Director of Software Engineering (AI Ops)
- Santa Clara, CA
- Permanent
- Full-time
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we're looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.Who We AreWe take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.Job DescriptionYour CareerWe are seeking an experienced and visionary Director of Engineering to lead the development and evolution of our cutting-edge AIOps platform. In this critical role, you will be responsible for building the foundational data pipelines, data platform, and intelligent alerting infrastructure that powers our next-generation operational intelligence solutions. You will lead high-performing teams, drive technical strategy, and collaborate closely with customers to deliver impactful, low-noise insights.Your Impact:
- Lead the strategic direction, architecture, and development of our end-to-end AIOps platform, encompassing data ingestion, processing, storage, and intelligent alerting.
- Oversee the design, implementation, and optimization of robust, scalable data pipelines capable of handling high-volume telemetry, logs, metrics, and event data.
- Drive the evolution of our AIOps data platform, ensuring efficient data collection, resilient storage solutions, and advanced ETL processes to generate aggregated, normalized, and actionable insights.
- Champion the development of our intelligent alerting infrastructure, including the creation and deployment of rule-based, statistical, and advanced machine learning-driven anomaly detection algorithms.
- Collaborate intimately with internal stakeholders and external customers to deeply understand their operational challenges, ensuring the alert generation system produces highly valuable, meaningful, and low-noise actionable insights.
- Build, mentor, and grow high-performing teams of software engineers, data engineers, and machine learning engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
- Partner closely with Product Management, SRE, and other cross-functional engineering teams to define roadmaps, gather requirements, and ensure seamless delivery of features.
- Ensure the scalability, reliability, security, and performance of the AIOps platform across various deployment environments (e.g., cloud, on-premise).
- Actively participate in roadmap discussions, technical reviews, and strategic planning, aligning technical initiatives with overall business objectives.
- Drive best practices in software development, data governance, MLOps, and operational excellence.
- MS/BS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 10+ years in a leadership/management role (Director level preferred), specifically focused on data platforms, distributed systems, or AIOps.
- Proven expertise in leading the design and development of large-scale, high-performance data pipelines and data processing systems.
- Deep understanding and hands-on experience with scalable data storage solutions (e.g., time-series databases like Prometheus/InfluxDB, columnar databases like ClickHouse, distributed NoSQL stores like Cassandra/Elasticsearch).
- Strong background in developing and operationalizing anomaly detection algorithms, statistical models, and machine learning solutions for operational data.
- Experience working directly with customers to understand their needs, translate requirements into technical solutions, and drive adoption of intelligent systems.
- A strong customer-centric mindset with a proven ability to deliver highly valuable solutions that reduce operational noise and provide clear insights.
- Proficiency in relevant programming languages such as Python, Java, Go, Scala, or similar.
- Extensive experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and container orchestration technologies (e.g., Kubernetes).
- Exceptional leadership, team-building, and mentoring skills, with a track record of attracting and retaining top engineering talent.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
- Strategic thinker with a pragmatic approach to problem-solving and a strong bias for action.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, balancing innovation with operational stability.