Software Manager – Data & AI Security (Cortex Cloud)

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 Data & AI Security group sits at the heart of Cortex Cloud's mission of securing the world’s data. We build infrastructure and distributed systems that analyze billions of data points per second and protect customer environments at unprecedented scale. You will join a team that thrives in ambiguity, embraces innovation, and executes relentlessly. We are looking for a technically-oriented Engineering manager to lead the AISPM team in the Data & AI security group, one of the most technically complex and cross-functional areas within Cortex Cloud. This is ideal for someone who is passionate about people leadership but doesn’t want to walk away from the code entirely. You will balance roughly leadership/management with hands-on technical contribution, ensuring our microservices architecture remains robust and scalable. Your Impact Drive Execution & Delivery: Take full ownership of your team's software development life cycle. You will manage sprint planning, ensure high-velocity execution, and deliver critical features on time in a fast-paced Agile environment. Lead & Empower: Directly manage, mentor, and grow a team of talented backend engineers. You will conduct 1-on-1s, guide career development, and foster a culture of continuous learning and high performance. Shape the Architecture: Act as a technical sounding board for your team. You will guide technical design discussions, review architectures, and ensure our systems remain scalable, secure, and resilient under massive loads. Collaborate Across Teams: Partner closely with Product Managers, DevOps, UX designers, and Security Researchers to align engineering efforts with our strategic roadmap and customer needs. Qualifications Must-Have 3 years managing software engineering teams 5 years of experience as a hands-on software engineer. Proven track record of delivering complex, distributed cloud products end-to-end. Strong systems-level background in one or more languages: Java, Kotlin, Python Experience with large-scale cloud architectures (GCP, AWS, or Azure). Demonstrated ability to plan, execute, and deliver roadmaps with high predictability. Strong collaboration skills; able to align cross-disciplinary teams around a shared goal. Background in cybersecurity, data security, or threat intelligence. Nice-to-Have Experience with orchestration frameworks (Temporal, Argo Workflows, etc.). Proven domain knowledge of AI/ML security and infrastructure, including areas such as LLM-based applications, RAG workflows, vector storage, etc. Familiarity with BigQuery, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or similar. Experience running services at massive scale across distributed environments. Our Commitment We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecur ... (truncated, view full listing at source)