Principal Solution Architect, Cortex

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 improving the productivity of our sales teams through the creation and delivery of business-relevant security conversations to our key prospects and customers.  As a thought leader, you will address CyberSecurity related issues by leveraging the full Palo Alto Networks portfolio in a way that creates differentiated business value. As a trusted advisor, you will 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.        

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

• Compelling communication to gain 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 position a Palo Alto Networks approach successfully

• 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

• Uncovering and documenting technological/business value gaps between the Palo Alto Networks Cortex 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

• Playing a role on the EBC team in creating customer messaging that ties the Cortex Portfolio together with the entire Palo Alto Networks Portfolio

• The role will require close coordination with the Senior Leadership, Sales, Palo Alto Networks’ CISO and Theater CISO’s, Sales Engineering leadership, Product Management, Marketing, Channel Partners, and the Consulting Engineering team. This is a senior technical customer-facing role, and the value produced must be evident and recurrent. Customers and Sales Teams will ask for you by name.

Your Impact

• In this director-level role, you will lead and direct cross-functional teams within Palo Alto Networks to ensure the highest quality of product and service delivery focused on customer business outcomes

• As a thought leader, you will address customers and prospects security operations challenges and work with them to develop a successful strategy for their organization to implement Palo Alto Networks Cortex technologies in a way that creates differentiated business value

• Engage and establish an advisory relationship with key Manager, Director, VP, and CXO contacts at strategic customers to transform their security strategy

• Engage directly with senior technical and business leaders at key prospects and customers as a security expert to penetrate whitespace accounts and expand Cortex 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 Cortex

• 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 (security, data center, public cloud, networking, endpoint, etc.)

• As a trusted advisor, you will 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

• 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

• Develop and maintain ongoing executive-level relationships with our largest XSIAM Customers to drive continued platform satisfaction and adoption

• Delivery of targeted CXO-level Threat and Risk Management Briefings by leveraging U42 research and Xpanse ASM Mappings

• Developing and maintaining an executive-level point of view on Cybersecurity trends with a  deep understanding of security operations and the ability to successfully position a Palo Alto Networks approach

Your Experience 

• Self-motivated and "Whatever it takes" attitude and motivation to do whatever is necessary to close deals

• Extensive knowledge of security operations, SIEM, attack surface management, network and endpoint security architectures, history, and trends

• Experience with SIEM, Log Management, XDR/EDR, and security investigation tools commonly used by large customers to run their security programs

• Knowledge of ancillary security areas such as identity management, public and private cloud architectures

• Demonstrable experience in establishing credibility and strategic messaging with large enterprise customers

• BSCS or equivalent or equivalent military experience required and 10+ years of experience as an end customer and/or as a vendor

• Expect to travel a minimum of 50%+ of the weeks in the fiscal year - This is a global role and will require travel both in theater and internationally - Travel will include 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

Preferences

• Experience working with channel partners and understanding a channel-centric go-to-market approach

• Experience working with companies in the enterprise security space

• End customer background to validate your perspective with customers

The Team

The Worldwide Shared Services team is dedicated to empowering Palo Alto Networks’ go-to-market teams through innovative solutions and strategic guidance to drive superior outcomes. We strive to equip our teams with the expertise and resources needed to make a meaningful and lasting impact with the customers we serve while achieving sales excellence. We are committed to fostering an environment where our team members can thrive, creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing to drive collective growth and success.

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.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.

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.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.