Distinguished Engineer - Endpoint Access Agents

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.

As a Distinguished Engineer for Endpoint Engineering, you will be the chief architect and technical authority for Palo Alto Networks’ access agent platform. You will own the unified architectural vision across our core endpoint clients including Global Protect, Prisma Access Agent, ADEM, and many others spanning Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

In this high-visibility role, you will lead the evolution of our endpoint portfolio from distinct product agents into a unified, high-performing platform foundation. By establishing shared networking, IPC, core application logic, and observability layers, you will ensure that every capability and performance optimization built in one agent automatically powers them all. Furthermore, you will define how endpoint software is engineered in an AI-native world embedding automated defect verification, intelligent telemetry analysis, and smart crash triage into our global release pipeline.

This is a high-leverage "build-the-foundation" role with direct executive sponsorship, a clear evidence-backed mandate, and an organization ready to execute under your vision.

• Define the Platform Architecture:
  Architect a high-performance, modular core for networking, crypto, configuration, and telemetry that sibling products configure rather than rebuild.
• Establish Secure Seams & Extensions:
  Create localized plugin models so that new auth methods, protocol extensions, or tunnel types land once and become immediately available across all platforms.
• Systemic Quality & Reliability by Design:
  Own the endpoint architecture standardizing peer identity, least-privilege decomposition, resilient error handling, and memory safety directly into type systems and CI/CD gates.
• Pioneer AI-Native Workflows & Supportability:
  Integrate AI-driven software analysis, automated crash triage, and automated regression verification into standard build pipelines while driving unified crash analytics and product telemetry to maintain a world-class Crash-Free SLO across millions of active enterprise endpoints.
• Drive Technical Excellence:
  Set engineering standards, author key Architectural Decision Records (ADRs), mentor principal and senior talent, and represent our technical strategy with customers and engineering partners.

• Seasoned and accomplished leadership in Endpoint systems development`, core networking, and/or OS-level software development.
• Cross-Product Impact:
  Track record of defining cross-team architecture that was successfully adopted across multiple…