Principal Security Architect; Information Security; Bay Area

Principal Security Architect

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 Principal Security Architect, you will serve as the technical authority for our multi-cloud security strategy, defining the architectural 'North Star' for our cloud-native platforms to ensure they are secure by design. In this high-impact, 'player-coach' role, you will drive complex threat modeling, steer the architectural direction across GCP, AWS, Azure, and OCI, and partner with engineering leadership to embed security deep within our next-generation products.

Define and maintain the authoritative security architecture patterns for services across multi-cloud environments, including GCP, AWS, Azure, OCI, and SAP.

Lead the design of secure, scalable, and resilient systems by championing 'Security by Design' principles such as isolation, identity management (IAM), and data protection.

Drive the architectural strategy and implementation of Zero Trust principles across development environments and production SaaS platforms.

Own the organization's threat modeling methodology, facilitating deep-dive sessions for critical features to identify attack vectors in complex distributed systems.

Translate architectural risks into actionable items for the Cybersecurity Risk Register, effectively communicating the business impact to leadership.

Serve as a subject matter expert on security products (CWPP, CSPM, NGFW), advising product teams on architecting solutions to withstand modern adversary TTPs.

Provide high-level technical guidance and mentorship to Staff and Senior security engineers, fostering a culture of engineering excellence and proactive security.

Lead cross-functional 'Tiger Teams' through complex security implementations, acting as the bridge between Developer, Product Engineering, and Info Sec teams.

8+ years of experience in security engineering and/or security architecture, with at least 4+ years in a Staff capacity.

Deep, hands-on architectural expertise in at least one major public cloud provider (GCP, AWS, Azure, OCI, or SAP) with a strong working knowledge of the others.

Demonstrated sophisticated, deep knowledge and hands-on experience with modern Secure-by-Design, Privacy-by-Design, and Zero Trust principles and practices.

Proven track record of executing complex threat models (e.g., STRIDE, PASTA, DREAD) for microservices and serverless architectures.

Proficiency with a scripting language such as Python or Go and experience securing CI/CD pipelines.

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.

$ - $/yr

We're trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity's status quo.…