Principal Machine Learning Engineer (URL Filtering Data Science)

$180,000 - $250,000/Yr

Palo Alto Networks - Santa Clara, CA

Full-time - Senior

Santa Clara, CA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

The Principal Machine Learning Engineer at Palo Alto Networks will play a crucial role in the Internet Security Research Team, focusing on Advanced URL Filtering Data Science. This position involves designing and building machine learning systems to detect and defend against emerging web security threats. The engineer will collaborate with data scientists and security researchers to develop models and systems that analyze and categorize large datasets of URLs, contributing to the next generation of security platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design and build machine learning systems while balancing cost and model performance.
• Productionize models/services and integrate with back-end services and pipelines.
• Set up automated training pipelines and develop data analytics tools to improve performance on a growing dataset.
• Collaborate with team experts and Product Managers to gather requirements and implement systems.
• Work with engineers and SREs on release and deployment.

Requirements

• Proven creative thinker and team player with strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Proficient in NLP, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and LLM techniques (e.g., transformers, convolutional networks).
• Extensive knowledge of ML frameworks, libraries, data structures, data modeling, and software architecture (e.g., Scikit-learn, MLlib, Tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch, Kubeflow).
• Capable of working independently and innovating solutions to complex problems.
• Working experience with website classifications is a plus.
• Proficient in Python, Java, Linux OS, and shell scripting.
• Experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS) and container-based development (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiar with database systems such as MySql, MongoDB, or similar.
• MS/Ph.D in Computer Science or a related field specialized in Machine Learning, with 4+ years of industry experience.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with website classifications.

Benefits

• FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items.
• Mental and financial health resources.
• Personalized learning opportunities.
• Restricted stock units and bonuses as part of compensation.