Sales Director - Software Firewall Technologies jobs at Palo Alto in United Kingdom, London

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Career

You will be part of an exciting, high-growth business unit within Palo Alto Networks and position the industry's most comprehensive SASE platform.You will be at the forefront of securing the modern hybrid workforce, representing a solution that offers the broadest security and compliance coverage for all applications, wherever users work - in the office, at home, or on the go.

Your Impact

• Win new logos, renew existing customers, and expand business within your territory
• Track and report on all opportunities, pipeline, and bookings to provide forecast reports to regional management
• Build strong relationships with local resellers and alliance partners to execute joint sales programs and activities
• Develop, share and implement standard methodologies and account strategies to increase our sales penetration of Enterprise Browser into our top accounts
• Engage with customers to identify opportunities and provide subject matter expertise on Enterprise Browser solutions
• Qualify, manage, and close leads and opportunities throughout the full sales cycle
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of Enterprise Browser and other browser technologies, including competitive positioning
• Conduct consistent training and communications for the sales and channel teams, and foster joint engagement within the wider organization
• Contribute to the broader Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE strategy by providing region-specific insights and reporting
• Apply subject matter expertise in training sessions, QBRs, enablement initiatives, and other engagement activities
• Collect and share “Voice of Customer” feedback and competitive intelligence with the regional and global Prisma SASE organization
• Champion Palo Alto Networks' position as the number one enterprise SASE security company
• Travel as necessary within your territory, and for company-wide meetings

Your Experience

• Proven track record of exceeding sales quotas in an Account Manager role within a multinational organization
• Technical aptitude for understanding how technology products and solutions solve business problems
• Prior experience selling SaaS security, network security, or cybersecurity solutions
• Skilled in sales excellence: ability to demonstrate planning, strategy, qualification and execution
• Established network of relationships across the region, including key enterprise accounts and reseller partners
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and verbally
• Experience with target account selling, solution selling, and consultative sales techniques

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

*This role can be based in London / Munich / Paris or Madrid

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

We are looking for a proven first-line sales leader with great energy, leadership, and initiative to drive team performance and revenue growth for our sales team. This role will entail:

• Develop and execute targeted sales and go-to-market (GTM) strategies focused on pipeline generation, technically winning, and closing new customers for Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Software Firewall solutions (VM Series, Cloud Firewall, and AIRS solutions)

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including your extended sales teams, GTM, product, marketing, and channel to align Sales Plays to targeted customers in your sales territory within the EMEA region.

• Execute Next Generation/Software Firewall sales plays to build software firewall pipeline in your region in collaboration with your extended sales teams.

• Collaborate with your extended Palo Alto Networks sales teams to identify, conduct discovery, and qualify new Software Firewall opportunities with customers.

• Work with the technical solutions team to technically validate and win Software Firewall opportunities with customers.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to strategic customers and partners, driving consultative sales cycles from initial engagement to close as needed

• Identify and understand customer requirements and articulate the value proposition of Palo Alto Networks’ AI security and Software and Cloud Firewall offerings and use cases to meet those requirements.

• Evangelize the importance and value of securing AI across industry events, executive briefings, and thought leadership opportunities

• Track and report performance metrics, pipeline health, and market insights to support forecasting and strategy refinement in your area.

• Build close partnerships with the sales team and cloud service providers in the Region to identify new opportunities and close business.

Your Experience

• 8+ years of experience in a sales or sales specialist role in the cybersecurity, cloud, or AI space and 2 years of sales management experience preferred

• Understanding of AI technologies, including generative AI tools, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs)

• Strong grasp of firewall fundamentals, including the ability to discuss how modern software firewalls help customers secure traffic in the cloud, prevent advanced threats from spreading across their network, gain visibility and control over applications, and enable a secure hybrid workforce.

• Deep understanding of cybersecurity fundamentals, including data security, network security, and cloud security

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex sales engagements

• Extensive experience cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP

• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders

• Self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with minimal direction

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, engineering, or a related field; advanced degrees a plus

• Experience selling to CISOs, CIOs, and data science/security teams

• Experience working in a high-growth or scale-up environment

• Background in working with or through VARs, cloud marketplaces, or CSP partnerships

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

• Partner with data scientists / ML engineers to operationalize machine learning models, integrating them into scalable production systems
• Implement automated ML pipelines and optimized performance across data ingestion, model serving, and inference workflows
• Execute on the software development strategy to improve our dynamic highly distributed system
• Understand and implement software development/engineering lifecycle concepts to drive features from conception to delivery
• Collaborate closely with the product management, architects and devops to achieve quality releases
• Work hand-in-hand with customer support, documentation and downstream teams to enable customer success
• Make appropriate trade-offs to optimize time-to-release while maintaining performance and scalability requirements
• Be able to clearly communicate goals and desired outcomes to internal project teams
• Interview, mentor and coach new team members

Principal Software Engineers are:

• Hands-on engineers who can code and build great products
• Technical experts who help accelerate adoption of the very best engineering practices, while maintaining knowledge on industry innovations, trends and practices
• Experts who deliver on critical business needs and are recognized across the company as go-to engineering resources on given domains
• Engineers who willingly work with others towards common goals, understands the responsibilities, activities, and ways to foster relationships
• Role models and mentors who exemplify the best of Palo Alto Networks culture
• Leaders who can communicate cogently with hands-on engineers
• Members of the team who deeply understands customers' needs by doing the research to develop insight into their needs and desires
• Engineers who have the ability to make complex ideas simple; consistent focus on usability and scalability

Your Experience

• BS/MS in Computer Science/Engineering with 10+ years or equivalent experience or equivalent military experience required
• Solid experience of backend development using Java, Spring Boot, J2EE, and cloud-native platforms like GCP or AWS, Kubernetes and Docker
• ​​Strong experience and knowledge with micro services, distributed systems, and performance optimization
• Proven track record of successful architecture and design for high transactions and data volume in enterprise and/or consumer facing applications
• Experience with Agile development process and embrace Agile methodologies
• Strong believer of automation test and strive for higher code coverage
• Can-do attitude on problem-solving, quality and ability to execute

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in building Cloud Security products
• Experience building products with ML/AI techniques will be a big plus
• Experience to develop APIs (REST) based project using and experience with JSON
• Experience in NoSQL DB (Mongo, Cassandra) and RelationDB
• Experience in ElasticSearch, Redis and Kafka
• Experience in modern containerization (& cloud) technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience in mentoring junior team members in a high-performing teams
• Experience in AWS/GCP/Azure cloud
• Big plus if you have CASB or general SaaS application experience
• Big plus if you have experience with data security domain

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 $0 - $0/YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found .

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

• Join the fastest-growing team where experience meets cutting-edge solutions
• Build and cultivate strong customer relationships, driving business growth within the region
• Partner with the core sales team to align customer strategies and engagements with Cortex and Cloud business objectives
• Take full ownership of leading strategic sales campaigns and forecasting, utilizing in-depth knowledge of sales cycles from initial contact through procurement
• Engage in deep technical discussions beyond standard sales presentations and pitches while translating complex technical cybersecurity solutions into clear business value propositions for customers
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including sales engineers, to provide tailored customer-centric solutions
• Partner with Alliances to develop joint strategies, enhance customer engagement, and deliver innovative solutions for existing and prospective clients
• Travel domestically as needed to meet with customers and attend key business events

Your Experience

• 5+ years of field sales experience focusing on key customer accounts and delivering value to strategic accounts in the cybersecurity industry
• Extensive platform selling experience in complex sales with multiple buying centers
• Experience selling SIEM, EDR, or CNAPP (DevSecOps, CloudOps) solutions is highly preferred
• Established trusted relationships with CIOs and CISOs with the ability to influence and drive strategic conversations
• Expertise in applying complex solution sales methodologies to drive results
• Experience working with channel partners and a deep understanding of a channel-centric go-to-market strategy
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth startup environment while collaborating effectively with sales engineers and cross-functional teams
• Experience operating in a continuous adoption, expansion, and upsell sales motion within a matrixed sales organization is preferred
• Willingness to travel domestically as necessary to meet business needs

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Team Leadership & Development:

• Manage and mentor a team of Service Delivery Leaders and Customer Success Managers
• Foster team cohesiveness, focusing on employee morale and development initiatives to promote internal retention
• Set team goals aligned with overall organizational objectives, and provide regular performance feedback to direct reports
• Build a growth mindset-oriented culture that promotes diversity, continuous improvement, a sense of urgency, and customer outcomes
• Inspire and attract top talent to your team

Account Health Management & Customer Outcomes:

• Lead the Account Health Team to drive customer engagement and excellence for top-tier customers in the region
• Act as a single accountable post-sales leader for customer outcomes, partner execution, and day-to-day post-sales execution and operations in your geography
• Accountable for executive engagement, account health, and risk mitigation
• Oversee customer planning, deployment, account-level reviews, and escalations
• Maintain executive relationships and act as an escalation point to ensure stakeholder alignment and provide proactive, prescriptive advice for outstanding Customer Success
• Handle all escalations, executive engagement, and at-risk account interventions
• Drive success metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to effectively manage Customer Account Health Managers and their teams
• Track and report on customer success metrics, including net promoter score, customer satisfaction, service level agreements, and value realization

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Business Leadership:

• Lead the communication channel into the business, manage business change, and drive process improvements
• Partner with Sales teams to develop success plans, assess customer health, identify expansion opportunities, and ensure renewals
• Engage with Professional Services for implementations and extended expertise deployments
• Partner with Sales and Product field leaders to drive adoption and retention
• Engage and coordinate customer delivery across Palo Alto Networks teams, including Product Management, Engineering, and Support
• Build strong cross-functional interlocks and operating cadences with Sales, Product, and Technical Consulting teams in your area
• Ensure consistent application of global playbooks per product
• Provide field feedback and interlock with Product/Engineering
• Align with Support, which is globally owned but locally deployed

Your Experience

• 10+ years of professional experience in a high-growth SaaS/Cloud Enterprise Organization or similar, including at least 5+ years in a leadership capacity
• Demonstrated experience leading global direct/indirect teams of 10+ in customer success, professional services, and/or support organizations
• Proven track record of managing quantified metrics and execution programs to deliver exceptional results and customer satisfaction
• Extensive customer-facing experience in senior roles, including the ability to effectively communicate and influence C-level executives and various levels of technical and non-technical depth within client teams
• Expertise in managing customer escalations, balancing customer expectations, and negotiating successful resolutions
• Experience leading teams to deliver large technology programs to strategic customers, with expertise in 2+ of the following areas: Network Security, Cloud Security, Product Development, Security Operations, or DevSecOps
• Proven ability to work effectively in a highly matrixed and fast-growing organization, building strong working relationships across multiple functions and mediating conflict
• A strategic mindset with P&L/Run the Business experience, capable of scaling operations, and strong operational, analytical, and problem-solving skills with a track record of driving transformational improvements
• Thought leadership and the ability to anticipate and quickly adapt to changing customer and company needs
• Proven ability to develop customer relationships, understand their businesses, and develop a shared vision for accelerating their business success
• STEM Bachelor’s Degree required or equivalent experience; Master’s degree preferred
• Client-focused program management expertise preferred
• Skilled in customer success software (e.g., Gainsight, Salesforce, Smartsheet, Clarizen, Jira) preferred
• Travel: Open to occasional travel according to the need for strategic customer engagement and on-sites, with a potential for up to 30% travel
• Fluent English. Any additional European language will be a plus

You’ll be involved in implementing new products, transitioning from old products to new, and will fix integrations and critical issues as they are raised – in fact, you’ll seek them out to ensure our clients are safely supported. We fix and identify technical problems, with a pointed focus on providing the best customer support in the industry.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

• Develop and execute targeted sales and go-to-market (GTM) strategies focused on pipeline generation, technically winning, and closing new customers for Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Software Firewall solutions (VM Series, Cloud Firewall, and AIRS solutions)

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including your extended sales teams, GTM, product, marketing, and channel to align Sales Plays to targeted customers in your sales territory within the EMEA region.

• Execute Next Generation/Software Firewall sales plays to build software firewall pipeline in your region in collaboration with your extended sales teams.

• Collaborate with your extended Palo Alto Networks sales teams to identify, conduct discovery, and qualify new Software Firewall opportunities with customers.

• Work with the technical solutions team to technically validate and win Software Firewall opportunities with customers.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to strategic customers and partners, driving consultative sales cycles from initial engagement to close as needed

• Identify and understand customer requirements and articulate the value proposition of Palo Alto Networks’ AI security and Software and Cloud Firewall offerings and use cases to meet those requirements.

• Evangelize the importance and value of securing AI across industry events, executive briefings, and thought leadership opportunities

• Track and report performance metrics, pipeline health, and market insights to support forecasting and strategy refinement in your area.

• Build close partnerships with the sales team and cloud service providers in the Region to identify new opportunities and close business.

Your Experience

• 8+ years of experience in a sales or sales specialist role in the cybersecurity, cloud, or AI space

• Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets and driving net-new revenue growth

• Understanding of AI technologies, including generative AI tools, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs)

• Strong grasp of firewall fundamentals, including the ability to discuss how modern software firewalls help customers secure traffic in the cloud, prevent advanced threats from spreading across their network, gain visibility and control over applications, and enable a secure hybrid workforce.

• Deep understanding of cybersecurity fundamentals, including data security, network security, and cloud security

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex sales engagements

• Extensive experience cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP

• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders

• Self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with minimal direction

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, engineering, or a related field; advanced degrees a plus

• Experience selling to CISOs, CIOs, and data science/security teams

• Experience working in a high-growth or scale-up environment

• Background in working with or through VARs, cloud marketplaces, or CSP partnerships
  

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Impact

• Join the fastest-growing team where experience meets cutting-edge solutions
• Build and cultivate strong customer relationships, driving business growth within the region
• Partner with the core sales team to align customer strategies and engagements with Cortex and Cloud business objectives
• Take full ownership of leading strategic sales campaigns and forecasting, utilizing in-depth knowledge of sales cycles from initial contact through procurement
• Engage in deep technical discussions beyond standard sales presentations and pitches while translating complex technical cybersecurity solutions into clear business value propositions for customers
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including sales engineers, to provide tailored customer-centric solutions
• Partner with Alliances to develop joint strategies, enhance customer engagement, and deliver innovative solutions for existing and prospective clients
• Travel domestically as needed to meet with customers and attend key business events

Your Experience

• 5+ years of field sales experience focusing on key customer accounts and delivering value to Enterprise or Major-level accounts in the cybersecurity industry
• Extensive platform selling experience in complex sales with multiple buying centers.
• Experience selling SIEM, EDR, or CNAPP (DevSecOps, CloudOps) solutions is highly preferred.
• Established trusted relationships with CIOs and CISOs with the ability to influence and drive strategic conversations
• Expertise in applying complex solution sales methodologies to drive results
• Experience working with channel partners and a deep understanding of a channel-centric go-to-market strategy
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth startup environment while collaborating effectively with sales engineers and cross-functional teams
• Experience operating in a continuous adoption, expansion, and upsell sales motion within a matrixed sales organization is preferred
• Willingness to travel domestically as necessary to meet business needs

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.