Principal Architect - SASE/ZT

Company Description

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! 

Job Description

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. 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 prospect and customers 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:

• Play a key role on the EBC team in creating customer messaging that ties together the entire Palo Alto Networks Portfolio
• 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 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
• Uncovering and 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
• The role will require close coordination with the EBC Team, 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

• Engage and establish an advisory relationship with key Manager, Director, VP, and CXO contacts at strategic customers to transform their security strategy
• 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 (security, data center, public cloud, networking, endpoint, etc.)
• Work closely with the theater CISO, Architect and Business Value resources to ensure that you maintain a coordinated market approach

Qualifications

Your Experience

• Self-motivated
• "Whatever it takes" attitude and motivation to do whatever is necessary to close deals
• Extensive knowledge of network and endpoint security architectures, history, and trends
• Knowledge of ancillary security areas such as identity management, SIEM, public, and private cloud architectures
• Demonstrable experience in establishing credibility and strategic messaging with large enterprise customers
• 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 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

Additional Information

The Team

Our GTM team members work hand in hand with large organizations around the world to keep their digital environments protected. We educate, inspire, and empower our potential clients in their journey to security.

As part of our 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.

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.

Covid-19 Vaccination Information for Palo Alto Networks Jobs

• Vaccine requirements and disclosure obligations vary by country.
• Unless applicable law requires otherwise, you must be vaccinated for COVID or qualify for a reasonable accommodation if:
  • The job requires accessing a company worksite
  • The job requires in-person customer contact and the customer has implemented such requirements
  • You choose to access a Palo Alto Networks worksite
• If you have questions about the vaccine requirements of this particular position based on your location or job requirements, please inquire with the recruiter.