Execution & Alignment Leader

Palo Alto Networks•Washington, DC

7d•$154,400 - $249,700•Remote

About The Position

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a high-impact individual contributor to serve as a primary navigator and force-multiplier for our leadership team. This role reports directly to a Sr. Director of NAM Technical Services, and functions as the central nervous system for their organization. This role serves as a strategic intermediary and integrator—ensuring that the right work is prioritized, properly resourced, executed to standard by the appropriate owners, and meets quality standards before reaching leadership. The role operates through influence, governance, and alignment across a highly matrixed global organization.

Requirements

10–15+ years in strategic leadership, enterprise program governance, or executive advisory roles within software or cybersecurity organizations
5+ years of Customer Delivery & Process Integration experience
Proven success enabling and governing complex, cross-functional initiatives in post-sales or services environments
Deep familiarity with SaaS business models and cloud-native security platforms, familiarity in industry leading data platforms is required
Strong financial acumen with the ability to interpret and challenge P&L, utilization, and margin data
Cybersecurity Literacy - Deep conceptual grasp of cloud-native transitions and security architecture (operational understanding rather than hands-on deployment).
Services Ecosystem Expertise - Advanced understanding of the operational mechanics governing Customer Success and Professional Services.
Executive-Level Analysis - Capability to audit data integrity, synthesize complex insights, and approve executive-ready conclusions.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Information Systems
Superior communication skills with the ability to craft compelling narratives for Board-level and executive audiences.
Ability to navigate and influence a highly matrixed global organization without direct reporting authority.
Adaptability to support global leadership cadences and governance across multiple time zones.

Responsibilities

Translate high-level roadmaps from the Strategy Team into coordinated, cross-team execution plans, ensuring clarity of ownership, sequencing, dependencies, and success criteria—without directly executing the work.
Partner closely with Strategy to facilitate prioritization decisions, arbitrate trade-offs, and ensure initiatives are appropriately sponsored, staffed, and tracked by accountable owners.
Serve as the focal point for GTS-wide transformation from traditional service models to AI-augmented delivery methodologies by aligning stakeholders, validating readiness plans, and approving structural changes proposed by execution teams.
Develop and approve change narratives, transformation plans, and milestone plans while ensuring execution is carried out by the appropriate functional leaders.
Define, monitor, and report on internal operating models (e.g., COE, executive reporting, escalation frameworks, quarterly enablement programs, QBR, LRP), ensuring standards are followed and outcomes meet leadership expectations.
Act as the liaison between Finance, and Business Units (“Speedboats”) to ensure fiscal plans, assumptions, and decisions are aligned—without directly managing budgets or transactions.
Ensure accurate, consistent global and theater-level reporting on utilization, bookings, revenue, margin, expenses, and headcount by validating inputs and approving outputs from functional owners.
Coordinate with the Resource Management Office (RMO) and Enablement teams to ensure capabilities, skills, and project health decisions are made effectively, escalating risks and misalignment as needed.
Collaborate on specific initiatives to guide the evolution of performance reporting (predictive analytics, AI-driven forecasting), ensuring methodologies are sound and outputs are executive-ready.
Facilitate assessments of external delivery capacity in partnership with Theater Domain Leaders, ensuring compliance, scalability, and adherence to execution standards—without directly managing vendors or partners.
Represent business interests in close collaboration with GTS Partner Strategy and Resource Management Operations to ensure the subcontracting operating model evolves in step with changes in ecosystem and strategy.
Track and validate high-impact hiring across theaters, ensuring alignment to capability gaps and strategic priorities (e.g., SOC Transformation Architects), without owning requisitions or hiring decisions.
Produce and approve leadership-consumable narratives, including All Hands content, customer success highlights, and synthesized lessons learned.
Aggregate weekly inputs from across the organization and distill them into concise, decision-ready executive briefings for senior leadership.
Maintain the interlock matrix and monitor relationship health across teams, proactively surfacing risks, gaps, or breakdowns in accountability.
Act as a directional and strategic advisor on Steering Committees for large-scale initiatives, ensuring alignment across technical, operational, and business dimensions.
Partner with the PMO to review progress, validate delivery health, and approve escalations, without owning day-to-day program execution.
Provide high-level guidance on Steering Committees for major initiatives, ensuring technical and operational efforts remain aligned with overarching business goals.
Collaborate with the PMO to oversee delivery health and validate project milestones; manage high-level escalations while maintaining a non-executional oversight role.
Advise on the successful integration of acquired entities into the Cortex portfolio, balancing internal operational efficiency with seamless customer delivery.