Senior Financial Analyst, Commissions Finance

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.

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish – but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. 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.

Disruption is at the core of our technology and on our way of work to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we work. We’re changing the nature of work from benefits to learning, location to leadership, we’ve rethought and recreated every aspect of the employee experience at Palo Alto Networks. And because it FLEXes around each individual employee based on their individual choices, employees are empowered to push boundaries and help us all evolve, together.

Job Description

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks is looking for a finance professional to join its Sales Finance team as a Sr. Financial Analyst, Commissions Finance.  We’re looking for a self-starter with strong analytical skills, an effective communicator, and a passionate leader looking to drive change in a dynamic fast-paced environment.

This will be a fast-paced and highly visible role that touches on multiple aspects of our incentive compensation forecast design, close, and reporting processes.  As the Sr. Financial Analyst, Commissions Finance, you will play a pivotal role in managing the monthly commissions forecasting and close processes.

This individual will report to the Finance Business Manager

We expect office-based employees to be in the office four days per week, with one day working from where they choose. We believe being together facilitates casual conversations and those magic moments where we can work on issues and ideas informally. These moments build capability and deepen trusted relationships and allow our people to feel safe in taking risks and being disruptive. Like so many companies, we are working through the details and things could change …. but in general if a role is deemed office-based we want our teams to be together four days per week.

Your Impact:

• Design, maintain, and improve financial models to refine short and long-term commissions forecasting capabilities focusing on speed, accuracy and efficiency 
• Develop a deep understanding of key drivers of PANW bookings and commissions deferrals in order to communicate how these drivers impact P&L expenses
• Partner with Compensation Design Team, Accounting, and other internal Finance teams to manage and fulfill monthly close processes related to Commissions
• Participate in various system / automation efforts for Commissions, partnering closely with IT, Ops, Accounting, and other stakeholder
• Fulfill ad-hoc requests to support executive decision-making 

Qualifications

Your Experience: 

• Bachelors in Business, Finance, or Accounting
• MBA, CPA is a plus
• 3~4 years of Finance experience 
• Experience within a fast-paced SaaS organization, and/or Big 4 Accounting is preferred 
• Familiarity with Accounting Standard ASC 606 highly preferred  
• High proficiency with Excel is a must including experience building financial models
• Experience with Financial systems, data visualization tools and commission platforms (e.g. SAC, SFDC, Tableau, Callidus..etc)
• Deadline-driven, organized, and able to prioritize with the willingness to adapt to the rapid business and organizational demands that result from a high-growth environment
• Strong team player, and independent thinker, with high intellectual and emotional intelligence

Additional Information

The Team

You have a passion for numbers, our organization has a passion for cybersecurity. You’re looking for a career with a more fulfilling mission. We have open positions to top talent seeking a financial challenge. Our finance department deals with numbers daily, supporting infrastructure, dealing in automation, building elegant models and solutions to empower our business lines and solutions. The ideal candidate has exceptional skills in financial modeling and analytics and an innovative mindset to approach finance problems differently. Our innovation doesn’t stay in Research and Development. Within finance, we seek people who are looking to try new things, while solving business critical equations. If you’re seeking a financial challenge but with a world-wide impact – this is it.

Our Comm