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Kaelan, Technical Solutions Manager

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Monday, December 1, 2025

From LEAP to Leadership: Six Years with Palo Alto Networks

We sat down with Kaelan, a Technical Solutions Manager at Palo Alto Networks, to talk about how the LEAP program launched his career, how he stays on the cutting edge of AI, and what he’s doing now to help mentor the next generation of talent.

You joined Palo Alto Networks through the LEAP program. How did that experience kickstart your career?

The LEAP program provided an instant peer network and support structure as I joined the company. That foundation made it easy to ask questions, accelerate my product knowledge, and collaborate with a huge group of people. One of my earliest significant impacts with a customer was with a major Southern California university. Their existing firewalls couldn’t scale to meet their rapid growth, which posed a real security risk. I didn’t just propose a refresh; I helped them strategically roadmap the integration of our platforms to not only solve their immediate capacity issue but also future-proof their security posture and align with their longer-term digital innovation plans.

How has Palo Alto Networks encouraged and supported your development of new skills, particularly with the rapid evolution of AI?

My career at Palo Alto Networks has been a constant development and exploration. Starting as a BDR here, moving across product lines to Cortex, and then successfully navigating the SE Academy to become an SE—each step was a deliberate, company-supported evolution.

With the rapid evolution of AI in cybersecurity, the company has been phenomenal in providing immediate access and training. It’s allowing me to quickly integrate and speak fluently about how our solutions are leveraging AI in our day-to-day to provide security and make our operations faster. This enablement has been key to having deeper, more strategic conversations with customers and peers, ensuring we’re constantly on the leading edge of innovation.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about? 

What excites me most is the opportunity to pay it forward by mentoring the next generation of talent. In my current role, I’m focused on developing and training our newer LEAP/ASE members, specifically on how to effectively transition from learning technical knowledge to becoming trusted customer advisors. The foundational support I received in LEAP continues to be leveraged every day. I still maintain those tight connections with my original LEAP cohort, often inviting them as guest speakers to share their diverse experiences and further strengthen the institutional knowledge within the newer ASE classes.

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