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Job Details

Revolutionizing protection.

Define what’s next in cybersecurity.

Director, Business Operations

Santa Clara, California, United States Sales Full-time Ref ID: JR-012818
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Current Employees, apply here

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 believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Your Career

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Director of Business Operations to drive our Go-to-Market (GtM) analytics efforts, develop insights to assess business performance, and lead initiatives to identify new sources of growth and areas for greater efficiency. You’ll work closely with Senior Sales and GtM Business Operations leaders as well as cross-functional teams spanning Marketing, Finance, Strategy, Operations, Product and IT to develop shared goals, and provide the planning and analytical support necessary to make those goals a reality.

This is a highly visible role that requires being able to link analytics to business implications to form actionable, high-impact recommendations that drive growth and efficiency. A strong understanding (or willingness to quickly learn) various sales led models: Hardware, Software, Subscription, SaaS - both motions and metrics - are a must given the breadth and depth of our portfolio.

We are looking for someone who gets excited about tying data to meaningful recommendations, intuitive visualizations, optimizing data workflows, and is a strong people lead and mentor.  In this role, the Director of Business Operations will also be responsible for leading and growing a team of dedicated Business Operations Leads and Analysts that are focused on bringing visibility to the metrics and insights that drive Go-to-Market performance, driving both recurring cadences and responding to ad hoc, high priority requests. 

The right person for this role will value data-driven insights, have an analytical approach to problem solving, and thrive in a fast-paced, fluid environment.

Your Impact

The Director of Business Operations ensures alignment between our GTM Sales Leaders, our Strategy and Business Operations leaders, and the various geographic and speedboat units. Specifically, the Director, Business Operations will liaison across various Go-to-Market enterprise-wide projects to ensure impactful design, timely delivery, tailored communications, and realized value for both our field and its supporting Business Operations’ partners.  You’re the right person if you are and/or excel at, and enjoy the following: 

  • Strategic Problem Solver: Structure and break down complex business problems, develop a hypothesis, drive analysis and deliver recommendations with a specific focus on readying the organization to maximize adoption for technology and process improvement transformations. Pressure test current processes and use first principles to design future state business processes to create operational efficiencies

  • Operator at Heart: translate company strategies into actionable plans. Support the development, coordination, and execution of key initiatives that drive organizational goals including streamlining processes to improve operational efficiency. Oversee parts of daily operations, ensuring smooth coordination between teams and the execution of tasks that align with strategic objectives.

While no day will be the same, some key areas that you and your team will be consumed by include: 

  • Solving complex cross-functional business operations’ problems: Analyze performance data to identify areas of improvement/unexpected outcomes and recommend strategic adjustments. Implements best practices for performing and presenting results through various approaches to transform data to insights to actions.  Scale, automate, and optimize all day, every day.

  • Owning and/or advising on business operation processes: Serving as a business process owner (or advisor) recommending business trade-off decisions while leading or supporting cross-functional programs, ensuring they are completed on time, within scope, and with measurable outcomes.

  • Prepare and present materials to executives as you straddle between the small details up to the big picture: Act as a key advisor for Executives, managing priorities, and ensuring alignment of strategic objectives. Prepare briefings, reports, and presentations (i.e., PPT, word docs) for executive level consumption

Your Experience 

  • 12+ years relevant work experience in tech with at least 2 years in consulting (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, PwC, Deloitte, etc.), private equity, or top-tier tech strategy, sales operations, or sales finance functions. Bachelor’s in Finance, Economics, Data Science or equivalent technical training strongly preferred.  

  • Deep understanding of go-to-market function, with proven knowledge in how to test and optimize Seller experiences measured in real-world metrics that correlate to near term and longer-term sales success

  • Analytical problem-solver with the ability to gather, analyze and synthesize large amounts of data in order to drive effective and efficient executive decision-making.  Experience in, or willingness and aptitude to quickly learn SQL a must.

  • Extensive experience building integrated models and analytics from scratch with an ability to build enterprise level analytics, both near-term operational and forward conceptual

  • Strategic thinking with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate strategy into execution: operator at heart.

  • High technical aptitude for understanding complex technologies, tools, systems, and issues to drive impact within the organization

  • Ability to interpret data, identify trends, and use insights to inform business decisions leading to desired outcomes

  • Strong organizational, planning, and project management skills, with the ability to own multiple commitments

  • Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and drive results in dynamic & ambiguous environments

  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across matrixed organization and lead design, execution, and measurement of GTM initiatives as well as influence without authority

  • Exceptional presentation/leadership skills, concise and fluent in communication with experience presenting to C-Suite 

  • Go-getter mindset with desire and demonstrated ability to maintain high-performance under tight timelines with a “roll-up sleeves mindset”

The Team

Our Strategy and Business Operations is a focused team that works on our most critical business challenges to drive and support our industry-leading growth. Your efforts will directly impact the overall strategy and success of a world-leading cybersecurity business. You will collaborate on complex business and technology problems that are top-of-mind for our executives.

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) is expected to be between $200,000- $275,000/YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

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.

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Current Employees, apply here

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