Senior Competitive Strategy Analyst

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 

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision. 

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks has a world-class product management organization and continues to look for top-notch talent to expand the team. As a Senior Competitive Strategy Analyst at Palo Alto Networks, you will be responsible for defining the future of network security services and continuing to drive innovation into our network security portfolio. This role provides you an opportunity to define the future of the security subscriptions industry by solving key problems for our customers and reestablishing what’s possible in this space.

You will analyze a set of competitors to provide product managers and engineering leadership with an objective assessment of Palo Alto Networks’ market position. You will help maintain our position as the market leader and educate internal teams on the competitive landscape. 

To be successful in this position, you must possess a combination of strong technical acumen, analytical skills, as well as a passion for cybersecurity while bridging customer business requirements with key competitive and market trends. You have a track record of building actionable competitive analysis, conducting hands-on testing of competitor products, and collaborating with key stakeholders.

Your Impact

• This role reports to the Senior Manager of Competitive Strategy for our Network Security business unit and provides insights on competitor strategies, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and strategic plans
• This strategic role is centered around helping position Palo Alto Networks’ advantages in a highly competitive network security industry
• This role combines strategic and hands-on responsibilities that include analyzing product functionality, capabilities, and platforms at the technical feature level
• The successful candidate will be very clear-minded, inventive, collaborative, data-driven, objective, and able to see trends before they happen
• You’ll help develop our forward-looking product strategies with the product leaders, providing enough tension in the process to ensure a great outcome while remaining collaborative to arrive at unified recommendations

Your Experience

• BS/MS or equivalent experience or equivalent military experience required 
• 8+ years in the cybersecurity industry, network security preferred
• 2+ years experience working with and using security subscription services (e.g., IPS, DNS, sandbox, CASB, DLP, etc.)
• Exposure to AI technologies (e.g., Security co-pilots, LLMs, etc.)
• Preferred candidates will have exposure to competitive intelligence and cybersecurity
• Strong (written and verbal) communication and presentation skills, with the ability to address audiences of differing technical backgrounds
• Strong interpersonal skills contributing to cross-functional teams
• Experience in fast-paced environments with overlapping projects/deliverables
• Passion for working with technical individuals and a proven ability to distill complex concepts into easy-to-understand stakeholder briefings
• A consultative approach and an aptitude for translating market dynamics into actionable recommendations
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills required

The Team

To stay ahead of the curve, it’s critical to know where the curve is, and how to anticipate the changes we’re facing. For the fastest growing cybersecurity company, the curve is the evolution of cyberattacks, and the products and services that proactively address them. Our Product Management Team helps us do just that. 

Our organization and employees are committed to changing as rapidly as our industry’s threats do, and to do that, we need creative product teams to address emerging cyber threats. They provide the behind-the-scenes support for our products by being a source of information on our products for our systems engineers, staying on top of the environment we sell in, and help in implementing product wide technical solutions based on our client’s feedback and needs. As threats and technology evolve, we stay ahead to accomplish our mission.

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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be between $163,200/yr to $264,000/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.