PRINCIPAL, TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING

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. In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. Manager, Quality Engineering (QE)
We are seeking an experienced Manager, Quality Engineering (QE) to lead our quality engineering organization and drive a scalable, automation-first approach to software quality. This role will be responsible for defining and executing the overall quality strategy, managing release readiness, strengthening system and integration testing, expanding test automation, and introducing tools and processes that improve engineering efficiency and product quality.
The ideal candidate is a strong technical leader who can balance technical leadership, quality strategy, test engineering, release management, and cross-functional collaboration. You will work closely with Engineering, Product, DevOps/SRE, and other stakeholders to ensure reliable and high-quality releases across complex systems and services.
Quality Engineering Strategy
Define and drive the overall QE strategy, quality roadmap, and engineering quality standards across products and platforms.
Establish risk-based testing practices covering functional, regression, integration, system, performance, reliability, and end-to-end testing.
Promote a shift-left and automation-first quality culture across engineering teams.
Develop comprehensive test strategies for new features, services, platforms, and major architectural changes.
Establish appropriate testing approaches across unit, API, integration, system, UI, end-to-end, performance, and reliability testing.
Lead test planning for complex projects involving multiple services, teams, and technology stacks.
Improve test environments, test data management, and test execution processes.
Release Management & Quality Governance
Own the QE component of the software release lifecycle, including release planning, test readiness, defect triage, release validation, and production readiness.
Establish release quality gates and clear entry/exit criteria for testing.
Partner with Engineering and Product leadership to assess release risks and communicate quality status.
Drive post-release validation, production quality monitoring, and continuous improvement based on production issues.
Lead the strategy and execution of system integration and end-to-end testing across interconnected applications, services, APIs, and third-party systems.
Identify dependencies and integration risks across engineering teams.
Establish automated validation of critical customer and business workflows.
Partner with architecture and engineering teams to improve system testability and observability.
Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and engineering workflows.
Engineering Efficiency & Quality Tools
Identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity through QE tooling, automation, and intelligent test execution.
Continuously evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-assisted testing and quality engineering tools, where appropriate.
Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Quality Engineers and Test Automation Engineers.
Establish technical direction, engineering standards, and career development plans for the QE organization.
Foster strong collaboration between QE, Software Engineering, Product, DevOps/SRE, and other technical teams.
Establish root-cause analysis and corrective-action practices for significant quality issues.
Use data and metrics to continuously improve test effectiveness and release confidence.
Drive improvements in development processes, testability, observability, and quality ownership across engineering.
Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
~8+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test engineering, automation, or related software engineering roles.
~3+ years of experience managing or leading QE/Test Engineering teams.
~ Strong experience developing and implementing test strategies and quality engineering processes.
~ Strong understanding of API, integration, system, regression, and end-to-end testing.
~ Experience managing software releases and release quality gates.
~ Experience testing distributed systems, microservices, APIs, cloud applications, or other complex systems.
~ Strong understanding of modern software development and CI/CD practices.
~ Experience building or scaling QE organizations.
Experience with cloud-native architectures and distributed systems.
Experience with performance, scalability, reliability, and resilience testing.
Experience building internal QE tooling and test infrastructure.
Experience with test data management and environment automation.
Experience with observability and production quality monitoring.
Experience applying AI/ML or intelligent automation to software testing.
Strong programming/scripting experience in languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar.
Deliver releases with greater quality, predictability, and confidence.
Reduce regression testing time and manual testing effort.
Establish a culture where quality is a shared engineering responsibility.
For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at

Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship?: Yes