Sales Director - Software Firewall Technologies

Company Description

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.

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish – but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. 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.

Disruption is at the core of our technology and on our way of work to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we work. We’re changing the nature of work from benefits to learning, location to leadership, we’ve rethought and recreated every aspect of the employee experience at Palo Alto Networks. And because it FLEXes around each individual employee based on their individual choices, employees are empowered to push boundaries and help us all evolve, together.

Job Description

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks is revolutionizing cybersecurity in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

As a District Sales Manager, you will lead a team of specialist sellers and to help formulate and execute a strategy to maximize business growth for our next generational firewall sales specialist team. You are instrumental in developing and managing your team to generate revenue and achieve individual, team, and organizational quotas.

This is a player coach position where you will be a key player in identifying and converting high-potential opportunities, accelerating adoption, and positioning Palo Alto Networks as the go-to partner for securing Cloud and AI initiatives whilst ensuring close alignment with the sales team and other stakeholders in the region. This is a customer-facing sales specialist role that also requires strong collaboration with Palo Alto teams.

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:

• Deeply understanding your customers’ needs by doing the research to develop insight into their priorities
• Bring support to your team by participating in and leading prospect meetings 
• Deep dive into weekly territory  pipeline and forecasting activities to coach direct reports on strategies to drive closure
• Actively engage in territory planning and development, relationship development and opportunity to drive revenue by supporting and assisting your team in closing opportunities
• Lead a high-performance sales culture that delivers results in bookings, sales development, and forecast accuracy while simultaneously mentoring and developing your team
• In-depth technical knowledge of our portfolio with the ability to take a holistic approach to help solve our customers' problems
• Drive and oversee team selling opportunities
• Holds team and self accountable to achieve challenging goals while maintaining a forward-thinking approach when faced with setbacks 
• Ability to communicate with leaders at all levels, including C-suite and establishes open and trusting relationships
• Successfully influences others through change management
• Development of a winning team, including recruiting, hiring and training while upholding our core values. 

Qualifications

• Proven leader with the ability to create high performing teams in a rapidly growing sales environment. 
• Year over year track record of successful sales pipeline management and results
• Highly driven individual with an execution focus and a strong sense of urgency with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Track record of consistently delivering revenue numbers and goals while maintaining a focus on team development and growth.
• Capable of successfully managing significant client escalations and issues
• Excellent at influencing others, both externally and internally; ability to communicate effectively and build consensus across various functional groups to achieve goals. 
• You're a leader and you know that to get the best results, you also have to be a great team player, building excellent rapport and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• 8+ years of experience in a sales or sales specialist role in the cybersecurity, cloud, or AI space
• Extensive experience cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• 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
• Experience with channel and partner sales models

Additional Information

The Team

You’ll be part of a passionate, high-energy sales acceleration team focused on helping customers navigate one of the most transformative shifts in technology. We equip you with industry-leading tools, sales enablement, and support systems to succeed. At Palo Alto Networks, we thrive on collaboration, innovation, and making an impact – one secured AI project at a time.

• 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.