and containment protocols for critical hardware components and sub-assemblies.

• Define NPI reliability metrics, statistical models, and dashboards to communicate risks and launch readiness to executive leadership.
• Act as the Technical Operations SME for hardware reliability, partnering closely with cross-functional engineering, program management, and external CM partners.

• Build, standardize, and scale the company's NPI Hardware Reliability framework, including templates, phase-gate criteria, and lessons-learned mechanisms across multi-hardware platforms.

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in hardware reliability, product quality, NPI, manufacturing engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience with reliability qualification and validation of complex electronic hardware.
• Strong…