Lead Software Engineer, Backend

Cortex by Palo Alto Networks

Lead Software Engineer developing scalable backend systems for Cortex's Engineering Operations Platform. Addressing technical problems while collaborating with cross-functional teams to improve engineering effectiveness.

Posted 6/13/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $215,000 - $245,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudDistributed SystemsMicroservicesMongoDBMySQLPostgres

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design, develop, and maintain scalable, and efficient backend systems and services that meet enterprise requirements
Work alongside other engineers to build new features and enhance existing ones
Optimize and improve the performance, reliability, and scalability of existing backend systems
Participate in operating our systems in production, including Incident Response on a rotational basis
Conduct code reviews and provide constructive feedback to team members
Write clean, maintainable, and testable code that adheres to best practices
Partner closely with engineering, product, leadership, sales, and our customers to better understand design requests and user experiences
Continually improve existing planning, development, deployment processes

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience
7+ years of experience building backend applications using any modern programming language
Experience with distributed systems, microservices, and cloud computing platforms
Experience with modern data storage solutions, such as MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB etc.
Knowledge of current standard methodologies and to try, learn and adapt to new technologies and programming languages
Solid fundamental skills in data structures, algorithms, and web development best practices
Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
Strong communication and collaboration skills
Ability to mentor and coach junior engineers

Benefits

Comp & perks

National medical, dental & vision insurance (we cover 100% for employees!)
Unlimited PTO & flexible working hours
401k plan
Gender-neutral parental leave
$1000 yearly Learning & Development stipend
$400 monthly perks stipend (use it on anything)
Pet Insurance

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

backend developmentprogramming languagesdistributed systemsmicroservicescloud computingMySQLPostgresMongoDBdata structuresalgorithms

Soft Skills

problem-solvinganalytical skillscommunicationcollaborationmentoringcoachingconstructive feedbackteamworkadaptabilityuser experience understanding

Certifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science