Palo Alto Sr Manager Global Certifications Federal 

United States, California 

919364784

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

Your Career

As the Sr. Manager, Global Certifications (Federal), you will play a pivotal role in opening and maintaining critical public sector markets for our world-class products. Government certifications (FedRAMP, DoD IL, etc.) are high-stakes, high-value assets that enable our technology to protect the nation's most sensitive data.

In this strategic leadership role, you will drive the government certification roadmap, lead a high-performing team of Certification Product Managers, and serve as the bridge between federal compliance requirements and our engineering innovation. You will drive a compliance strategy that serves as a competitive advantage.

Your Impact

• Strategic Leadership & Roadmap: define and execute a multi-year government certifications roadmap (FedRAMP, DoD IL5, etc.) with clear, measurable milestones that align with the company’s diverse product portfolio and sales goals.

• Team Management: Build, mentor, and maintain a high-performing team of Certification Product Managers; foster a culture of technical depth, operational efficiency, and proactive risk management.

• Execution & Process Maturity: Own the end-to-end certification lifecycle. Establish and mature key operational processes—including intake, audit management, artifact collection, and continuous monitoring—to improve team efficiency and scalability.

• Cross-Functional Influence: Guide Product and Engineering teams through complex certification requirements (NIST 800-53, architecture, crypto modules), translating government controls into actionable engineering specifications.

• Executive Stakeholder Management: Effectively present certification status, risks, and solution options to senior leadership. Resolve compliance roadblocks by negotiating risk acceptance with internal leadership and external stakeholders.

• External Relations: Serve as the primary point of contact for external auditors (3PAOs) and government accreditors (FedRAMP PMO, DISA). Deeply understand the government ecosystem to anticipate regulatory changes and their business impact.

• Technical Bridging: Possess the technical aptitude to understand complex cloud architectures (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and shared responsibility models, acting as a translator between highly technical security teams and business-focused Sales/GTM teams.

Your Experience

• Gov/Federal Expertise: 8+ years of total experience in Compliance/GRC, with at least 5+ years specifically leading government certification programs (FedRAMP, DoD SRG, Common Criteria, etc.).

• Framework Mastery: Deep, expert-level understanding of the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) and NIST SP 800-53; ability to map these controls to specific product features and modern cloud architectures.

• Leadership: Proven experience managing people and leading high-visibility projects; ability to coach team members on complex deliverables like System Security Plans (SSPs) and POA&M management.

• Technical Fluency: Strong familiarity with Cloud Service Provider (CSP) infrastructure models and modern application architectures (containers, microservices). Experience with GRC platforms used to automate evidence collection is a plus.

• Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. You must be able to explain "why" a control matters to an engineer and "how" a certification impacts revenue to a sales VP.

• Education & Certifications: BS degree in a technical or business field required (MS preferred). Industry certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CISA are highly desired.

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 $180,000 - $220,000/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.