Reference Architect 2
Expanse
Company Description
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.
Job Description
THIS POSITION IS ONSITE AT OUR HQ OFFICE IN SANTA CLARA, CA.
Your Career
As a Reference Architect 2 at Palo Alto Networks, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining Reference Architectures that demonstrate how our security solutions integrate across product lines to address real-world customer challenges. This role requires close collaboration with key stakeholders to gather technical requirements, design evaluation test plans, and create high-quality technical documentation. Your work will serve as a strategic guide for Systems Engineers, Partners, and Customers as they design and implement security solutions.
Your Impact
- Working with product management, sales, and marketing, own the creation of Reference Architectures that describe how the Palo Alto Networks products work together to solve customer business problems
- Work with Engineering to understand the product and technology roadmaps and how they will bring value to customers through use case development
- Build and maintain a use case validation lab for each architecture
- Create content that helps sales and partners effectively position and sell use-case based solutions with an architectural approach
- Leverage subject matter expertise to convey benefits and positions to sales engineers, marketing, and product development
- Provide education and knowledge transfer to the sales engineers through content development and internal presentations
- Collaborate with product marketing and product management teams to define customer requirements for the architecture
- Responsible for upholding Palo Alto Networks Business Code of Ethics and for promptly reporting violations of the Code or other company policies
Qualifications
Your Experience
- 7+ years of experience designing, implementing, and troubleshooting enterprise networking solutions
- 3+ years of experience with designing network or cloud security solutions
- 3+ years of experience authoring and publishing technical documentation
- Hands on experience building lab test environments and troubleshooting network infrastructure and security products
- Demonstrable experience with designing solutions with emerging technologies -The ability to quickly learn something new and apply to a solution is critical
- Strong problem-solving skills, ability to analyze complex problems and use a systematic approach to gain quick resolution
- Experience leading projects
- Possesses a blend of marketing, business, and technical savvy
- A proven track record to influence cross functionally and the ability to collaborate among multiple groups
- Be able to translate technology into business benefits that resonate with customers
- Able to simplify complex concepts and articulate uniquely differentiated value propositions to both technical and business audiences
- A strong storyteller - The ability to communicate that story verbally and in writing
- Proven public speaking skills
- Must be self-motivated
Preferred
- Experience in a customer-facing, sales-aligned role such as solutions architect, consulting engineer or system engineer
- Experience with cloud platforms, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
- Experience in SASE-focused architectures
- Enterprise level experience with solution delivery
- Exceptional technical documentation skills
- Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Apprentice and Cybersecurity Practitioner certifications
Additional Information
The Team
The Worldwide Shared Services team is dedicated to empowering Palo Alto Networks’ go-to-market teams through innovative solutions and strategic guidance to drive superior outcomes. We strive to equip our teams with the expertise and resources needed to make a meaningful and lasting impact with the customers we serve while achieving sales excellence. We are committed to fostering an environment where our team members can thrive, creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing to drive collective growth and success.
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/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $186000 - $255000/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 [email protected].
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.