Technical Principal

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

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

The Technical Principal is a senior technical leader in the JAPAC theatre and will be a member of the Palo Alto Networks Global Customer Service (GCS) Leadership Team in JAPAC responsible for leading a team of Technical Architects and liaising and providing technical leadership to GCS teams across JAPAC. This role is closely aligned with GCS Global Technical leaders and Product leaders and will bring technical expertise and consistency into the GCS JAPAC organisation.

This high visibility, high impact role is responsible for ensuring strong connection with global GCS technical leaders and team, Product teams, GCS and Technical Consulting teams across JAPAC to deliver exceptional customer outcomes. This role will act as a ‘technical entrepreneur’ to create cross functional communities of practice, becoming a technical spokesperson for PANW and feeding customer feedback into the NPI process.

This position will report directly to the VP GCS in JAPAC with a dotted line into Global Technical Leaders in GCS.

Your Impact

Lead a team of technical architects to ensure exceptional customer outcomes during deployment, adoption and the resolution of any post-sale issues or escalations
Manage and report on product level metrics across JAPAC, collaborating with broader GCS leadership in JAPAC to deliver seamless deployments, adoption and customer satisfaction
Support the broader GCS organisation in JAPAC by creating cross-functional communities of practice bringing together GCS, Technical Consulting, Product and sales teams
Align closely with Product leaders in the designated Product areas and create relationships to ensure seamless communication and alignment around product innovation and release cycles
Manage and support enablement, training and continuous learning for all GCS resources within the designated Product area
Manage the effective resourcing and execution of technical advice and guidance to customers, aligning with other GCS leaders to achieve seamless delivery of customer outcomes
Provide customer insights back up to Product and GCS global organisations to build knowledge and help prioritise customer requirements, Feature Requests and areas of innovation
Collaborate with GCS Area leadership and sales leadership and proactively interface with CIO/CISO level customer leadership to gain insight and feedback on how to provide the best post sales experience when necessary in critical customer situations
Actively participate as a core leader of the GCS JAPAC leadership team bringing product specific opportunities and challenges to the leadership team with data to enable effective and efficient execution
Actively participate as a core leader of the GCS global Technical Services organisation to bring Theatre level insights up for discussion and resolution, using data to inform detailed, quantified perspectives
Build a strong cross functional interlock and operating cadence with Sales, Product and Technical Consulting teams in Area to improve product supportability and proactive support capabilities
Develop a high performance team of GCS staff creating a cohesive community of practice in the designated product area both within JAPAC and globally
Develop thought leadership and act as a technical spokesperson for PANW supporting customer events and creating profile
Bring customer insights into the NPI process for continual innovation
Support customer-product org initiatives including Customer Advisory Boards
Build a growth mindset oriented culture that promotes diversity, continuous improvement, a sense of urgency and customer outcomes
Lead the operating cadence of the business - Co-own (with GCS Area leaders) visibility and achievement of Product level operational metrics that are impactful to the customer experience and operating productivity and drive the right priorities and goal settings that deliver measurable improvements
Create strong connections with Product leaders to ensure alignment and create closed loop communications and feedback directly from the field

What You Bring

Technical thought leadership and the ability to anticipate and quickly adapt to changing product, customer and company needs
Passion for creating diverse teams and a customer obsessed, outcomes focused culture. Ability to inspire, attract and develop the best talent
Ability to create a strategy and align resources to execute and drive continuous improvement in alignment with other teams and organisations
Executive presence - The ability to effectively communicate and influence at senior levels with customers and within the organization
Advanced communication skills to break down complex technical challenges and communicate effectively to technical and non-technical audiences

Qualifications

Your Experience

10+ years’ experience in a high growth SaaS/Cloud Enterprise Organization, or similar experience - Including at least 5+ years in a leadership capacity
Experience working across JAPAC with multiple cultures and languages and leading virtual teams
Demonstrated experience leading direct/indirect teams of 5+ in technical, product, professional services and/or Support organisations
Experience managing quantified metrics and execution programs to deliver exceptional results and customers satisfaction
Customer facing experience in senior roles
Travel requirement up to 30% within JAPAC and HQ
Experience building and growing teams with both direct and indirect reporting lines
History of building trusting relationships with regional and Area-level PS delivery teams, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and service delivery Partners
STEM Bachelor’s Degree required or equivalent experience or equivalent military experience required - Master’s degree preferred

Additional Information

The Team

Our GCS team is critical to our success and mission. As part of this team, you will lead and enable GCS by providing support to customers after they have purchased our products. Our dedication to our customers doesn’t stop once they sign – it evolves. As threats and technology change, we stay in step to accomplish our mission.

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 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.