VP, Consulting Operations and GTM- Unit 42 - Palo Alto Networks

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 take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

Your Career

The VP of Unit 42 Consulting Operations and GTM will be a member of the Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Executive Leadership Team and will be responsible for leading our Global Operations and GTM team (Customer Success Management, Resource Management, Enablement, and Support) and delivering exceptional customer experiences and outcomes. In this role, you will be responsible for developing, communicating and executing innovative strategies that will help retain and grow our customers, increase efficiencies and most importantly create a differentiated, delightful customer experience. This position will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Unit 42.

We are looking for a customer-centric leader with experience scaling Global Consulting Operations and GTM organizations to drive a measurable impact on key outcomes like time to value, adoption, retention, technical health, customer experience, cost to serve etc. This person will be the leader of the ops and program teams that support Consulting partnering closely with the Senior Vice President to execute and communicate the strategy and measure and improve performance.

Your mission will be to drive the effectiveness and efficiency of our Consulting Operation and GTM Organization. You will work with the Unit 42 leadership team to develop and evolve the overall Consulting Organization strategy and operations, while evangelizing Unit 42 and ensuring process optimization. You will drive strategic alignment and accountability within the Consulting leadership team, as well as manage a broad range of strategic, change management, and operational initiatives.

You will lead a team responsible for executing on the strategy within the Unit 42 Organization through collecting customer insights, creating programs and introducing operational efficiencies that deliver long-term value and success for our customers, while positively impacting multiple areas of Palo Alto Networks’ business.

Your Impact

Key Operation Responsibilities

• Guide Strategic Planning and Change Management - Collaborate with Consulting leadership and Strategy leadership team on strategy and operational change management - Ensure strategic decisions are supported through data and analysis, and align with company strategy
• Own development of new service offerings across the global team - Lead the team responsible for creation and development of new service offerings
• Own & lead the Unit 42 GTM organization - Lead the Unit 42 GTM, GTM operations, and sales operations components across all of PANW
• Own Customer Success & enablement - Lead a team to deliver high-value, data-driven insights into the customer journey and proactively identify, develop, and deliver on long-term strategies and initiatives that accelerate the value of the customer adoption & activation of Unit 42 retainers & other delivery products
• Own enablement for consulting services, threat intelligence, MDR/MTH - Lead a team of highly skilled operations managers to deliver high-value, data-driven insights into the consulting journey and proactively identify, develop, and deliver on long-term strategies and initiatives that accelerate the value of the customer investment in our products and solutions
• Drive Customer and Operational Insights and Analytics - Define key metrics for the Unit 42 Organization, the end to end customer experience and efficiency - Establish a system for tracking metrics - Create cadence for review within the team - Effectively communicate progress being made across Unit 42, and to influence organizational behavior, drive forward-looking strategy execution, and identify operational gaps or areas of improvement
• Define and Optimize the Customer Lifecycle - Map customer journey - Develop listening posts in journey (e.g., usage, engagement, etc.) - Standardize engagement model for each post in journey across all Unit 42 functional teams - Identify opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation
• Enhance Effectiveness and Efficiency Through Technology - Scale and improve processes and tools by innovating Unit 42 systems and workflows - Develop roadmap for technology changes required to drive operational efficiencies - Lead AI driven transformations across the organization and implement new tools that can develop and scale robust programs focusing on critical areas from customer onboarding all the way to renewal
• Champion Unit 42 Evangelize company-wide culture of Unit 42 and build a strong cross-functional interlock and operating cadence with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Product Management, Technology, and IT teams to execute deliverables and continuously gain insight and feedback on how to improve Support, Deployment, and Adoption - Cultivate a growth mindset-oriented culture that promotes diversity, continuous improvement, a sense of urgency, and customer outcomes

Key GTM Responsibilities

• Define and articulate clear sales strategy, operational plans, and metrics to drive a global multi-million dollar business
• Build and lead a diverse, highly talented, and motivated sales team with deep cyber-security and consulting capabilities
• Drive awareness and adoption of Unit 42/Crypsis suite of services across PANW organization, leveraging Network Security and Cloud/AI Security Sales and Ecosystems teams to achieve or exceed goals
• Drive a disciplined sales performance culture based on clear account planning, forecasting and pipeline management
• Manage multiple urgent Data Breach and Investigative Services opportunities to ensure clients are receiving the support they and, at times, their in-house and outside counsel,
• Leverage and cultivate relationships with top organizations as well as identify potential new alliances and partnerships to drive business
• Grow Unit 42 external brand and profile through key industry conferences and events
• Evangelize the Palo Alto Networks brand and portfolio and act as an ambassador for the company

Your Experience

• Strategic thinking, thought leadership and foresight - You anticipate market changes, forecast and track changes in customer expectations and quickly mobilize and strategize to guide the required changes
• Problem-solving and analytical skills - You’re a true “operator” and a pro at interpreting and leveraging data insights to raise the bar of performance and constantly enhance customer experience - Committed to analyzing and anticipating situations, defining problems and objectives, recognizing alternatives and formulating solutions in a complex environment
• Ability to understand business objectives and align strategic initiatives accordingly - have a clear understanding of the company’s business objectives and ability to align and resource initiatives to contribute to the achievement of customer and business goals
• Long term strategic outlook and ability to break it down into achievable and measurable roadmaps - You can visualize the desired end result and then work backwards to plan, strategize and execute
• Enterprise SaaS Recurring Revenue Experience - Deep understanding of value drivers in recurring revenue business models and the financial P&L and operating metrics relevant to a consulting services organization
• Ability to create diverse teams and a customer obsessed, outcomes focused culture - You can hire, develop, and inspire a high-performing operations team that efficiently aligns with the Customer Success team and the broader Palo Alto Networks team
• Executive Presence - Excellent listening, communication and presentation skills with strong ability to work collaboratively across the organization and obtain positive visibility and credibility quickly at the C-level - Ability to influence through persuasion, negotiation, and consensus building - Accurately summarize and present complex principles to an executive audience
• Program management skills and facilitation skills - Able to manage multiple projects at the same time and prioritize within competing priorities
• Flexibility, and ability to adjust on the fly, to new demands - a high sense of urgency - excels under pressure
• Consulting Operations or Strategy and Operations leadership experience, including at least 12 years leading a successful, high-growth, customer-facing or operations organization within a SaaS company with direct involvement supporting consulting strategy, organizational design, and performance management
• Strong understanding of all facets of Customer Success - Implementation, Professional Services, Success, Technical Support, and Education
• Strong understanding of newly developed AI / LLM technology and an ability to leverage this understanding and experience to drive meaningful change / transformation within the organization
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience mandatory or equivalent military experience - Masters preferred

The Team

Unit 42 Consulting is Palo Alto Network's security advisory team.  Our vision is to create a more secure digital world by providing the highest quality incident response, risk management, and digital forensic services to clients of all sizes. Our team is composed of recognized experts and incident responders with deep technical expertise and experience in investigations, data breach response, digital forensics, and information security. With a highly successful track record of delivering mission-critical cybersecurity solutions, we are experienced in working quickly to provide an effective incident response, attack readiness, and remediation plans with a focus on providing long-term support to improve our clients’ security posture. 

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 $272000 - $371500/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.