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
Your Career
We are seeking a proactive, detail-oriented Senior Partner Operational Manager to join our Global Ecosystems Operations team. In this role, you will lead key operational workstreams and processes that drive our partner programs, sales operations and partner compensation - enabling scalable, compliant, and performing growth across our global partner ecosystem.
You will work cross-functionally with stakeholders across Partner Programs, Sales, Finance, Legal and IT to design and execute high-impact operational processes across order Q2C, compensation, incentives and partner governance. This role requires a deep understanding of indirect routes to market (resellers, distributors, system integrators, service providers, cloud service providers, etc.) and a passion for driving clarity, consistency, and efficiency in how we support partners at scale.
The ideal candidate brings strong systems fluency, process rigor, and the ability to lead through ambiguity while delivering operational excellence across global workstreams.
Your Impact
- Lead partner compensation and incentive operations
- Own end-to-end execution of partner incentive programs, ensuring accuracy, scalability, and compliance with internal controls
- Partner with Finance, legal, and Ecosystem teams to implement policies and governance frameworks for incentive structures.
- Lead audit and compliance reviews related to partner compensation, surfacing faps and driving corrective actions
- Drive operational scalability across partner programs and routes to market
- Design and maintain standardized processes that support different partner types (resellers, distributors, GSIs, MSSPs, CSPs)
- Develop documentation, playbooks, and training to ensure consistency and operational readiness
- Lead operational planning for new partner program launches, coordinating across Systems, Enablement, and Field teams
- Influence partner tooling and systems roadmaps by providing business requirements and feedback to technical teams
- Own cross-functional execution and continuous improvement initiatives
- Serve as a senior operational point of contact for partner-facing teams, guiding issue resolution and process handoffs
- Facilitate the rhythm of the business for theatre channel teams, enabling visibility, alignment, and accountability across top partnerships.
- Identify inefficiencies and partner across teams to implement scalable solutions and improve tooling and workflows
- Partner with Analytics to deliver insights that drive data-informed decisions on partner performance and operational effectiveness
- Partner with enablement to ensure field teams adopt new processes effectively
Qualifications
Your Experience
- 8+ years in partner operations, channel operations, or related business operations roles, preferably within a SaaS or high-growth tech company
- Proven success managing partner incentive programs, compensation frameworks, or operational policy implementation across partner ecosystems (resellers, distributors, GSIs, MSSPs, and CSPs)
- Hands-on experience with Salesforce (CPQ, PRM) and inventive management platforms like Varicent. Experience with cloud marketplace private offers is a strong plus.
- Advanced skills in Excel/Google sheets (pivot tables, vlookups, visual storytelling) and Powerpoint/Google Slides
- Demonstrated ability to identify operational gaps, define scalable solutions, and drive cross-functional alignment to implement them
- Deep understanding of governance, compliance requirements, and audit controls related to partner compensation and incentives.
- Strong business acumen and judgment, analytical and problem-solving skills, and ability to structure solutions to complex problems
- Strong communication, collaboration and leadership skills and the ability to effectively partner with all levels of management
- Self-starter, highly motivated with insatiable curiosity to learn about and influence the business
- Works well within a matrixed environment, with ability to manage simultaneous projects with multiple stakeholders, and tight deadlines
Additional Information
The Team
Our Strategy and Business Operations is a focused team that works on our most critical business challenges to drive and support our industry-leading growth. Your efforts will directly impact the overall strategy and success of a world-leading cybersecurity business. You will collaborate on complex business and technology problems that are top-of-mind for our executives. You possess a unique blend of business insight, business strategy experience, big-picture thinking, influencing skills and ability to collaborate with a large number of constituents within Palo Alto Networks.
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) is expected to be between $145,000 - $215,000/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 .
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.