Principal Machine Learning Engineer (URL Filtering Data Science)

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

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 Are

We 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.

This role is located at our dynamic Santa Clara California headquarters campus. It is not a remote position and relocation is not being provided for this opportunity. 

Your Career

As a member of the Internet Security Research Team specifically Advanced URL Filtering Data Science, you will work closely with data scientists, security researchers, and other engineers on implementing different projects to detect and defend against various emerging threats in the areas of Web Security. You will build machine learning models and develop big data and distributed systems that use the models to analyze and categorize an enormous amount of URLs. You will be a key person in transforming ideas into products which are part of the next generation security platform. The Internet Security Research Team is responsible for innovating new security techniques.

Your Impact

• Design and build machine learning systems while balancing cost and model performance
• You'll be responsible for productionizing your models/services and integrating with our back-end services and pipelines
• Set up automated training pipelines and develop data analytics tools to incrementally improve our performance on a growing dataset
• Collaborate closely with other experts on the team and Product Managers to gather requirements, design, and implement systems
• Work with other engineers and SREs on release/deployment

Your Experience 

• Proven creative thinker and team player, with great communication and collaboration skills and desire to make differences
• Proficient in NLP, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, 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 coming up with innovative solutions to difficult 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 5+ years industry experience or equivalent military experience required

The Team

We define the industry, instead of waiting for directions. We need individuals who feel comfortable in ambiguity of creating on new frontiers, excited by the prospect of a challenge, and empowered by the unknown risks facing our everyday lives that are only enabled by a secure digital environment. 

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. 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/commissioned roles) is expected in between $179,000- $230,000/yr. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

Our Commitment



We’re problem solvers that take risks and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

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  [email protected].

Palo 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