Distinguished AI Engineer (Office of the CTO)

Palo Alto Networks
Santa Clara, United States of America
yesterday

Role details

Contract type
Permanent contract
Employment type
Full-time (> 32 hours)
Working hours
Regular working hours
Languages
English
Experience level
Intermediate

Job location

Santa Clara, United States of America

Tech stack

Java
JavaScript
Artificial Intelligence
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cloud Computing
Code Review
Computer Security
Continuous Integration
Programming Tools
Distributed Systems
Python
Machine Learning
Product Management
Systems Development Life Cycle
Rapid Prototyping Process
Azure
Software Deployment
Management of Software Versions
Flexi (Photoshop Plugin)
Large Language Models
Mitre Att&ck
Generative AI
Cyber Threat Analysis
Palo Alto Networks
Machine Learning Operations
Vulnerability Analysis
Go

Job description

As a Distinguished AI Engineer in the Office of the CTO (OCTO), you will shape the next of AI-powered security and developer-productivity solutions. You will lead exploratory research, rapid prototyping, and cross-functional pilots that fuse state-of-the-art foundation models with Palo Alto Networks' security platforms.

Your Impact

  • Drive end-to-end AI integrations with industry-leading foundation models (e.g., current frontier LLMs) across text, code, image, and multimodal domains.

  • Prototype and benchmark MCP and A2A protocols to enable dynamic orchestration of multiple agents and tools

  • Lead context engineering & prompt design for RAG and agentic workflows; create evaluation harnesses to measure accuracy, latency, and cost

  • Build proof-of-concepts that embed AI throughout the software-development life-cycle (SDLC)-planning, coding, code review, testing, and release-to quantify productivity gains

  • Research and validate AI-driven cybersecurity use-cases (e.g., threat-hunting copilots, real-time anomaly triage) and partner with product groups to harden prototypes for production.

  • Instrument metrics pipelines that track developer and security-analyst outcomes to demonstrate ROI of AI initiatives

  • Craft executive-level narratives, demos, and visualizations that clearly communicate innovation roadmaps, technical trade-offs, and business impact

  • Mentor senior engineers and researchers; foster a culture of experimentation, responsible AI, and security-first thinking

  • Lead strategic external partnerships and technical advocacy, collaborating with major industry partners to shape defensive AI product roadmaps.

  • Engage with policy and ethics working groups to ensure responsible and compliant AI deployment, including navigating legal and corporate communications reviews.

Requirements

Your Experience

  • 10+ years in software/ML engineering, with 2+ years leading applied Generative AI or LLM initiatives at scale.

  • Proven expertise in: Large & Multimodal Models: fine-tuning, RAG, alignment, hallucination testing.

  • Distributed systems & MLOps: containerized inference, model-versioning, feature stores.

  • Programming: Python (required) plus one of Go, Java, Javascript.

  • Cloud AI stacks (GCP Vertex, AWS SageMaker, Azure ML) and vector databases.

  • Hands-on experience integrating AI into developer tooling (IDE plug-ins, CI/CD, observability dashboards).

  • Deep understanding of cybersecurity concepts (attack vectors, threat intelligence, MITRE ATT&CK) and ability to translate them into AI features.

  • Strong communication skills; comfortable presenting to VP/C-suite audiences, driving cross-functional alignment, and representing technical strategy at external conferences.

  • B.S. or higher in CS, EE, Mathematics, or related field; M.S./Ph.D. or equivalent military experience

  • Proven track record of mentorship and technical leadership across organizational boundaries.

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