Sr Dir, Technical Solutions

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.

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish – but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. 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.

We’re changing the nature of work. Palo Alto Networks is evolving to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we work. From benefits to learning, location to leadership, we’ve rethought and recreated every aspect of the employee experience at Palo Alto Networks.  And because it FLEXes around each individual employee based on their individual choices, employees are empowered to push boundaries and help us all evolve, together. 

The Senior Director, Technical Solutions is the evolution of the traditional Systems Engineering Director Role, aligning how we lead teams to best serve our customers in understanding their environment, providing solution guidance and ensuring value realization in their investment with Palo Alto Networks.  As the Senior Director, Technical Solutions, North you will have the responsibility to oversee Technical Selling operations and achieve revenue generation, individual, team, and organizational quotas.

You will also play a key role in driving strategic, enterprise-wide sales related initiatives within our lines of business.  You will interact at a senior level with customers and partners and provide valuable insight into industry trends, customer challenges, technical evolutions, and business changes that will help the customer make their security decisions. This job is for you if you already have a reputation with the customers and partners in the region as a trusted advisor who will always take care of their needs.  You will lead the Technical Solutions team within the region, including a team of Managers throughout the region across multiple countries.

You are an experienced manager of managers, with a demonstrable background as a dedicated Technology Executive with broad technology and business background, able to demonstrate consistent success in utilizing innovation to achieve revenue and sales growth. Just like the rest of the Technical Solutions team, this is a position that will require a business savvy individual with a strong background in security platform, application architecture, and sales coupled with a successful track record in leadership.

You should also possess a strong reputation for achieving company goals and relationship development with key customer contacts and be an excellent presenter, ranging from tech level up to senior executives.

Job Description

• Work with your Area Sales VP to develop a technical strategy that accelerates growth of pipeline and sales. Identify key verticals, markets, use cases, and solutions to focus on, and devise a comprehensive strategy and engagement model tailored to the Region.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with Palo Alto Networks’ partners (reseller, distribution, system integrators, and alliances) through the design, drive and measure of various initiatives (training, evaluation installations, to improve sales productivity through partners, also with focus on ensuring partners drive products in new technology areas
• Demonstrated people leadership skills – including leading through change, coaching managers,  demonstrated development plans and execution, reduced attrition results and initiatives, a clear history of promotions and success, etc.  Experience of leading teams across multiple countries and cultural nuances.
• Foster channel partner relationships with partner and customer technical leaders
• Drive portfolio sales into the region’s account base and not just single products including selling strategic emerging solutions within a broader portfolio and leading portfolio expansion initiatives, with factual results upselling subscriptions and strategic solutions including cloud delivered services and public cloud security solutions
• Plan and architect compelling technical and business-focused solutions which drive adoption and growth after the initial sale and across the portfolio
• Understand and articulate the key technical, operational, and commercial challenges faced by our prospects and customers that the Palo Alto Networks solution addresses
• Build and maintain relationships with key customers in the territory to solidify reference accounts and to assist the account teams with defining plans to drive more business
• Provide account support through assignments, load balancing, continuity, planning strategically with Sales management, Sales Reps and Technical Solutions, and customer meetings including sales calls, relationship building and problem resolution
• Partner effectively in a matrix manner with extended teams, such as GCS, Finance, HR, Product Management, Marketing, and other relevant organizations
• Act as a skip-level critical issue point for serious and complex pre-sales and post sales technical issues that arise in the region
• Recruit and hire new Technical Solutions Managers into the Region balancing internal hiring and external hiring by building out succession plans.
• Coach, support and develop improved standard methodologies for the Managers in the execution of their duties and responsibilities, including hiring, training and mentoring of new employees on the team;
• Assist with Defining periodic SCE training curriculum, run successful evaluations and timely return of evaluation equipment

Qualifications

Your Experience

• Experience as a Senior pre-sales leader across multiple countries including UK, Nordics and Benelux
• Experience in leading a transformation to a platform sell including enabling teams on solution selling
• Industry knowledge of security product market trends and directional awareness of our roadmap and technology development efforts, knowledge of competitor offerings and products 
• Knowledge of how to deliver comprehensive security solutions to Palo Alto Networks customer base
• Experience in long term sales plans in order to grow large deals with long term customer relationships.  
• Experience in selling, designing, implementing or managing one or more of the following solutions: Network Security, SASE, SaaS, CNAPP and/or SOC Transformation Technologies
•  Able to build a high trust culture, where you can address performance issues and reward great performance.
• Partnering with Customer Support functions to ensure successful implementation and adoption of sold solutions
• Strong communication (written and verbal) and presentation skills
• Quota driven attitude focused on client's best solution by being a trusted advisor 
• Proficient in English. Speaking another language relevant to the Area comes as a strong plus.

Additional Information

The Team

Our Technical Solutions 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. 

You are empowered with unmatched systems and tools and a team built on joint success. You won’t find someone at Palo Alto Networks that isn’t committed to your success – with everyone pitching in to assist when it comes to solutions selling, learning, and development. Our Solutions Consulting community is driven by the mission to be our customers’ cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting their digital way of life. 

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.

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.

• 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.