Principal QA Architect (Secure Cloud Access)

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. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place. Who We Are In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us! We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes. Job Summary We are looking for a Staff QA Architect to join our elite team, contributing to the development of one of our strategic products for Cloud Security. In your role, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining high-quality work procedures, leading the team to achieve better quality. You will be involved in the full feature lifecycle - from gathering requirements with the product team to release - ensuring quality at every stage, including bug management and observability and defining QA work procedures, guidelines, and designing the entire testing process. The ideal candidate will be responsible for leading quality activities across solution-level features, ensuring the highest standards of quality are met. This role requires a proactive individual with excellent leadership and communication skills, capable of driving quality initiatives and fostering a quality-focused mindset within the organization. Comprehensive understanding of the product's functionality, target use cases, and the value it delivers to customers. Lead the quality efforts across multiple interfaces with a proactive and assertive approach, serving as the key point of contact for all quality-related matters. Define, implement, and manage QA processes, promoting a quality-driven culture and managing the quality backlog. Define the overall testing strategy and tooling stack across integration, regression, and load/performance testing. Drive an automation-first approach - collaborating with developers to ensure code is testable and observable. Lead root-cause analysis for escaped bugs and define improvement actions. Own CI quality metrics and dashboards (e.g., build stability, test flakiness, regression coverage). Influence decisions regarding test environments, mocks, test data, and production parity. Collaborate with the centralized quality group to ensure E2E test coverage. Quality Point of Contact: Serve as the primary point of contact for quality-related matters concerning the unit or the cross-group feature. Qualifications · 5+ years of experience in QA roles, including hands-on automation experience. · Experience building QA practices for cloud-native, distributed systems. · Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines. · Familiarity with AWS services (e.g., API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB, CloudWatch). · Knowledge of observability and monitoring tools (Datadog - Advantage). · Experience in building automated testing gates in CI/CD-based products. · Experience in testing and working with full-stack SaaS products. · Strong communication and interpersonal skills to work with multiple integrations and external stakeholders and to influence and drive change. · Proactive by nature; internal drive for excellence and improvement. · Ability to mentor and develop team members, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. · Background or experience in software development or security testing - Advantage. · Knowledge of security principles (e.g., access control, secrets exposure, identity testing) - Advantage. · Experience in performance and scale tests – Advantage. Our Commitment We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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 accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com. 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? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.