Senior Director, Engineering (Unit 42)

Palo Alto Networks is dedicated to protecting the digital way of life through innovation and cutting-edge technology. As the Senior Director of Engineering for Unit 42, you will lead the development of AI frameworks and tooling to enhance incident response, drive engineering execution in alignment with strategic vision, and foster a culture of excellence and innovation.

Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain cutting-edge AI frameworks to automate complex investigation and response workflows for Unit 42 consultants
• Evolve and scale the external-facing Unit 42 Arcade platform to enhance customer engagement and deliver interactive security experiences
• Lead the rapid development of specialized tooling for Threat Analysts, Red Team consultants, and Incident Responders for immediate field impact
• Serve as a key member of the Unit 42 leadership team, aligning engineering execution with the broader vision, strategy, and product roadmaps
• Drive technical collaboration across Palo Alto Networks product divisions to ensure Unit 42’s engineering efforts are integrated with the broader platform
• Mentor and guide the professional and technical development of engineers and managers, fostering a culture of excellence and career progression
• Oversee the cloud engineering budget, balancing the high computational demands of AI/ML with operational cost efficiency
• Establish an 'Engineering Response' protocol to provide 24/7 technical support for consultants during massive, global cyberattacks

Requirements:

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record leading data-intensive engineering organizations and large-scale cloud-delivered products
• Demonstrated experience in Data Science and Machine Learning, including leveraging GenAI, LLMs, and autonomous agent frameworks
• Proven ability to implement agile engineering processes that shorten release cycles and improve 'time to market' for critical field tools
• Ability to be a strategic thinker who can dive deep into technical details to guide architectural choices
• Technical degree (e.g., Computer Science, Engineering) or equivalent practical experience
• Deep domain expertise in threat intelligence, malware analysis, red teaming, and/or incident response
• A history of public speaking in technical industry forums and the ability to communicate effectively with both executive and technical audiences
• Experience making critical 'Build vs. Buy' decisions for tools, open-source, and platform components
• Advanced technical degree (Master's or PhD)