Practice Lead

Our Mission At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place. Who We Are In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us! 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. Job Summary As the Practice Lead (PL) within the Center of Excellence (COE), you will serve as the premier technical, operational, and delivery authority for our market-leading Cortex and Cloud portfolios within your designated theater. In this high-impact, matrix-leadership role, you are responsible for bridging global strategic engineering standards with regional field execution. Your mission is to drive predictable, world-class customer outcomes across the entire lifecycle from initial architecture, deployment & post-deployment phases. You will act as the critical corporate nexus aligning Professional Services (PS), Customer Success (CS), Product Engineering, and Go-To-Market (GTM) leadership. By championing delivery excellence, AI-powered operational consistency, and regional performance, you will directly influence how Palo Alto Networks scales its most sophisticated cybersecurity and AI-driven automation solutions for the world’s largest enterprises. Key Responsibilities Theater Ownership & Execution Alignment Drive Regional Excellence: Own the application, localized adoption, and quality governance of global COE methodologies, ensuring they are tailored effectively to regional market dynamics and compliance realities. Cross-Functional Orchestration: Establish seamless alignment between Professional Services (PS) and Customer Success / Scale & Optimize (S&O) organizations to define unified delivery frameworks, joint handoffs, and customer success metrics. Executive Escalation & Governance: Serve as the definitive regional authority and escalation point for complex methodology, scoping, and execution challenges, resolving high-stakes delivery roadblocks before they impact customer health. Lifecycle Ownership & Delivery Scale Unified Lifecycle Management: Enforce and champion a cohesive, end-to-end customer journey that bridges the gap between initial implementation and long-term account value optimization/expansion. Operational Boundary Design: Define, refine, and optimize operational ownership boundaries between PS and CS, eliminating friction, clarifying roles, and ensuring frictionless transitions for customers. AI-Driven Standardization at Scale: Eradicate bespoke, one-off delivery approaches by designing, introducing, and enforcing highly repeatable, asset-driven execution models that leverage machine learning insights and autonomous AI playbooks to maximize delivery margins. Sales & GTM Integration Strategic Commercial Partnership: Partner directly with regional Sales, Customer Success leadership, and GTM executives to ensure delivery readiness dynamically matches fast-paced deal motions and enterprise customer expectations. Deal Architecture & Risk Mitigation: Advise on strategic, marquee, and complex enterprise deals by providing expert guidance on technical feasibility, scoping precision, risk mitigation, and delivery architecture. Field-to-Product Feedback Loop: Systematically capture and synthesize theater-specific insights, product limitations, and regional constraints into structured, data-driven telemetry for Global COE and Product/Engineering teams to shape the future product roadmap Performance, Capacity & Risk Management Proactive Risk Management: Maintain deep, data-driven visibility into regional capacity, market demand, and delivery risks; preemptively resolve bottlenecks, skill shortages, and scalability challenges. AI Readiness & Enablement: Spearhead the continuous enablement of field teams, ensuring PS, CS, and partner organizations are fully certified, equipped, and confident to execute new product features, service offerings, and advanced toolsets. Operational KPIs: Establish and track metrics around delivery quality, methodology adherence, time-to-value, and customer satisfaction within the theater.. What You Will Influence Global COE Evolution: The design, prioritizations, and strategic direction of the Global COE's foundational methodology. Product Engineering Roadmap: Future product capabilities and GTM packaging based on strategic field telemetry and customer friction points. Investment & Headcount Strategy: Long-term resource allocation, investment priorities, and headcount planning based on regional demand and scalability constraints. Qualifications Required Qualifications Transformational Services Leadership: 10+ years of experience leading large-scale transformational initiatives within enterprise Professional Services, Management Consulting, or Customer Success organizations. A proven track record of modernizing global service delivery models is essential. Strategic Operations & High-Growth Scale: 5+ years of experience steering enterprise-wide orchestration, strategic operations, business transformation, or executive advisory functions within a high-growth cybersecurity, cloud provider (AWS/Azure/GCP), or enterprise SaaS company. Executive Stakeholder Management: Exceptional capability to influence, build consensus, and drive massive organizational change across disparate executive teams spanning Product, Engineering, Sales, and Services. AI & Security Automation Proficiency: Solid understanding of how machine learning and Generative AI (GenAI) intersect with security operations. Candidates should possess a practical grasp of AI-driven SecOps (e.g., Cortex XSIAM), automated triage/incident orchestration, and the unique security governance/risks associated with safeguarding enterprise LLM deployments. Framework Architecture: Proven success building, scaling, and optimizing delivery methodologies, operational governance models, maturity frameworks, and KPIs within complex, matrixed global organizations. C-Suite Communication Skills: Stellar verbal, written, and presentation skills, with a demonstrated ability to translate highly complex technical, architectural strategies into clear, actionable operational plans for both technical engineers and C-suite audiences. Domain & Platform Expertise: Deep technical literacy in modern cybersecurity architectures. Direct experience with Cortex (XDR/XSIAM/XPANSE), Cortex Cloud, and Prisma Cloud (or highly equivalent enterprise EDR/XDR, SIEM/SOAR, and CNAPP solutions) is strongly preferred. Our Commitment We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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. Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.