Principal Architect, Public Sector (SLED)

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!

Your Career

As a Principal Solutions Architect at Palo Alto Networks, you are responsible for the technical strategy throughout the life of our most strategic partnerships in the US SLED (State, Local, and Education) customer segment. You function as a technical advisor and advocate, thought leader, and executive partner to our prospects, customers, and sales teams.

As a Principal Solutions Architect, you pick up where our executive relationships from our CEO, CPO and CRO leave off and balance business and technical acumen to function as the executive partner for technical strategy and execution.

As the technical strategy owner you are responsible for aligning our solutions to customer problems, priorities, environment, challenges, politics, and architecture. You provide guidance on how to architect Palo Alto Networks solutions into customer environments and articulate the Palo Alto Networks' point of view for solving complex security challenges as the benchmark for success. 

As a technical advisor and advocate, you put yourself in the seat of the customer to see the world through their eyes then apply your expertise and creativity to help them realize value through our solutions. You align all technical resources to execute the needed strategy and serve as the executive partner to sales leadership. You provide valuable insights and education on effective risk reduction, compliance, governance, and cost reduction through a prevention first security approach based on the Palo Alto Networks security platform.  

As a thought leader you challenge the status quo and use your subject matter expertise and creativity to think outside the box to architect elegant, effective, and simple solutions to complex problems. You address IT-related issues by leveraging the full Palo Alto Networks portfolio in a way that creates differentiated business value. 

As an executive partner you are responsible for improving the productivity of our sales teams through the creation and delivery of business-relevant security conversations for and our key prospects and customers. You also build trust with our champions and decision makers to influence their buying criteria and work alongside our account teams to uplevel our selling approach and execution. 

The Principal Solutions Architect’s value is measured in their ability to increase sales productivity by:

• Leading and driving national technical programs focused on the SLED (State, Local, and Education) customer segment and designing technical strategies and initiatives that specifically address public sector needs in cybersecurity
• Playing a key role within the Sales, GTM and Product teams to create customer messaging that ties together the entire Palo Alto Networks Portfolio
• Gaining the trust and buy-in from Vice President and CXO contacts at our largest customers and prospects
• Setting and driving an agenda with the customer or prospect, both directly and with sales teams, and within the market through various engagements, including client workshops and architectural assessments and designs
• Developing and maintaining a deep understanding of competing solutions and architectures and being able to successfully position a Palo Alto Networks approach
• Uncovering new technology applications and use cases and aiding in creating presentations, documents, and deliverables that will illustrate value to prospects and customers and the Palo Alto Networks sales teams
• Documenting technological/business value gaps between the Palo Alto Networks platform and competitive offerings and communicating these to the broader Palo Alto Networks Sales organization
• Becoming a valued resource to Product Management to discover and understand current shortcomings and competitive insights in our product suite and requirements for future strategic market segments

Your Impact

• Engage and establish an advisory relationship with key Manager, Director, VP, and CXO contacts at strategic SLED (State, Local, and Education) customers to transform their security strategy
• Utilize your expertise in cybersecurity and SLED (State, Local, and Education) customer environments to design and implement secure, scalable solutions that address the unique challenges of the public sector and enhance client resilience
• Educate prospects and customers on how network security is evolving, accelerated by a hybrid workforce and cloud and SaaS application adoption, and work with them to develop a successful strategy for their organization to implement a Palo Alto Networks solution
• Engage directly with senior technical and business leaders at key prospects and customers as a security expert to penetrate whitespace accounts and expand Palo Alto Networks’ install base through the Identification, qualification, and closure of opportunities
• Work with the sales teams on strategic opportunities for the development and delivery of differentiated proposals which clearly demonstrate the business and technical value of the Palo Alto Networks
• Provide summarized and business-relevant feedback into content, Product Management, Product Marketing, Competitive Marketing, and Field Marketing based on customer engagements to improve Palo Alto Networks effectiveness in communicating its value proposition to prospects and clients
• Engage in continuous self-improvement and learning to maintain technical leadership of relevant technologies (Network Security, Code to Cloud & AI-driven Security Operations)
• Work closely with the Area Leaders, Field Strategists and Business Value resources to ensure that you maintain a coordinated market approach

Your Experience 

• Self-motivated
• "Whatever it takes" attitude and motivation to do whatever is necessary to close deals
• Extensive knowledge of network, cloud, and endpoint security architectures, history, and trends
• Experience developing complex multi-product architectures and communicating both technical and business value
• Demonstrable experience in establishing credibility and strategic messaging with large SLED (State, Local, and Education) accounts
• BSCS or equivalent experience or equivalent military experience required and 10+ years of experience as an end customer and/or as a vendor
• Solid fundamental networking background
• Expect to travel 50-75% of the weeks in the fiscal year - This is a national (US) role and will require travel that includes customer and Palo Alto Networks location onsite meetings
• Strong communication (written and verbal) and presentation skills, both internally and externally
• Robust problem-finding and solving skills, ability to analyze complex multivariate problems, and systematic approach to gain quick resolution, even under duress
• Super organizational skills

The Team

Our Public Sector GTM team members work hand in hand with large organizations and agencies around the world to keep their digital environments protected. We address complex operations with simple solutions and are dedicated to ensuring that the mission, people and technology of the Public Sector fit together, securely.

As part of our Public Sector GTM team, you are empowered with unmatched systems and tools, constantly updated research and sales libraries, and a team built on joint success. You won't find someone at Palo Alto Networks who isn't committed to your success-everyone pitches in to assist when it comes to solutions selling, learning, and development. As a member of our Sales team, you are motivated by a solutions-focused sales environment and find fulfillment in working with clients to resolve incredibly complex cyber threats.

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 to be between $239000 - $278750YR. 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.