Sr Manager, Business Systems

Palo Alto Networks•Office - USA - CA - Headquarters, CA

36d•$162,600 - $262,900•Onsite

About The Position

As the Senior Manager, Business Systems within the Central Ops Organization, you will lead and scale the business systems architecture, strategy, and daily operations that power our global Go-To-Market (GTM) motions. You will act as the strategic domain owner for our core sales technology stack including, but not limited to, Salesforce (Opportunity Management), Clari (Forecasting & Funnel Management), Backstory (formerly People.ai), SAP Commissions, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. In this high-impact leadership role, you will lead a team of direct Business Systems Analysts and Administrators, while providing cross-functional technical direction and governance to a shared services team supporting system operations and ticket queues. You will partner directly with Sales Leadership, Sales Operations, GTM Strategy, Finance, and IT to drive system enhancements, ensure strict compliance and data governance (including SOX controls), and champion the adoption of AI and intelligent automation across our sales systems ecosystem.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, or related discipline is preferred (Master's degree or MBA is a plus).
Minimum 7+ years of experience in Business Systems in high-tech SaaS environments
Exceptional communication, executive presence, and stakeholder management
Salesforce Administrator certification is highly preferred as well as advanced knowledge of Salesforce opportunity lifecycle, security profiles, role/forecast/territory hierarchies
Experience with Forecasting platforms such as Clari is highly preferred
Experience with compensation platforms such SAP Commissions or Callidus Commissions is a plus
Experience with Sales intelligence & engagement tools such as Backstory / People.ai, ClosePlan, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a plus
Proficiency with data manipulation, SQL, Workbench, Dataloader, JIRA, and ServiceNow is a plus
Demonstrated track record of identifying opportunities for automation, self-service workflows, or AI agent integration to streamline operational support and data hygiene is a plus
Proven track record leading large-scale cross-functional initiatives in an Agile environment is a plus

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Business Systems Analysts and Administrators, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous learning.
Oversee and direct ticket handling, queue prioritization, and SLA adherence across onshore team members and offshore shared services partners managing Tier 1 and Tier 2 support queues.
Manage vendor relationships, access governance, and license audits across various tools.
Serve as the single point of ownership and domain authority across the following business systems: Salesforce.com (SFDC): Opportunity management, role/territory/forecast hierarchies, competitor tracking, ASR heatmaps, profiles, workflows, and enterprise data integrity. Clari: Global forecasting capabilities, product hierarchy alignments, funnel management, pipeline inspection, and executive visibility. Backstory (FKA People.ai) & ClosePlan: Activity capture, relationship maps, ClosePlan licenses, web app access, and executive reporting. SAP Commissions: Incentive compensation system architecture, data verification, pipeline calculations, and operational feeds. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Enterprise provisioning and integrations with core sales workflows.
Partner with Sales Operations, Finance, and Revenue Acceleration leadership to translate strategic business requirements into long-term technology roadmaps, process flow architectures, and business cases.
Serve as business systems lead for high-priority enterprise programs and Acquisitions.
Champion the modernization and transformation of Operational processes by evaluating and implementing AI-assisted workflows, robotic process automation (RPA), and self-service options for improved adoption and enablement.
Lead business process reengineering to eliminate or streamline manual operational tasks and reduce ticket resolution cycle times.
Partner closely with IT Development teams to drive enhancements through an Agile lifecycle, from requirements gathering and backlog prioritization to user acceptance testing (UAT) sign-off and deployment.
Ensure systemic accuracy, enterprise data hygiene, and stringent data security across all sales platforms.
Oversee SOX controls, pipeline audit trails, and compliance requirements.
Management of critical data refreshes and ownership of Sales attributes on Product SKUs