Manager, SW 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.

• Bachelor's 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.

• Proven experience with test automation frameworks and CI/CD integration.
• 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.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.

• 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.

• 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.

• Ensure adequate test coverage for critical business workflows and system

dependencies.

• Lead test planning for complex projects involving multiple services, teams,

and technology stacks.

• Improve test environments, test data management, and test execution

processes.

• 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.

• Define integration test frameworks and approaches for distributed and

service-oriented architectures.

• 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.

• Drive the development and adoption of scalable test automation frameworks and

infrastructure.

• Establish automation strategies across UI, API, integration, regression, and

end-to-end testing.

• Increase automation coverage while improving test reliability, execution

speed, and maintainability.

• Reduce flaky tests and improve the signal-to-noise ratio of automated test

suites.

• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and engineering workflows.
• Evaluate and introduce modern testing tools, frameworks, and technologies

where they provide measurable value.

• Identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity through QE

tooling, automation, and intelligent test execution.

• Build or sponsor internal tools that reduce manual testing, accelerate

releases, and improve developer feedback loops.

• Improve test execution time through parallelization, selective testing, test

impact analysis, and other optimization techniques.

• Establish reusable testing libraries, frameworks, utilities, and best

practices across teams.

• 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.

• Recruit and retain strong QE talent and build an environment of ownership and

continuous improvement.

• Balance hands-on technical leadership with effective people and

organizational management.

• Foster strong collaboration between QE, Software Engineering, Product,

DevOps/SRE, and other technical teams.

• Analyze production defects, escaped issues, and testing gaps to identify

systemic improvements.

• 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.

• Deliver releases with greater quality, predictability, and confidence.
• Increase meaningful automated test coverage.
• Reduce regression testing time and manual testing effort.
• Improve system and integration test coverage.
• Reduce escaped defects and recurring production issues.
• Improve test reliability and reduce flaky automation.
• Accelerate developer feedback and release cycles through better QE tooling.
• Establish a culture where quality is a shared engineering responsibility.
• Build and develop a strong, technically capable QE organization.

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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here [https://benefits.paloaltonetworks.com/].

$175,400.00 - $283,800.00/yr

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.

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.

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.

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