Sr Director of Strategic Operations, Marketing

Palo Alto Networks

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Director of Strategic Operations, Marketing, owns the rhythm of the business and drives all strategic initiatives for the Marketing organization. Reporting into the SVP of Global Digital Marketing, you will head up the team running all strategic programs and spearhead transformations. We are building a team to bridge the gap between high-level marketing vision and end to end execution - bring all strategic initiatives to fruition and assuring all operational teams operate seamlessly to achieve the marketing goals. In this role, you will not only lead the day to day operations to keep marketing running effectively and efficiently, you own the implementation of complex, cross-functional programs that modernize our marketing stack, optimize lead-to-revenue workflows, and enhance our data-driven decision-making capabilities. You aren't just managing timelines, MBRs and QBRs; you are driving the key initiatives and ensuring success and cohesive execution at scale. You will manage two core pillars: Strategic Operations (Strategic projects, Executive Communications, People and culture, Spend management and Business Rhythm) and Marketing Operations (Lead Flow, Automation, and Lifecycle Management). Your mission is to ensure that our marketing operations are fluid and AI driven, our strategy is financially sound and outcomes oriented, our processes are world-class, and our lead-to-revenue funnel is a seamless, automated machine.

Requirements

15+ Years of Leadership: Deep experience in Digital Marketing, Marketing Operations, Business Strategy, transformation and change management within a global enterprise technology (SaaS) company.
Executive Presence: Proven track record of supporting C-suite leaders and influencing stakeholders across a multi-billion dollar matrixed organization.
Data-Driven Architect: Expert-level ability to turn complex data into strategic insights; deep experience with program management, marketing automation and analytics.
Financial Acumen: Strong experience in budget management, headcount planning, and financial modeling. Ability to perform rigorous ROI analysis on global spend.
Change Agent: Proven capability to lead large-scale organizational transformations with a strong bias toward iterative and AI driven processes (experimentation, testing, and scaling).
Strategic Problem Solver: A proactive mindset—identifying issues before they reach the SVP’s desk and presenting them alongside potential solutions.
Integrity: Absolute integrity and the ability to handle sensitive information regarding organizational changes and performance.
Trust Builder: Ability to build deep relationships across the company and influence senior leaders without having direct authority over them.
Data Driven: Comfortable navigating BI dashboards (Tableau, Adobe Analytics) to extract insights that drive strategic pivots. Expert-level ability to turn complex data into strategic insights;
Deep GTM Knowledge: Comprehensive understanding of SaaS business models, modern brand and demand generation, Digital Marketing, and the complexities of global enterprise marketing.

Responsibilities

Partner with Marketing leadership to translate business objectives into a multi-year operational roadmap. Prioritize initiatives and run functional workstreams to achieve global goals.
Lead large-scale strategic programs from inception to launch, owning the requirements, stakeholder management, customer journey planning and cross-functional delivery.
Drive the adoption of new tools, marketing workflows and processes across global marketing teams. Develop communication plans and training strategies to ensure high adoption and ROI on technology investments and new processes.
Define and monitor metrics for program success, such as pipeline influence, lead velocity improvement, and AI adoption. Keep teams accountable to the goals.
Architect and manage the end-to-end lead flow operations. Identify and resolve bottlenecks in the digital marketing lifecycle to improve lead velocity and pipeline influence.
Own the global marketing automation strategy, ensuring high ROI on technology investments through rigorous adoption and repeatable delivery frameworks.
Monitor system uptime for digital properties and ensure enterprise-grade stability across the MarTech stack.
Strategically oversee the global budget and headcount planning. Lead cost-saving initiatives by auditing contracts and implementing spending guardrails. Own vendor consolidation and meticulous spend management processes that assures all budget spent has measurable ROI.
Run the operational pulse of the team, including MBRs, QBRs, OKR setting, All Hands, and annual planning cycles. Ensure meetings are productive and action-oriented.
Draft high-impact presentations and memos for the digital marketing Exec team distilling complex data into clear, compelling narratives for executive consumption.
Manage, mentor, and grow the Strategic Operations and Automation teams. Own the end-to-end onboarding experience for new talent across marketing and assure cohesive execution and connectivity between all operational teams.
Partner with HR to drive talent development strategies, offsites, and internal communications to keep the global team engaged. Be the culture agent
Lead "special ops" initiatives. Be the control tower for marketing's top projects and connect all stakeholders and project deliverables. Develop Launch process for new Marketing initiatives and product releases.