Sr Principal AI-Data Scientist (ADEM)

Palo Alto Networks•Santa Clara, CA

4d•$185,200 - $299,475•Onsite

About The Position

The ADEM engineering team is the engine of innovation at Palo Alto Networks. We don't just follow industry trends; we create them. As a Sr Principal Engineer focused on the Agent, you will be at the center of this mission, tackling "impossible" problems in scale, security, and performance at the most critical point: the user's endpoint. We look for leaders who are comfortable in deep ambiguity, possess an insatiable curiosity, and are driven to build technology that protects the digital way of life for the world's largest enterprises. We are seeking a visionary Senior Principal AI / Data Scientist to join our Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM) team. In this role, you will be at the forefront of transforming ADEM from a reactive data visualization tool into a proactive AIOps platform. You will act as an architectural and product-strategy leader, leveraging Machine Learning and Generative AI to solve complex customer networking problems, drive zero-touch troubleshooting, and shape our future AI roadmap. If you thrive on "Disruption"—challenging entrenched beliefs to solve real problems with breakthrough AI-driven ideas—and want to see your work showcased globally while generating patents, this is the role for you.

Requirements

Proven track record of putting ML models and Generative AI (LLMs, RAG architectures, Agentic workflows) into production.
Strong, hands-on programming experience.
Proficiency in Python and familiarity with Java are required; additional experience with Go is a strong plus.
Deep expertise in BigQuery and Dataflow.
Experience negotiating and implementing secure cloud infrastructure (e.g., workload identity, SRE best practices).
Ability to design platform-level services with a holistic view, enabling integrations across a wider ecosystem (e.g., Cortex, Prisma Access).
Demonstrated ability to bridge the gap between deep technical implementation and tangible business value/sales growth.
BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent high-level professional experience.

Nice To Haves

Domain knowledge in networking (ISPs, Firewalls, Application Identification, Gateways, Telemetry).
An interest in or prior exposure to filing patents or publishing novel AI/ML research is a bonus.
Familiarity with leveraging AI coding assistants (like Claude Code) to accelerate technical decision-making, benchmark languages, and generate complex architectural documentation.

Responsibilities

Design, architect, and implement production-ready "Agentic" Root Cause Analysis (RCA) systems to automate complex network troubleshooting, reducing IT admin diagnosis time from 30+ minutes to under a minute.
Own the full ML lifecycle from Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and rapid Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) to deploying scalable ML baselines and intelligent alerting systems for diverse network segments.
Develop high-performance, independent AI-powered microservices (e.g., domain-based application classification) from initial PM requirements to fully scalable production services.
Build, optimize, and maintain complex data pipelines utilizing Google Cloud Dataflow and BigQuery.
Audit and optimize heavy BigQuery queries to eliminate latency, drastically improving UI responsiveness and underlying data processing costs.
Architect secure, privacy-compliant solutions to detect widespread network or ISP issues by correlating cross-tenant ML baseline scores.
Partner closely with Product Management (PM) to define and champion the 6-12 month AI roadmap, co-developing business cases with clear ROI (e.g., faster MTTR, support deflection).
Act as the technical anchor for the team. Review code, establish best practices, improve infrastructure documentation, and "shift-left" on regression testing to improve velocity.
Proactively engage with Sales Engineers, Support, and UX teams to understand customer pain points deeply and translate them into highly accurate technical requirements.